Religion
In reply to the discussion: Reza Aslan Made the Worst Case For Religion On The Daily Show [View all]gcomeau
(5,764 posts)In no particular order:
1. Childhood indoctrination.
2. Stigmatization of anyone who rejects the prevailing religious beliefs in society once they grow up.
3. The inability of large numbers of people to deal with their own mortality. Even for all the people who don't sincerely believe all the various nonsense claims of religion as long as they're not examined too closely they make a nice security blanket / excuse for not facing your mortality directly and just kind of ignoring it instead. (Which drives 1 and 2 btw, because you don't want other people forcing you to face the fact that this is all nonsense and actually have to think about it)
4. Actual believers. They do exist, and in numbers. And for them take factors 1, 2 and 3 and multiply them exponentially. Because if you're just going through the motions because it's easy and convenient that's one thing. If you think aunt Jane or cousin Bob is actually seriously going to be doomed to eternal torment unless you convert them on the other hand... or unless you prevent some other unbeliever from luring them away from salvation? Turn all that up to 11.
5. It does have some organizing utility. Not any utility that couldn't be achieved through non-magical-bullshit means, but it's still there. Which makes people engaging in 1 and 2 more effective at it.
Etc...