Are you kidding me? Religion is supremely useful in controlling and exploiting people. It promises all of the wonderment and fantasticnous you can imagine while also promising the absolute worst nightmares you can imagine, and all you have to do is pay and pray, and the prayers are optional.

"Work in service to your masters and you will be rewarded after you're dead. Defy your masters and you will be punished for eternity" is the perfect tool of control for the uneducated/unintelligent.

[–] CileTheSane@lemmy.ca 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Religion is not a useful tool and it’s not good in general

https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2019/01/31/religions-relationship-to-happiness-civic-engagement-and-health-around-the-world/

People who are active in religious congregations tend to be happier and more civically engaged than either religiously unaffiliated adults or inactive members of religious groups, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of survey data from the United States and more than two dozen other countries.

[–] ECB@feddit.de 10 points 9 months ago (1 children)

That's just saying "people who are in a social community are happier and more engaged than those that aren't" because most social communities are currently religious focused.

[–] CileTheSane@lemmy.ca 1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Sure. Doesn't change the fact that Religion can be used as a tool for social engagement and can have a measurable, good effect on people's lives.

When people misuse a hammer to cause harm you don't blame the hammer.

[–] nieminen@lemmy.world -1 points 9 months ago (1 children)

"guns don't kill people, people kill people", does that mean there should be zero regulations on guns?

Religion is the same, and historically has been the CAUSE not the TOOL for countless genocides and "justified" killings.

[–] CileTheSane@lemmy.ca 3 points 9 months ago (1 children)

“guns don’t kill people, people kill people”, does that mean there should be zero regulations on guns?

Strawman. I was mentioning hammers, are there any regulations on hammers? I never once called a gun a tool.

Religion is the same, and historically has been the CAUSE not the TOOL for countless genocides and “justified” killings.

If you believe the people causing genocides wouldn't have fun another reason to excuse them I have a bridge to sell you. The Holocaust wasn't motivated by religion.

[–] nieminen@lemmy.world 0 points 9 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, I'll give you the strawman, sorry about that. Made sense before I said it.

The Nazi belief was absolutely a religion. Not one of deity, but of superiority. A group of people held the same belief and tried to beat that belief into the whole world. TBH, sounds just like the crusades, just less successful. Thank goodness.

[–] CileTheSane@lemmy.ca 3 points 9 months ago

The Nazi belief was absolutely a religion. Not one of deity, but of superiority.

That agrees with my point that if you managed to abolish all religions people would still find excuses to perform atrocities. They'll just do it in the name of their "superiority" instead of their "god".