I Was An Atheist By Third Grade

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23. Not really

Some modern religions have elements inserted to control slaves and women, but religion was codified as an attempt to understand and control the natural world. The same perceptual defects that make casinos successful businesses can make it seem like religious practices have had real-world effects, and the practice of ritual in general has measurable psychological and physical benefits that might seem like divine reward. To this day many religious have hidden features (literally occult knowledge) that is reserved for the elites who run things and are regarded as too dangerous for the common people to have access to. (Catholicism is riddled with these.) On the other hand more "primitive" religions tend to be more tolerant of a diversity of beliefs, because they hold that anything that someone regards as a god might actually exist, and that not all gods will interact with all people and you have to find your own. All religion can seem a bit ridiculous when viewed from a scientific perspective, but it can be either positive or negative in function. Unfortunately, the more negative religions have gone empire-building in our time, with a bit too much success.