Hello All,
In regards to the Religion Icon freezing the game:
First time it happened to me was when I loaded my save and clicked on the little Cross Icon. I have an empire and had enacted the imperial law and viceroys. I thought something was weird when I couldn't see the option any more to grant a viceroy (it was there before saving and quitting). So I started clicking around through menus and such, and that is when I clicked on the Religion icon. CTD. So I reloaded it again just to click on the Religion icon and it CTD'd again. I did all the simple steam related fixes to game crashes. Still no luck. Just tried the Beta out and my save crashed again. So I started a new game (on the new beta) and worked my way up again to where I was, collecting save points along the way. I thought it might have to do with the imperial law and viceroys. Nope. Still crashes after reloading a save.
However, if I load my Catholic, oh btw I'm playing as Catholic, but choose a different Religious group, like something in India or a Germanic tribe, I can click on the Religion Icon with no problems. Once that worked I used the console to jump back to my previous character. Once playing catholic again it crashed...
Anyway that's what tried.
I was thinking that since I am missing the Sons of Abraham DLC that that could be the code problem, but then wouldn't the game crash on a new game?