Can religion be positive

[Brian37]

This was sort of a question which arose in my mind from the "is religion child abuse" thread.

Is religion always a bad thing?

I'll go on a limb here and say I think not. I honestly believe that had I not found my faith when I did I would not be here. It was a valuable crutch at a time when I desperately needed one. It was, I now believe, based on a lie, but it was no less effective for that, a "spiritual placebo" if you will. No active ingredient but still gives results.

What say you?

Religion has been around in some form since before written or even drawn records. There is evidence of ritualistic burial going back to Neanderthals.

National Geographic - Neanderthal Burials Confirmed as Ancient Ritual

There also seems to be some evidence of hardwiring for systems of belief.

Belief Hardwired into our Brains?

I'm not suggesting for a moment that this is evidence of a god but it is clearly evidence that belief is important to humans in evolutionary terms, otherwise it would not be hardwired into our brains.

To dismiss religion as fairy tail or myth is to ignore its function, particularly its psychological function. It is easy to bash the social manifestation of this primary function but that is being drawn into the wrong game.

We can only answer the question, "Is religion always a bad thing?" when we understand its evolved function, and we have only recently started down that road. One thing seems certain, it was a good thing, it led to us evolving into what we are now, if it still is remains to be seen.

MM

No, see this is where you are making excuses for religion. "Belief is important". No it is not. Belief is what people THINK is important, yes. But that is not the same as belief being required. We now live without believing the sun had a god which the Egyptians falsely believed for 3,000 years. It did make them successful, but it did not make their gods real. And on top of being wrong, a lot of resources were wasted making monuments to fictional beings which is a flaw in our species that retards human discovery.

The real thing that our species is doing when gap filling to the point of concocting a religion, is the evolutionary aspect of creating groups. More members to that group, more opportunity to make offspring, more chance at survival. And those false beliefs are still not required regardless of the desires of those who hold those false beliefs.

So saying religion is important is false. There are tons of dead religions and dead gods that never were a requirement. Our real survival is due to our cooperation, not the falsehoods we create to foster cooperation.