Is religion a necessary evil?

I think that religion is only beneficial to those who are both fearful about the true nature of the world and have also been indoctrinated. I imagine that it's a pretty paradigm shifting experience to learn that what you've been told your whole life, from the people you love the most about the meaning of life, isn't even remotely true. It probably takes a pretty courageous person to overcome that massive intellectual obstacle and come out better because of it. I think the possibility of spiralling into depression is there, but ultimately, I think people should value truth over happiness that's derived from a false sense of security. I'd love to believe that I have superpowers, and I think that I'd be a lot happier if I did. But I choose to pay attention to the overwhelming evidence against that claim simply because it's the truth. I think that the truth is important - regardless of the question - because it can help you uncover your unique meaning to exist... rather than not even thinking about it and just turning to the bible/religion. Everyone should be given a chance to ponder their personal meaning. But no, I don't think that religion does enough good to outweigh all of the negative shit that results from it. I don't think it has anything of value to offer anyone.

Just some random information though: Apparently, some historians believe that religion may have played an integral role in allowing primitive human tribes to establish effective networks of trade. If another tribe believed in the same god as you, and the same consequences for being a bad primitive human for fucking up the trade deal by killing the human from the other tribe (or something like that), than you'd be more likely to trust and work with that human than you ordinarily would have been. (Learned that from Sapiens, by Yuval Harari)

So maybe religion did some good work back then, but that doesn't seem like any reason to put up with its bullshit now.

/r/atheism Thread