1. Religions thrived to protect against disease

Comment #222014 by ibelson on July 30, 2008 at 12:49 pm

Actually I think that this is a marvelous study and its results should be used as the basis for a therapy to break up the large powerful religions such as Sunni and Shia Islam and the Catholic church into little itsy bitsy small ones to help fight the spread of the disease of superstition.

2. Escape or betrayal.

Comment #217781 by ibelson on July 24, 2008 at 4:08 pm

Islam is obviously not the only religion wherein emotional blackmail is used to keep people within the true faith. Most dogmatic or fundamentalist religions will threaten social isolation from freinds and family if a person begins to stray from its rigid rules. In Orthodox Judaism for instance social ostracizing an errant family or community member who might consider nonwork related social fraternizing with a nonJew is routinely practiced. The whole concept of Kosher is for the purpose of building a "fence around the Torah, the individual and the Jewish community. It is probably one of the elements responsible for Judaim's long survival but has also had a devistating effect on emotonal lives of many individuals. It takes a tremendous amount of courage and emotional strength to break away from your social support network and strike out often totally on your own. That is why nonreligious social and financial networks such as Rod is suggesting are so critically important.