"Remarks on Religion" from philosopher Daniel Kaufman

I'm sure this will produce a lively set of responses!  An excerpt from the end:

When one examines the great religious traditions, all of which stem from antiquity, what one is confronted with are obviously, demonstrably archaic, primitive conceptions of the universe, values, notions of obligation, the respective roles of the sexes, economics, politics, and the like. One encounters shamanistic rituals, “lock-and-key” type metaphysical formulas of the “chant these words over there on the first Tuesday of every third month, and X will happen” variety, and hierarchies of deities and angels that look remarkably like ancient monarchic and Imperial hierarchies. All of which makes perfect sense in an Iron Age context. But it seems to me that it would take a good amount of self-deception – or at least, a sort of psychic indolence – to look at all of this and say, “Nope, these aren’t fascinating and often lurid snapshots from the messy, often ugly history of human development, but rather, eternal truths about the nature and operation of the universe and everything and everyone in it. Oh, and just my religion, not those other people’s.”