StLGooner wrote:You could make a good argument for religion being needed in society at one point or multiple points of time in the past. However, I would like to think that the majority of the population is smart enough to understand we don't need it any more.
Just think about all the great minds that could have been or the ones that they killed off for simply questioning it's teachings. Like the earth being the center of the universe. Was it Galileo they killed that proposed that we rotate around the sun instead of the other way around?
So you can ask. If religion was never invented, could we have made it this far without it? Or would we be even more advanced, since it hindered so much of our progress? Obviously we'll never know, but it's a fun thought.
That is a double edged sword.
During the Dark Ages the monastaries and the Church were literally the holders of knowledge, they had all the libraries, did all the copying of manuscripts etc in a time when no one else was bothering.
But then on the flip side, pre Christinanity, it was the Romans, Egyptians and Babylonians who invented writing, irrigation, had the libraries etc.
Fact is religious peoples are usually those in society who are learned individuals, they learn how to read and write and are too weak to be warriors so they focused on education, religion just gave them the funding and structure to be able to study etc.
Its a tough one, but I do know that at no other time in history has mankind accelerated than in the time of the renaissance, this was driven by citizens going private, being able to trade and travel outside of the Aristocracy controlled environment, the printer had been invented spreading ideas not approved by the Church or Royalty.
So I'd say no about religion, we don't need it, in fact the renaissance was based on the ability of regular people to escape the bubble of information and influence from the Church.
Case in point, look at Saudi Arabia, they were centuries behind the West in 1910 AD, why? because they were under the thrall of Islam which is a Dark Age and Medieval religion in a time where Westerners had largely thrown off the shackles of the Church in mass, it was still relevant but the Church did not control people in 1910 AD the way it did in the 15th Century.
In fact Arabia started its modernisation only because of WWI happening in its lands, that war bought artillery, guns etc to Arabia which allowed Al-Saud to defeat the competing tribes and unify Arabia and develop civilised modern Cities, which could super charged by Oil money.
100 years ago Arabia was no more modern than it was in the 15th Century, religion played a big part in that.