Does the religious myth benefit modern society or not?

[badgenome]

I don't think it's a cut and dry situation. I, too, reject the idea that atheists are necessarily more selfish or less moral than believers. The blind faith and irrationality required by most, if not all, religion makes me pretty uncomfortable. But it's probably true that a lot of people have ditched religion because it requires of them some degree of self denial, and that's just not appealing. (Though I think more people have ditched it simply because it's unfashionable, which is the reason most people do anything.) And it's also probably true that people who don't believe in a god find other outlets for their primitive urge to believe fiercely in something, like political movements. It seems to me a lot less harmful to have such people expending their devotional energy worshiping the proverbial Flying Spaghetti Monster than to seize the very real gun of political power and stick it to your head.

A lot of studies have found that the religious tend to be happier and healthier, too, so I think there are indeed benefits for society. But whether they outweigh the negatives really depends on the particulars of the religion, I suppose, and how wedded it is to politics. If people can compartmentalize their beliefs a bit and be content to exercise their own faith without forcing it on others, than I can see how the asceticism that religion promotes could temper the excessive banality and materialism of modern culture.