Quote from: CoinCube on May 31, 2017, 07:20:17 PM

Quote from: CoinCube on May 31, 2017, 07:17:22 PM

Quote from: af_newbie on May 31, 2017, 05:54:58 PM

When you are schizophrenic or delusional you might never be able to cure yourself. You will remain delusional until you die. (True)

It does not matter that people are delusional when they do not cause harm to others or themselves. But unfortunately, that is not the case when it comes to religious delusion. These people are dangerous, borderline insane. (False)

When people think they have the right to kill others because of their delusion, that is a problem. (True)

In the future, religions will be treated as a medical issue. We need to find the "religion" gene and eradicate it from the gene pool. (False)

Truth followed by falsehood. You af_newbie simply do not seem to understand religion.
Since we are on a bitcoin forum let me frame this in the language of bitcoin maybe that will help you understand.

What is bitcoin?
Bitcoin is an overarching consensus system organized around the concept of sound money. Those voluntarily participating in this consensus are required to behave transparently and do work with the ultimate aim of ensuring all network participants abide by the greater consensus. Nodes who choose not to follow the protocol, miners who submit invalid proof of work, and users who try to spend bitcoins without verified private keys, are simply ignored by the greater consensus.

Bitcoin is a form of group selection and group selection entails that group behavior be referenced to something outside the group. This something outside is the concept groups cohere and organize around. It is what they cooperate to promote. In the case of bitcoin the referenced object is the conceptual idea of a sound and ideal money.

What is religion (specifically ethical monotheism)?
Religion is also a form of group selection. It is the far more ambitious consensus that involves organizing humanity around the external concept of God. Once you understand this you understand the transformative nature of religion in both historic and modern human societies.

In any network some actors behave badly. They seek to impose their vision through force rather then consensus. In bitcoin we see this with the threat of a miner instigated contentious hardfork and also in the threat of nodes forcing change with a UASF. In religion we see it with certain sects seeking converts by the sword. In all cases this behavior is unhelpful and it will cease and fade out gradually over time as it becomes clear to all that voluntary consensus and cooperation not force is the ultimate path forward.

Religion is the proximate method of Group Selection in humans. Below is a nice article on this by Bruce Charlton if you are interested in reading more.
http://iqpersonalitygenius.blogspot.com/2015/11/religion-as-proximate-method-of-group.html?m=1

As an aside this may also be why you will notice that the very religious on this forum often seem to be the most optimistic about bitcoin and confident in it's long term success. The religious have an innate affinity for consensus networks as they are already active members of one.

You think I don't understand why the religions were invented? Or what positive benefits they brought?

Primitive people needed common myths to co-operate with strangers. Our ancestors would never be able to wipe out Neanderthals if it was not for the common myths. We would be wiped out by the Neanderthals as they were stronger individuals, but their bands rarely exceeded 50 members.

Religions allowed for larger groups of strangers to co-operate and this helped them survive. 50 Neanderthals did not stand a chance against 5000 horde of small, smart apes. Sapiens exterminated them.

When agricultural revolution started,small cities formed, then larger cities etc. You needed a rule of law to manage larger groups of people.
That is where religion was used. This invention helped us thrive to the days of scientific revolution. Now, religions are slowing down our progress. Science and secular legal and moral frameworks essentially replace religion. Religion is seen as a relic of the past.

Today, there are many other reasons why strangers might want to co-operate peacefully. Religion is not one of them.
Religions are what divides us as humans. Next step in human evolution, which will bring AI, cyborgs, colonization of other planets etc, will be done despite religions.

Religions hold us back. The benefits it once had, are already achieved by other means.