Im 11 and I study religion. Will that help me in life?

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According to the latest research

http://news.yahoo.com/religious-people- ... ml#upCr476

Atheists are more intelligent than religious people.

Study all the religion you want. Learn Sanskrit, Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek and Latin. Just don't fall for any of it.

You can look at the example of Deepak Chopra. He made a very good living as a medical doctor. He has done much better for himself as a new-age bullshitter.

If you have a broad knowledge of literature and religion, have a bunch of handy quotes on the top of your head, you can do quite well for yourself. However, becoming an Evangelical preacher would be the easiest path to riches. Very little knowledge is required at all. Just tug on people's emotions, and quote a few Bible verses. Malachi 3:8 is a proven money-maker.

There is no "it." The word religion is a category, not a thing.

I think it is useful to understand a variety of religions. The philosophies and mythologies can be fascinating and can shed light on major events in history. You can learn a great deal about modern societies from how they perceive their religions and how they understand their own religious histories. And certainly in the US, understanding religion is important to understanding politics.

As in any field of study, it is important to exercise critical thinking as you explore the topic. There will be many people who will insist that they have the one true answer. But nobody knows everything.

Question everything, including your own preferred beliefs. It can be useful to study a bit of structured logic as well as the various common logical fallacies. That can help you avoid being distracted by irrelevant arguments and non-sequiturs.

It will help you perpetuate it.

Memes, like the ones religion and science are made of, manage to stay around by convincing people some way or other to hold on to them. Getting people to believe the belief itself is a virtue to be treasured, and its loss is something horrible to be avoided at all costs, or even punished, has proven to be a very successful strategy for thousands of years, because it bypasses reason and evidence. Another strategy is to be actually based on reason and evidence.

But the success of memes has little to do with whether they benefit or harm the people carrying them in their minds. You'll have to decide what is actually good for you.

But they're unhappier and die earlier... I guess it depends what you value more.