The notion that people have suddenly become smarter or more objective or more rational has been blasted tume and time again, both by uncovering new past instanc

The notion that people have suddenly become smarter or more objective or more rational has been blasted tume and time again, both by uncovering new past instances of rationality and by new blunders reminding us that it is our reason that evolved to serve our intincts, and thinking our reason is actually in charge is thus delusional. When people's physical needs are being met well, they become less religious. Look at relgious growth in undeveloped countries as an example. Those people aren't less intelligent than us, and if we point to education, we have data indicating our quality of education is decreasing while religious affiliation falls as well. Even with physical needs being met, people have certain needs that religons were meeting. We should be careful what part of aociety picks up meeting those needs. Politics? Yikes we know what happens when the passion and absolute certainty of religion gets infused into politics, we are seeing it now. Science? Belief harms science, science requires skepticism even of our best axioms to avoid dogma. Don't drown people who ask questions your theory can't answer. If we dont find a safe outlet for those residual needs, we are better off keeping religion around to fill them without giving it any temporal power.