You may not be the all knowing arbiter of what is and what is not absurd in religion. There are many religious beliefs that contradict logic and science and these can't therefore be the truth, but that does not suggest that all aspects of religion is without merit. The effect that religion has had on the world overall is so profound that we all just take it for granted. It has built the world we live in.
The facts are, we don't know how the universe started, why natural laws are so consistent, how life began, why one animal emerged with sentience, how DNA could be a naturally occurring by product of a happy coincidence and yet have the ability to produce every animal that will ever exist, and so on. Science has left so many questions unanswered, all the big ones in fact, but the minute somebody brings God into equation they are ridiculous. Come up with answers or concede that some aspect of this force of creation business might have some credence. And I don't mean this god of fundamental religion, I mean the God of real science and real enquiring religion. Every atheists refers back to the dumbest version of god that somebody has imagined.
Shouldn't all of these things be questioned? Shouldn't they be discussed? Shouldn't false assumptions and beliefs be publicly exposed? Absolutely. The very first tenet of a true religion is justice and justice can not exist in a world where we don't own our own knowledge. I think with your background you could develop your arguments more rather than being so dismissive. You seem to have an absolute aversion to some creative force or first cause, which is odd for a scientific mind that knows that no answers have as yet been forthcoming from science.
