Religion stops the growth of knowledge

It is difficult to define 'Religion' universally; so, I go by the oxford dictionary.
The oxford dictionary defines 'Religion' in the following words:

1) the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods 2) a particular system of faith and worship 3) a pursuit or interest followed with devotion.

The first two definitions are particularly true for all kinds of organized / institutionalized religions. The characteristics of such religions are more or less similar in some aspects: i)they have well defined boundaries, ii) they prescribe rigid practices, iii) they will not allow one to question and any deviation from the norm is considered unacceptable.

It can be seen in the evolution of different religions that new religions had been established when some one questioned the established belief of one religion. So, if one follows a particular religion, he/she has no freedom to think for himself and question the prevailing practices/beliefs. This implies that there is very little scope for new knowledge or growth of knowledge in an organized religion.

When one messiah starts a religion (actually the messiah doesn't necessarily start, but the followers start by following him/her), he/she brings in a new set of knowledge. However, as soon as he/she passess away, his/her followers again stop the growth or evolution of knowledge just because they also start following him/her and define the limits and boundaries. One dare not think in another direction, lest he/she be ousted from the religion/society.

This is why it is always good not to encourage people to follow one particular belief/system/faith........ rather people should be encouraged to pursue knowledge as put forth by different individuals from time to time, understand and develop their one faith systems, and take rational decisions. Because knowledge is a flow and not a stock; it has to keep flowing like a river and not stock (and be polluted) like a pond.

In history, we can see one set of knowledge is based on some other in the past; every original/new thinking/knowledge of a time is relative in nature. If a set of knowledge started with Copernicus, it travelled through Galileo, Newton, Einstein and others and is still travelling. This is how knowledge flows/travels through time. It must be allowed to flow this way. This is what makes human race better and better by the time.