Religion panders to the vulnerable, that I'll grant you. But no major organized religion I'm aware of, apart from scientology, actively tries to soak people. (And before you say it, the collection plate does not count.) We respect people's beliefs as long as the people who tell them to believe them aren't doing so because they know the things they're peddling are total bunk and just want vulnerable people's money.

Second of all, I wasn't even aware that "basic" was a gendered insult. What I meant was that people make fun of mainstream things because they're mainstream, and have since time immemorial, and that people who follow whatever the mainstream believes in lieu of having a personality deserve to be mocked.