Paul,
I was born and raised in a family of believers and practitioners of the Roman Apostolic Church.
When I entered the University, I abandoned the crutch.
But the distance from my house to the Politécnica was quite long, it involved one section by tram, and two more by bus; on average about two hours.
I had to work to help my parents pay expenses (the University was — and is — public, it wasn’t paid).
I worked at Guild Politécnico producing and/or proofreading handouts on stencil sheets after school until dawn; tired, I slept on shelves on wads of cotton presses; I only went home every two or three days.
I needed the crutch: I started to study all possible religions and to talk to colleagues who had a religion, including atheists, and communists, who had vast erudition.
One morning, I woke up from some dream, and I had a flash opposite to that of Paul on the road to Damascus: “Everything is clear: you are you and nothing else. You are free!” but I was afraid of the truth.
I went into depression and my Catholic friends/colleagues advised me to talk to the coordinating priest of JUC (Young Catholic University); I ended up taking back the crutch.
I only got rid of it after a lot of personal work and after the first four months of psychoanalysis, which I continued for another six years.
Yes, I am sure that religions are the bane of the world, all based on acquiring power and money; exploiters and torturers of their “herd”, fomenters of animosity and wars.
But I do not believe that we are few and sparse. Even with the great resources that allow religions to have powerful media, the internet, social media enlighten many people, disseminate quality scientific and philosophical works; except these “religions” that call themselves Christian, which enrich their “pastors” at the expense of ignorance and poverty, of despair, all the others, in particular Catholicism, have reduced the number of their believers or followers.

I felt sorry for the idiot who wrote so much nonsense and received scathing and well-founded criticism like yours; I was light in my comment; I regretted it: it’s something that doesn’t deserve the spent bits.

Thank you very much for taking the time and attention to respond to my comment.