Most of the time yes. A really simple example is the Bible line "thou shall not lie with men as women", the original text says boys not men. The Jewish peoples saw the Greeks fucking kids and said "hey, uh no, let's make that a law, that you shouldn't do that". Boy became men, and that's been used to claim the Bible forbids homosexuality.

I don't think there's anything ultimately wrong with religion as such. People always try to find meaning and purpose in life. If religion gives them a way of doing that, then excellent; if religion plays no part, then also excellent. The goal is to be a good person, regardless of why you do it. Is a Christian who follows the tenent "love thy neighbour" worse than someone who loves their neighbour? A Jew who helps Muslims despite the tensions between their faiths, and they help because YHWH says to? Are they worse than an atheist who chooses to not help? Religion isn't the problem. People are, people are always the problem.

Oh absolutely, criticise the beliefs that don't make sense, and are tolerated. But pretty much everyone of most major faiths believe in science. There's the fundamentalists, who are extremely loud in their ignorance, but the majority of people aren't that.

And the 99% of people who don't loudly practice extreme beliefs which have been coopted for nefarious purposes?

In 2016, nearly 80% of Ireland identified as Catholic, and that was a low point for the country. Yet in 2015, we voted for same sex marriage; in 2018, we voted to legalise abortion; in 1995, we voted to legalise divorce; in 2018, we voted to stop treating blasphemy as an offence; in 1973, we voted to recognise other religions and stop putting Catholicism on a pedestal.

There's plenty to criticise mass religion, and especially institutions for, but don't conflate the powerful, and the extremists, who choose bigotry and hate over love and compassion, with the everyday person who just wants something to provide them with peace.