The word has a Latin root - *religare*, to bind (should be clear to you now). As for your questions at the end: One would be best off building a foundation of discipline. Once that's achieved, they can then begin to acquire knowledge - helpful knowledge that explains to them the "hidden" aspects of spirituality. It's best to work your way backwards in this regard. If all of us started at the opposite end and worked our way towards developing our own perspectives, it wouldn't even take a full generation for all of us to realize ourselves. What I mean by this is simple - you must learn what "Religion" **is not** before you can learn what it is. The first step is learning what words mean and the second is learning what the old stories, then, *actually are*. Then, once you learn what the el-ites and general tptb believe, then you can begin building your own antithesis to that, a perspective that helps you attain freedom and to unshackle yourself from the world that's been designed for you. Unfortunately, the best way to protect yourself is by learning about the ways in which they conduct themselves. This doesn't mean you have to do what they do, but it does mean you need to be intimately aware of it.