[lbo-talk] On the Threat from Religion

[Philp Pilkington]

That's all religion is. The supernatural stuff is just the frills and
dressing sometimes used to justify the authority of the priests who needed
to impose the ancient customs. All this mumbo-jumbo shouldn't be confused
with the real thing.

That's not true. From a strictly materialistic point of view (which is
presumbaly what you're going for) all religion, from tribal myth to
monotheism in its various forms also tends to push the contradictions of
society into the supernatural realm. It often does this in an extremely
clever way, it seems to construct itself around these social contradictions.
This allows people within the belief structure to explain various things
they find extremely disagreeable in a supernatural manner.