In every segment of history where there is an instance of mass delusion and all the crazies come out...the medium is religion. The Dark Ages, The Crusades, The Witch Burnings, Islamic Terrorism...and now QAnon and all the nutcases claiming "the radical left are Satan worshiper, pedophiles" and all that nonsense. Every time I'm inclined to think maybe religion MIGHT have some good points...its bad points show themselves to be OVERWHELMINGLY harmful and eclipse any good that could possibly come out of religion in our modern world.
To be clear though, I'm not just picking religion because it's old and the stories are crazy (which they are)...but I want to highlight the one piece of religion that TRULY makes it horrible...and that is the fact that it teaches people "what to think" and not "how to think" or in other words it teaches people to learn "from authority." The Bible doesn't say "stealing is not ideal because it's unsustainable in the long run, it hurts the person you are stealing from, it robs society of trust, and it isn't an efficient way to distribute resources"...no, what religion says is "THOU SHALL NOT STEAL." It teaches people that facts and ways to behave come from sources of authority (a bible, a priest, a FOX anchorman, an orange-haired maniac in the Presidency, etc), and not from actually using your brain, weighing evidence, aligning oneself to reality, and having an informed and reasoned stance on issues.
We MUST get over religion. I'm sorry...rational people have been trying to peel off the band-aid slowly and painlessly for centuries...but it's time people. We can't keep pretending it's benign. I'm not authoritarian, so obviously I'm not suggesting we ban anything, but we have to be CLEAR that it is: 1) Untrue, 2) Teaches people unhealthy practices, 3) Has no place in decision-making, formal or informal.
