Religions cause pandemics

[Anymouse]

Or we invented new religions to be able to emotionally handle relatives dying in times of disease and suffering. Doesn't that sound a little more likely??

That seems more likely as well. If you've never heard of germs or infection or whatnot, and your old religions were not serving or saving you, pitching the old and coming up with something new might have been the obvious choice.

Also, I recall reading somewhere that the Black Plague was implicated somewhat in the Protestant Reformation, though I don't know about the veracity of that.