Please don't post about US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world
1) Be nice and; have fun
Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them
2) All posts must end with a '?'
This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?
3) No spam
Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.
4) NSFW is okay, within reason
Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com.
NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].
5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions.
If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.
Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.
Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
Reading Sapiens changed my mind about this a lot because it always confused me too. It's more about myths (of which we have a lot like the companies we work for and our countries) that allow us to cooperate, trust each other and work on larger more abstract ideas.
As for why it's still around today -- maybe it's not as late as you think it is -- We just made steam engines 10-15 generations ago
https://evolutionnews.org/2021/07/did-religion-evolve-or-was-it-designed-to-foster-cooperation/
We are also the most connected we have ever been, yet more and more are giving it up for 2d anime girls
Our fragile minds still get scared. While looking for answers, you can find those who claim to have them.
Disinformation has always been a problem, and it continues to be.
Consider that the sky is only ever one colour at a time. Let's say it's blue rn just for simplicity. It's not red, orange, yellow, etc. There can be more false statements made about this subject than there can be made a true statement. There will always be more misinformation than truth.
Now, a lot of that misinformation is disqualified cause even the most propagandized person has eyes. But that doesn't disqualify all of it.
There are questions science won't ever have a definitive answer to, because religion makes claims on them that are unfalsifiable. Part of it is just that people need an answer to those.
I left Islam, and while I wish all muslims would do the same, it required me ro go through a series of existential crises I'd be hesitant to force on my worst enemy.
There are plenty of other factors to consider too, traditonalism, the way the human brain forms neural pathways and how it is harder to get rid of a pathway than it is to form new ones from that, nationalism or the use governments and powerful people have for religion...
The good news when it comes to propaganda though is that if those in power don't constantly exert control over the masses, then their entire hierarchy would collapse pretty quickly.
Why not? We have anime, furries, marvel, DC, Star Trek, Star Wars….
It’s just another niche group to belong to.
Hopefully, a slightly different perspective here...
Religion is not interchangeable with theism. Many people, including me, are religious whilst also being atheists. Depending on the source, religion can be defined as a supernatural based idea (god/gods) or (the way I see it) more like Emile Durkheim saw it "a unified system of beliefs and practices [...] which unite into one single moral community called a church, all those who adhere to them."
So, for me, religion gives me a sense of community, support and a structure to guide me. It doesn't rule me and I don't have to worship or pray to a supernatural being that doesn't exist. So in my (biased) view, I get the good bits of religion without the shitty awful bits such as telling everyone only my religion is right, telling everyone what to do based on what I think and generally being an arsehole.
Most people like some type of community because we are, at bottom, social creatures. My own religion allows me to be both individualistic and also part of a community and I think a lot of people feel that their religion gives them that sense of community. A more worrying aspect of religion is theistic religion - worship of a supernatural being/beings - because that is irrational, which is not in itself a concern, but when whole societies are controlled via theism then people suffer.