i'm sure there are similar proportions of decently motivated religious people then as now

there has to be at least a similar proportion of decent religiously schooled as non-, for me to argue (in a crude flavourless form of argument, that maybe i can abandon now that hs' is out of it) for rel. ed. funding (which, again, i argue not for as rel. per se, but for diversity, tradition , breadth, depth -- notice my avoidance of "choice"-talk)

part of my point about manipulation of religion is the preying on that grosser side of it by unseen interests -- poor bible-belters voting against their own interests inflamed by, what, anti-abortion stuff (cf xenophobe ontarians sure to stir up a political fuss about catholic singularities); a whole world riled up by framing fake terror on muslims; the extremes that are taken advantage of are nowhere prevalent among religionists, that they are made prominent is owing to manipulation by forces the left & greens should be more forceful about pointing at & shining the light on