Lest we forget

[Thorne]

Other positive effects are the monotheistic religions holy books. The rules needed to be written down to be permanent. You needed to read to understand them which enhanced literacy which we all obviously know is a great skill for book keeping, (= more money). Also measurable. There's a clear link between litteracy and BNP.

In much of the Christian world, literacy was restricted to the wealthy and the ruling elite. Very few middle class members were able to read Latin, and almost none of the poor. And the Church made sure that almost everything was written in Latin. Actually, I believe the Jews, and possibly the Arabs, were among the most literate in Europe and Western Asia. Almost every Jewish boy had to learn to read Hebrew so that he could read the Torah. I don't know about the Chinese or Japanese, but I expect that they were also very literate.

My very long rant here was just me trying to explain how religion has been great for the world.

While I will admit that religions in general have sometimes had a positive effect in the world, overall I believe they've done more to hold back progress and divide people than any other institution. While attitudes around the world have changed, and some aspects of religion have changed with them, I feel it is mostly because the churches could see that failure to change would result in loss of power. I was raised a Catholic and back in those days the church was just starting to allow Catholics to marry non-Catholics as long as any children were raised Catholic. But it was because people were doing it anyway, and saying to hell with the consequences. So they had all those potential Catholic children being raised in other religions. I believe it was even harder for Jews to marry outsiders, but I'm not all that familiar with any other religions.
But my point is that, in general, religious institutions resist change to the point of ridiculousness. It took the Vatican what, about 600 years, to admit that Galileo was right, and that the Earth does indeed revolve around the sun. Back in the early 80's I worked with a man who was a preacher in a small church. He believed that,since the Bible states there are four corners of the Earth, the Earth had to be flat. All evidence to the contrary was wrong or blasphemous. And Christian views on evolution in this country (USA) at least, are absurd beyond belief. And equally absurd are the fanatical atheists who want to erase God and Jesus and Christ from the American dictionaries. Children in school can get into serious trouble just by wishing their teachers a Merry Christmas instead of the sillier Happy Holidays.
Ah well. If only the rest of the world were like me. What a boring world THAT would be!
'Nuff Said!