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.

What you have seen in modern societies, particular those of western secular nations, is an increase in the role of secular government to do things done prior to religious based societies.  You see in individuals who will call for smaller government, IF they care to even address what is done for people, how somehow religious organizations are supposed to step in the gaps.  But the trend is ever increasing growth of government in societies without a religious base to them, and them filling in these roles.  And ethics ends up also mainly being a matter of the person who is most expedient politically.

There are always exceptions. The point is that a small amount of religious people get into high profile scientific studies and you can't tell me I'm ignorant for accepting a fact: http://www.pewforum.org/Science-and-Bioethics/Scientists-and-Belief.aspx . Therefore it has a meaning if you look at it statistically. So overall, the knowledge acquired and nessecary for scientific studies tend to make them atheist/agnostic (like me).

Also, the last 25-30 years, we got much smarter because of computers/internet/games/scientific progress. The numbers of people who believe in God has also decreased significantly since then. Why can't people be reasonable and just accept facts like this?

I'm pretty sure the number of people who believe in god has gone up

It hasn't.

http://www.economist.com/node/2156087

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Roman Catholic Church

• Church membership in 2007 was 1.147 billion people,^[5] (17% of the global population at the time) increasing from the 1950 figure of 437 million^[6] (17% of the global population at the time) and the 1970 figure of 654 million.^[7] On 31 December 2008, membership was 1.166 billion, an increase of 11.54% over the same date in 2000, only slightly greater than the rate of increase of the world population (10.77%). The increase was 33.02% in Africa, but only 1.17% in Europe. It was 15.91% in Asia, 11.39% in Oceania, and 10.93% in Americas. As a result, Catholics were 17.77% of the total population in Africa, 63.10% in Americas, 3.05% in Asia, 39.97% in Europe, 26.21% in Oceania, and 17.40% of the world population. Of the world's Catholics, the proportion living in Africa grew from 12.44% in 2000 to 14.84% in 2008, while those living in Europe fell from 26.81% to 24.31%.^[8] Membership of the Catholic Church is attained through baptism.^[9] If someone formally leaves the Church, that fact is noted in the register of the person's baptism.

And that's just catholics

Christianity has been estimated to be growing rapidly in South America, Africa, and Asia. In Africa, for instance, in 1900, there were only 8.7 million adherents of Christianity; now there are 390 million, and it is expected by 2025 there will be 600 million Christians in Africa. The number of Catholics in Africa has increased from one million in 1902 to 329,882,000. There are now 1.5 million churches whose congregations account for 46 million people.

The numbers of Christians in Nigeria has grown from 21.4% in 1953 to 48.2% in 2003

In South Africa, Pentecostalism has grown from 0.2% in 1951 to 7.6% in 2001

Just copy and paste the link.

It's going down in America (which is what I thought chicken was argueing), but its growing worldwide, largely in the third world. So regardless, on a WORLD WIDE scale you are quite correct. Interesting, but not surprising. I imagine there are still many potential converts in the third world. I believe Islam is growing as well in these areas.

I think it's also rather silly to argue that religion inherently makes people "dumber" or more ignorant. 33% of scientists are religious in a field that would be most attractive to athiests. Many early scientists were people of faith. Man is inherently inquisitive and curious regardless of their religious background.

Is RELIGION a benefit? No, absolutely not.

Is SPIRITUALITY, on some level? Yes, I think so.

The problem with this discussion that keeps popping up, is that the world is not devided between "religious folks" and atheists. It's not that black and white, and it's insulting to suggest. Because quite frankly, speaking as one, there are a LOT of other shades in there, a lot of people who have spiritual beliefs or follow some kind of spiritual path, but are NOT "religious". Religion as an institution (mainly meaning Christianity, Judaism, Islam, other strains of such), the "One God, One Truth", "We're Right, You're Wrong and Going to Hell" mentality....has been nothing but divisive and harmful to the world, and I don't think any intelligent person can deny that outright.

Having a sense of the spiritual, however, I personally feel, is a very good and healthy thing for human beings to have. But when you muck it up and fuck it up with a sense of RELIGION and dogma, etc., that's when people get crazy and act retarded over what they're told is true.