Does the religious myth benefit modern society or not?

[nuckles87]

Ji99saw said:

nuckles87 said:

Religion, in the long run, does not help or hurt society. Religion is not the only thing that keeps us moral, but if it didn't exist I'm sure people who use it to spread hatred and bigotry would just find something else.

Ji99saw said:

OT- Religion built almost all the foundations we have today. Law,Order, Justice, Love, Right and Wrong. If it were not for some type of religion we would be mostly feral and kill each other over territory and resources (more than we already do) and it would be complete chaos.

Religion did not build any of that, humanity did. Humanity cannot EXIST without some version of these values. Those things have all existed for as long as humanity has existed. Religion is,  at best, merely a manifestation of these believes that links them to thiestic myths.

What??  That's utterly ridiculous give me one example of this in a previous or modern society with no roots to any religion

Chimpanzees. They have communities with laws based on hierarchy, they mate often in order to strengthen bonds between indivduals (love), and while I am unaware of any studies showing that chimpanzees have a concept of "right and wrong" (which, by the way, you do not need religion to have a concept for), studies have shown that wild chimps are capable of altruistic and charitable behavior, in other words "doing something good for someone else's benefit".

But that's not really the point. Fact of the matter is, religion is old, and we don't have any sort of written records that go back to before religion existed. At least, religion as we know it today.

My point is, humanity has always needed those things in order to survive. Your society does not need to be religious in order to have these values, and there are PLENTY of examples of religious societies killing each other over territory.

The very existense of humanity depends on the existence of the "community". Alone we are weak, feeble creatures, but as a bonded community we are strong, and that is the only reason why we are still around. Law and order within a community kept it from falling apart, by giving guidance to indivduals and helping them settle disputes that could otherwise cause people to leave the community. Love is a basic human emotion that everyone with typical brain chemistry is capable of experiencing and has no root in religion (otherwise, homosexuality would not be a thing). Right and wrong is something every human had to understand in order to be able to interact with other humans within their community.

These things you talk about are not things that exist purely because of religion. They exist because they are inherit to being human. Without them, humanity would not even exist.