Learning keeps people surviving. Deprived of it, many just deteriorate, which is why dictators limit learning. Religion has often driven learning, as well as denied it. But it is not the only driver.
You assume humans are rational creatures, but that is not the case. As far as more education…the current education system is part of the problem. Western civics, focusing on classical studies, the Enlightenment, etc. are actively disdained by university professors (i.e, focus on virtue and self-restraint as the basis of a free society, not the current definition of total freedom to do whatever makes you feel good, seeking full self-actualization at the expense and freedom from community, borders, family, even biology itself). Societies are ultimately a choice of balance between the terror of the State (Russia, China, Iran, etc) or the terror of individuals (crime). We humans need to be fearful of something (the State or god) to be our best behaving selves. Otherwise it’s chaos and decadence. The masses of the West are clearly suffering a spiritual crisis as the old Christian society has been replaced by secularism that leaves a hole in us, a hole filled by toxic politics, drugs, promiscuity, single-parent households, crime, depression, etc etc). God is dead and postmodernism has replaced him. Can there be morals in a secular world? What are they? What is virtue today? Equality, diversity, tolerance? Ha!
Some churches provide this space; not everyone there goes just for the sermon. It's the social and community interaction that draws this atheist to church now and then. I find lots of agnostics at the potluck dinners.
Learning keeps people surviving. Deprived of it, many just deteriorate, which is why dictators limit learning. Religion has often driven learning, as well as denied it. But it is not the only driver.
The most important part of education is to teach how to think. Religion teaches how and what to believe, that's the opposite of thinking.
You assume humans are rational creatures, but that is not the case. As far as more education…the current education system is part of the problem. Western civics, focusing on classical studies, the Enlightenment, etc. are actively disdained by university professors (i.e, focus on virtue and self-restraint as the basis of a free society, not the current definition of total freedom to do whatever makes you feel good, seeking full self-actualization at the expense and freedom from community, borders, family, even biology itself). Societies are ultimately a choice of balance between the terror of the State (Russia, China, Iran, etc) or the terror of individuals (crime). We humans need to be fearful of something (the State or god) to be our best behaving selves. Otherwise it’s chaos and decadence. The masses of the West are clearly suffering a spiritual crisis as the old Christian society has been replaced by secularism that leaves a hole in us, a hole filled by toxic politics, drugs, promiscuity, single-parent households, crime, depression, etc etc). God is dead and postmodernism has replaced him. Can there be morals in a secular world? What are they? What is virtue today? Equality, diversity, tolerance? Ha!
-an Agnostic.
Some churches provide this space; not everyone there goes just for the sermon. It's the social and community interaction that draws this atheist to church now and then. I find lots of agnostics at the potluck dinners.
Human beings need a moral system and to express their spirituality, but institutionalized religions are not the only answer to these needs