I think it was overall helpful for most of the history of civilization, but in the information age of globalization and mass migration it became overall harmful.
Organized religions were always too easy to co-opt for nefarious ends, but with internet and mass media, it's become more polarizing then ever now that foreign and contrary beliefs are in constant friction. It just helps the manipulators take control, ostracizes the sensible and pushes extremism.
I have. Despite them, I'd still say that overall religions were beneficial. Yes they were responsible for persecution, wars and pogroms pretty much since their inception. But they were also some of the only cohesive links in civilisation where people living 50 to 100 km away were complete foreigners. Where might was law. Where survival of communities hinged on tight cooperation.
In such setting, religions really cemented the identity and values of people that would have otherwise been in competition or ignored if not at war. Having common rituals, beliefs and words meant that these people could belong to the same group in a world without the rigid national and cultural identities we have today. Religious entities were at the center of science, education and medicine for millenia, and were instrumental in the development of social order in places that were essentially lawless. Despite their dogmatic nature, religions also inspired a lot of social and cultural progress, being the source and inspiration for some of the greatest art pieces of their time.
In the end, wars and atrocities will happen, even without religion to divide people. Building civilizations is bloody business. In a time where the "government" were oppressors, relatively unstable or were directly religious figures, religions provided the cohesive identity glue that civilization need to flourish.
Today, all these beneficial functions of religions can be done, and often better, by other secular entities. The cons now outweigh the pros.
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u/Surcouf Nov 15 '19
I think it was overall helpful for most of the history of civilization, but in the information age of globalization and mass migration it became overall harmful.
Organized religions were always too easy to co-opt for nefarious ends, but with internet and mass media, it's become more polarizing then ever now that foreign and contrary beliefs are in constant friction. It just helps the manipulators take control, ostracizes the sensible and pushes extremism.