>>>In this particular area, I do not hold out great hopes that humanity in general will come to it's senses. One of the most effective and proven methods for controlling a great number of people is through religion. There are those who can't give it up because of the propping up it gives them, and there are others who can't give it up because of the power it gives them.
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>>Ah, the good old confluence of religion-as-tool and politics. Got to love that... for if you'd start judging it on its merits, you may wish to embrace nearest porcelain.
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>I don't really see any merits. No, wait. I take that back. Apparently there are people in this world who would be out raping, killing, and generally pillaging if not for religion. I know that because they keep telling me that's how people without religion are destined to behave. So, personally, I have to be glad that they have found religion.

But that's their own sales pitch, "without us, people would be savages". And yet, the crime rate is just as bad on their watch as it is without it.

Of course, once you set up a social system which can't work without religion, then it becomes the sine qua non of that system. And when you indoctrinate the people to the degree when they believe that religion is required for morality, then they don't just believe that, they even can't imagine a world without it. And so it perpetuates itself - which is its only merit. It's one of the few institutions of civilization which spans millenia (the others are language, war, government, family...).