Self Transcendence is unlikely through religion

Why is this?

My thought is that religions are mostly cultural rules to follow within that culture and usually made by old men in ancient times within that culture.

It is sort of like a religion would be the traffic lights in a city of that religion. If you were a child the reason for traffic lights might not make sense to you.

However, to someone like me, I view every stop sign and traffic light as a place where many people had to die in traffic accidents in order for that very stop sign and traffic light to be put up in the first place. If you look at seat belts, for example, many people died before they were required to be worn in the late 1980s.

So, even though I still hate seat belts because I never wore them and was fine until I was in my late 30s and had to wear them with everyone else or I would get a ticket. But, I still think children are harmed by being forced to be in those car seats for hours in cars instead of running around playing and getting used to being here on earth like I did growing up as a child.

So, even though the body might be saved in that 1 time out of 999 save times, the spirit of the child is destroyed by having to be in a seat belt or harness all the time. Which is more important to save the life of the child 1 time out of 999 or more times, or to save the spirit of the child from being imprisoned and unable to move?

However, I digress from the topic. And so self transcendence is so Zen that it is sort of like the sound of one hand clapping.

In other words enlightenment doesn't come usually until the mind breaks in a specific way. Then self transcendence can occur.

For example, Saint Francis of Assisi was a knight in a battle as a young man and got PTSD. This eventually made him a saint because of what it put him through and it sensitized him to spiritual things and the value of life seeing so many die.

So, St. Francis' path to enlightenment was by almost dying in battle.(that was the beginning of it).