"Moving away from religion i.e turning atheist is a sign of progress and advancement -- I disagree .... what are your views on this ? Do you think religion in life is beneficial and brings solace to the mind or religion is just another hinderance to rationality and progress . and I'm curious -- are you an atheist ?"
Nope it's fine. I am an atheist, though I don't like to be labelled as such. Personalized religion is absolutely fine with me but when people make it into a social movement or make it political, it starts becomes something I feel people should speak out against.
@ religion in general
I think religion is product of the human mind, to cope with the difficult ideas in life, why we are here, what is the purpose of life, what happens when we die. These are natural questions, but we make up answers and attribute them to the supernatural call it a religion, which I think is self-delusional and a wilful distortion of reality.