Good post.
So if religion is their social tool, and way of justifying things. What would you say was our social tool in the UK?
I know there are many religious people in the UK, but not nearly enough to have the same effect, so would you say we were influenced by something different?
I think morals are our main social tool, and I think that is the best way for it to be.
Morals are not a tool, they are an ethical position. How we enforce and communicate those morals however requires an apparatus, in many part of the world that is predominantly religion.
In the UK we are in a position where our society has more than one apparatus for communication of ethics and morals, we have education, we have secular legislature, we have secular courts and we have Democratic Government and we also have Religion. Each of these things adds to the moral and ethical make-up of our society, and to remove one would be to devalue the others.
Society in the Western world is advanced, however if we look at this historically, the first hospitals, schools, Universities, laws, social charity all originated with religious groups who using their doctrine and belief tried to teach those around them.
Works of art, architecture, scientific endeavour, philosophy, literature and so on all have their influences from religion, be it as a religious scholar attempting to explain the world better in his search for Gods work, or building the great cathedral's and Mosques in honour of their relative gods, to poetry, paintings and literature. Religion did not hold these things back, it pushed them forward, it has been the driving force of western culture and even within Islam, the golden age of Islam and that of Hinduism before it, brought such things as medicine, literacy for the common man, mathematics, astronomy, and so on. That is not to say that these things would not have happened without religion, however Religious belief in these people acted as a catalyst. Michaelangelo for the obvious example.
There is a problem that people assume that the wealth of theological insight and information is in the Bible, or Qu'ran or Torah, when in fact it is in the works of the Great theologians like Plato, Hesiod, Cicero, Rabbi Akiva, Origen,Wasil ibn Ata, Alkindus, St Augustine, and many more. Religious belief is not only about the holy book and doctrine.
There is no doubt that religion can be subverted by those who wish to cause strife, however it can and has been used by those who wish to push the Human Race ever forward.
Some religions, especially the Catholic, Judaic and Islamic faiths need to address specific issues in their doctrine, this takes time. Let us not forget that our secular society in the western world is only about a hundred years old and for great edifices like the catholic church change comes slowly, but it comes and while militant humanists like the "brights" force their own unique brand of evangelism on society so do religious hotheads attempt the same. It is up to the majority to force the middle ground, and find some compromise between the spiritual and physical needs of Mankind, because one without the other will make for a far worse world than we know today.