One
could compare religion to the craving for sweets. This impulse to
consume anything sweet quickly and in the greatest possible amounts
played an important role in the early evolutionary stages of
humanity, when saving energy was important. Because today one
must ordinarily no longer survive a long winter on the steppes,
however, the compulsion to consume sugar injures him more than
it helps. The same is true with religion, whose greatest service
over the centuries has been to deliver explanations for the inexplicable.
But this function has survived too long. Today it does much more
to prevent humanity from gaining knowledge.
http://www.edge.org/documents/press/sz.10.1.03.html
