What does religion offer?

[bladevalant546]

Christianity gave rise to the Muslims. It protected Europe from its own bastard child, but then it caused the Dark Ages.

I do like that appendix analogy though, Maelstrom.

Most of the concepts of Islam (oddly) was inspire from an already existing pagan religion of that day. Muhammad also got inspiration from Judaism. In the Quran Jesus (Isa) is barely mentioned, so I am pretty sure some rendition of Islam would have existed. However the foundational beliefs are drawn from a combination of Hadiths which are basically doctrines based on interpretation of the Quran. Granted hindsight examinations are speculation. With that said, the fact remains that organized religious systems are not really needed in todays world. The sheer resistence are growing pains of the human mind as we learn we do not need a god to deteremine our purpose in life and the concepts morality and ethics are in our hands.