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If you actually majoring in it though, you really will go into a bit more.
Still from the point of view of academics who over-intellectualize everything and don't really know what they're talking about, though, so it's still worthless.
All I found, though, was bitterness...
History is not a particularly cheery subject. The history of mass-market religions, if anything, is below average in that regard, since there are always homicidal maniacs in positions of power abusing their religions to justify their actions. It makes little difference whether these lunatics are called "popes", "mullahs", "bodhisattvas", or something else, because religion, for them, is really just a way of manipulating their followers and glorifying their own egos. (These people always seem to consider themselves entitled to speak on behalf of God, mainly because, on some level, they think they are God. That they are, in a manner beyond their understanding, essentially correct in this belief, is beside the point.)
Now, from my perspective, studying religion has next to nothing to do with all this. If you're looking for religious truth, the actions of a bunch of mad killers are obviously irrelevant; a hate-spewing ayatollah has as little to do with the truth of Islam as a serial killer who thinks he's Jesus Christ has to do with Christianity. So while these people may be interesting with regard to secular history, or as an example of what you get when someone perverts religion in the service of their own insanity, you aren't really going to find, as you put it, "something to believe in" by studying them.
This does not mean, however, that there is nothing but bitterness in religion, or nothing of value. But to find something of real value, you have to look very carefully, not in the mainstream of thought (always a source of deception), and be very wary of the many blind alleys and tempting falsehoods that you will encounter. It is not a job for the lazy.
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