Natural empathy and the yearning for good is exactly what gives rise to religious belief, just as curiosity and reason gives rise to science inquiry. Religious and scientific institutions feed on the relative scarcity of these things, respectively, and both encourage superstition and dogma. But one should not reject a body of knowledge because of what the institution that inherited it is doing. In fact, that would be exactly what they want since it would allow them to maintain their control. Knowledge is power.