Unbelievable

> but I think humanity has evolved past religion being helpful to us.

I have to really disagree with that. I think the loss of "faith" is the malaise that has inflicted the US since the Korean and Viet Nam war, and then the assassination of President Kennedy.

There were two major ( I'll use the term religion but I mean social cohesive forces in the USA ) religions, the idea of America, the myths of our country and being an American, and religion. Over the past 50 years religion is still pretty high in America, and the ideals of America have taken a violent hit from all the BS we have collectively experienced, but individually tried to parse.

Then we have business who calculates their gain when they can cause social anomie, disconnectedness. Religion has been corrupted. TV also used to be a common experience for people, but that now long gone too except for a few shows that a lot of people watch, but which are still divisive.

To fix this problem with the country we need to have a unified healed theory that is simple and transparent enough as to be understood and audited publicly by the people ... like our local town hall meetings used to be. Things are vastly over complex these days and people feel helpless.

When the whole attacks on religion started happening ( and to be honest here, I am not religious. I was raised Christian, and for a few years went to a Catholic private school, and did a lot of reading about religion and psychology, but I do not subscribe to any religion. If I did I think it would probably be Quakerism or Judaism ) I saw books coming out about how horrible religion is, Christopher Hitchens, and others. I even read some of them. I always thought they were misguided.

For example, I'd agree religions are or have been corrupt. The Catholic Church Pedophile Priests, the cooperation between religion and empire, mostly from the Pope and Catholicism. There is a ton of room for criticism of Islam and it's radical low tech decentrism, and its alienation of members and taking over the government and law.

BUT, look at the economy and how absolutely corrupt it has gotten. Our private sector has used its money and influence to corrupt all the other institutions in our lives ... so it is not religion per se that is a problem, it is just that it is a more visible and easier to discuss thing that to question the basic workings of our economy and status.

I say people are being too hard on religion ... in a general term, though I agree with a lot of the specific criticisms but that is pathological human behavior that the function of religion used to positively reinforce. We have worked hard and difficult to isolate each other from each other ... by the very problems with religion.

I would not be against throwing religion out ... but we must figure out what it did for us to begin with - and what to replace it with. It is innate to every human society that has existed - they've all kind some kind of metaphysical common structures in their brains.

But I bet what would happen should anyone suggest that, is that Right would accuse them of being communist insects trying to mechanize everyone and turn them into a collective beehive - because it would be a source of democracy and a challenge to the authority of their leaders.

I agree ... very refreshing to hear an actual thinking person on the other side of the conversation. Thank you.