The Staying Power of Religion

Apart from the social and community aspects of day to day life, I have to admit I really have no idea what use religion has in our lives anymore. It's fairly well accepted that religion was created by man in order to help explain the natural world. However today science has taken the place of religion in explaining the complex world we live in and does so exponentially better. Instead of using a godhead to answer any questions we might have as to why something happens, instead we have learned to observe and experiment and come up with the real answers as to why things happen and occur in nature.

Having said that, you'd think that once the main reason for religion was removed, people would be throwing off these illogical beliefs right left and center. However it seems the opposite is true. Religion, unlike almost every other superstition seems to have a staying power that the others don't.

I really don't have any answers as to why this is, but I do have a suspicion. I blame the parents, and this is why. Think of the many superstitions and illogical beliefs we all hold as children. Santa, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy for instance. When we reach a certain age and our skills at reasoning improve we come to the conclusion, (rightly) that these things cannot possibly exist. And our parents are right there supporting these conclusions.

However the opposite seems to be true when it comes to religion. When children question how all these fanciful stories in their parents holy books can possibly be true, instead of having their suspicions confirmed, (like in the sake of the aforementioned Mr. Claus) children are told that these stories, unlike the others, are indeed true and with an entire congregation of other adults backing the parents up, is it any surprise that kids end up believing this for the rest of their lives?

All that being said, is there anything that can be done about it? I don't know. I think the best way to combat this though is to keep religion out of the schools, something that is being hotly contested in the States right now. only by teaching children the skills necessary for critical thinking can we hope to beat back the dominance of religious superstition in the world today.