As for Sweden, a culturally homogeneous society with a strong Lutheran heritage that has been secular for what– 1.5 generations, at most??– and is currently failing to produce enough citizens to replace those who are dying hardly constitutes “proof” that religion can whimsically be discarded…
As for demagogues– there have always been stupid people who can be manipulated by others. Yes– religion has been used to manipulate people and it will continue to be used so long as there are stupid people in the world.
Discarding religion will not end the demagoguery. People will not suddenly become smarter when religion is removed from a society.
Please ask yourselves this question: If you were a self-serving demagogue who craved power, would you want to be in a society with strong religious roots or in a secular society?
As most demagogues go, most of them seem to oppose religion. Ask yourselves why…
Look– many, many moons ago, I pointed out that a large component of the traditional religions was a set of economic laws that had been developed, through trial and error, over generations. These economic laws represent cultural intelligence– the opposite of the stupidity which you decry.
Our ancestors may not have known how to build an i-pod, but they sure as hell understood human interactions. What’s more, with survival on the line daily, I suspect that they paid a lot more attention to what works in human societies than most modern-day, live-in-a-SFR-in-suburbia, bowl-alone, spend three-hours-a-day-watching-TV Americans.
Once again, you discard that intelligence at your peril…
