I think you’re right in some cases, but also somewhat attributing malice to stupidity. There are primitive people that are far too scared to risk abandoning their mutually exclusive social support network. They exhibit angst at the unknown and unfamiliar and sway in the direction of fight from their fight or flight mechanism. None of this behavior is within the scope of their self awareness. They exist in a fixated cult like state of tribal ignorance and stupidity, and are wholely incapable of curiosity and learning from sources outside the scope of their tribal isolation.

I was this way before my self awareness grew past the point of reflection. My entire family is like this as are my former and abandoned social support network I am now ostracized from as a result.

This is the actual barrier in place that enables cult like isolation and fixation. Meanwhile, these systems are wholly built upon outsourcing ethics to an organization that only wields shame to keep members in line. Shame can never motivate positive action. Shame can only negatively curb behaviors. Without positive feedback, these systems can only produce depression and negative austere conservative people able to cope with the lack of endorphins. It is truly sadistic in nature. Those that are still out of balance are considered undesirable when their cognitive dissonance pushes back in actions the person may not even understand or register.

Religion is largely a cognitive dissonance factory because of these factors. This does not excuse actions that harm others. But it is this antiquated system of subtle harm in the religious tribal structure and its cult like exclusivity of social network isolation that create people with no independent ethics, unable to learn and reason well, and scared of everything outside of their tiny bubble of a life.