Religion comes from a time when people didn't understand the world
around them. Things like weather and natural disasters (to say nothing of the sheer vastness of the world in which they lived and the universe beyond) were beyond their ability to comprehend, let alone control. They were afraid, so they had gods to comfort them. We have
science for that now.
Religion comes from a time when people were wild. Many were wont to
follow whatever whims struck their fancy, for good or ill, so they had
divine laws to control them. We have government for that now.
Religion comes from a time when power meant survival. Either you
controlled the lives of other men, or were controlled and your life was
in others' hands, so they had priesthoods and the like to give men power
and influence over others. We have corporations for that now.
Religion is the last remnant of ancient superstition and primal
fear. It takes its strength from all that is wrong in us: our ambition,
our weak-mindedness, and our tendency to exclude all those who differ
from us. In a modern world we need not such things, and indeed would be
better off without them. Religion is not only irrelevant to modern life,
it is detrimental and should be forgotten like so many aspects of our
past: slavery, bloodsport, arranged marriage, and all the rest that we
now in our enlightened age call "uncivilized".
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