Religion as a Social Parasite

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Old man shouts at clouds's picture
Religion as a Social Parasite

I just came across this quotation on another site, Daniel Dennett:

“If religions are culturally evolved parasites, we can expect them to be insidiously well designed to conceal their true nature from their hosts, since this is an adaptation that would further their own spread.”

This from Robert Oxton Bolt: "A belief is not an idea the mind possesses, but an idea that possesses the mind".

That seems to fit very well with the established religions and new cults as well. As human society evolves the old religions become weaker while new ones evolve to take their place witness the replacement of the Catholic Church with various Protestant cults, the splintering of Islam. Even the death of the old religions points to an evolutionary trick of survival for those religions that fit in to the growth and changes of society. The adaptable grow strong and rich while the "orthodox" and dogmatic succumb to entropy as their members die.
Sure we have examples of the death throes of an old orthodoxy ( Unites States, Rome, for instance) taking over a leader or a country but then quickly burns out. To be replaced with?....

Any thoughts on this? Can we declare Religions to be a parasite sucking the vitality from mankind?

If so what steps should we take to eradicate them from our systems?

(Edited for clarity)

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algebe's picture
Religion is absolutely a
Tin-Man's picture
Well, when I was a kid, one
Old man shouts at clouds's picture
The problem with "terminating
Tin-Man's picture
@Old Man
Old man shouts at clouds's picture
Yes, point taken, its not as
Tin-Man's picture
@Old Man Re: "Baptists of

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