There probably was a time when religion served a purpose, helped to organize and unite and build consensus to be law abiding and decent; to do what was right and proper and to show hospitality to strangers and people who needed help.
All of our experience with religion going back to the second world war at least but perhaps earlier still, indicates that religion is no longer about those things but rather its become about us and them and hating them.
It bothers me that organized religion can have ever supported inquisitions, crusades, the burning of witches and heretics, jihads, man's inhumanity to man let alone the present war on women, family planning and birth control.
I am obviously not a believer, but am still somewhat bemused, amazed, astonished, shocked, surprised and on occasion find myself fighting through my natural skepticism to be delighted with the pronouncements of Pope Francis, so there's still hope, but its an expensive luxury these days.
I compare that to the recent apparent change of attitude in Iran and the reaction of the rest of OPEC, especially ARAMCO which seems to have the status of a secular religion amongst people who believe that fossil fuels have a future.
Finally I admit that my knowledge of the religions of the world that are not some subset of the people of the book is virtually non existent but that I have the negative prejudice to expect them to value whatever they hold sacred over any pragmatism regarding cooperating to bring an end to the consequences of our last ten millenia of waging war on nature and would like to be proved wrong in this regard.
My impression is that religion is a part of the infrastructure that makes government and especially the corpocracy underlying hereditary aristocracy, oligarchy and plutocracy function.
Religion is what establishes our rites of passage, our norms and more, attitudes and values, and our social stratification.
It has some responsibility to tell us we can no longer afford to be fruitful and multiply at our present rate.
If we continue as we are we are going to simply use up all the resources and space with too many people doing too many things in too small a geographical area and suffer all the implications of climate change as a consequence
With the structure of the family religion establishes authority. With regular instruction from religious services that preach to community organizations that practice social stratification, religion teaches us to obey authority.
With cub scouts and girl scouts, choir boys and altar boys, military service, your resume and permanent record, in the advancement of the Puritan Work Ethic or its equivalent, religion reinforces the idea that 99% of us have to work for a living, advance in ranks, (onward Christian soldiers probably has an equivalency in most religions) seek progress at whatever cost to the natural world, be fruitful and multiply and dominate everyone and everything else on the planet.
Now we have come to the end game. Survival for our species, not to mention for every other species on this planet is whats at stake. In just the decade that I have been posting diaries here I have observed people who were once optimistic about finding solutions begin to realize what it will take to survive.
The choice is essentially your money or your life, and while you are at it decide which world and what kind of world you want to be saved in and have left for your children and grandchildren. Once you have decided to decide, let me know if your religion is helping or obstructing your decision making process.