Do you see any benefits to religious faith?

[Brian37]

I already said that it has a placebo affect. But no, sorry, it is only a benefit to the individual or the society, the downside is for the reasons I stated before. For all the success the ancient Egyptians had in their polytheism it still did not make their gods real. And worse and far too much when someone gets it in their head their god is real, they can also be successful in form big enough groups to murder minorities or start wars or commit acts of genocide.

Faith is not a virtue, it is a cop out. Our species gets hindered by religion as much as we think it helps. 

Our morality isnt coming from old books or fictional beings. Our species ability to make discoveries, succeed or fail are in our evolution.

That's quite the irrelevant rant.  I didn't talk about, nor do I care about, ANY of those things you are talking about.

The OP question is whether there are benefits to religious faith, and there clearly are.  Whether religion overall serves a greater good in society is an issue of debate-- I'd say probably not, but we haven't had purely secular societies long enough yet to really see if non-religion allows us to do any better.

Evolutionary fact is not "irrelevant".

The question DOES apply to science. I answered the OP's question and clarified your answer.

YES AND NO.

Religion is of false comfort. There is no polite way to put it. Our scientific reality has cockroaches and bacteria that outnumber us and have survived far longer, and neither have religions or fictional sky heros.

I said the benefit is as hollow as the success the Ancient Egyptians had, AND THEY DID, for 3,000 years centering their lives around gods that did not exist in reality. Religion DOES have a benefit in creating social order and groups, but the downside is that it is not based in reality and far too often the problems the divisions cause as a result of those delusions, hinders human progress. 

I've also addressed atheists too in not thinking they are morally superior either. Our species behaviors are in our evolution. I'd be weary of using the word "secular" in the context of the way you just put it. If the planet were 7 billion atheists we'd still have divisions and prisons. But that is still no excuse to cling to old myths. It isn't that we can or should force any religion out of existence, but we also cannot nor should be afraid of giving up on old claims. Secular does not mean only "atheist". It simply means government neutrality. http://www.au.org is a multi label org that strives to protect separation of religion and state.

Carl Sagan is where my thought process is in his Pale Blue Dot. I'd only say verbally I don't have his patience. But physically and law wise, we certainly SHOULD protect all non violent humans regardless of differences. 

Religion is a horrible way of gaining consensus and diplomacy, even within the umbrella label. A Tibet Buddhist does not view Buddhism the same as a Chinese or Japanese Buddhist. An Orthodox Jew living in Israel may not have the same views as a liberal Jew in America. Sunnis and Shiites certainly prove this. And you wont get right wing Tea Party Baptist to agree with a liberal Obama voting Baptist. 

But the same applies to even atheists. I have said before, I DO NOT agree with every atheist on all things all the time. I don't like libertarian atheists who support the likes of Ayn Rand. But  nor do I support atheists who think Che, who lead to Cuba is a cure. It still remains all 7 billion humans are just that, humans.

Religion is really just another way of our species to make excuses to set up social order. In reality it is still gap filling, a sugar pill.