This points back to the entry I made a couple of weeks ago about a "memetic parasite" which I believe is posing as religion, and to the posts I made earlier this week about defying fate. While religion provides clear benefits and survival value (and that of course is beyond or in addition to the possibility that religious doctrine is correct) the "parasite" by definition does not.

This is an idea I'm just starting to flesh out and my discussion of it so far is meant to be taken on more of an intuitive level; I am not trying to spell out theories as much as record thoughts and impressions about this.