This is survivorship bias, literally. Religion displays a seemingly higher cohesiveness of a moral and ethical philosophy partly because many who disagreed were

This is survivorship bias, literally. Religion displays a seemingly higher cohesiveness of a moral and ethical philosophy partly because many who disagreed were actually killed. In more modern times they are merely excommunicated, shunned. Now that we can't just kill our political dissidents, we are left with less cohesion. I am currently reading The Brothers Karamazov and recorded a couple quotes from the chapter I'm currently in (Book V: Pro and Contra, Chapter 5: The Grand Inquisitor) about freedom and religion, which seem too poignant to pass up right now. Not that I think religion is the answer to the problem. Here's one of my favorites: "So long as man remains free he strives for nothing so incessantly and so painfully as to find someone to worship. But man seeks to worship what is established beyond dispute, so that all men would agree at once to worship it...what is essential is that all may be together in it. This craving for community of worship is the chief misery of every man individually and all of humanity from the beginning of time." This just tells me that there is no solution to this foible of human nature and that we are doomed to a future of dissatisfaction, and we'll invent endless ways to keep fighting. I'm not saying we should do nothing. I'm just so tired, it seems so obvious, yet the path is not clear at all.