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I have an interesting theory for you guys, and it makes sense to me, I just wanted to get some feedback for it. I'm an atheist, and have been for pretty much my whole life. I think that organized religion is destructive to society and corrupts people's minds with magical thinking that prevents them from thinking objectively about reality. However, the other day I was thinking, would it be possible for people to know there is no god, know there is no mysticism in real life, think with 100% clear headed objectivism, and still enjoy the ritual and the practice of religion. Who knows what their motivation might be, maybe they are a cultural enthusiast and just want to experience the ritual, maybe they are just drawn to the symbolism and find the poetry beautiful and inspiring, what have you. If they understood that it was all pretend, that it was just a 'for fun' kind of thing, would it still be as destructive or even negatively impact people at all? In my sociology class, we were reading a few excerpts form Emile Durkheim, and he discussed that human beings like to gather together in groups and that it gives them a rush of creative energy, the likes of which would be impossible individually... without copious amounts of drug use that is. Maybe these gatherings and rituals would be benign if people understood it was all fantasy; roll playing akin to civil war reenacting and regular everyday theater. The only problem I could find would be the susceptibility of humans to do destructive things while in a state of group think. If these meetings or rituals were being preformed, the people involved would be in a state of group think, with all the juicy deindividuation that goes along with it. If someone wanted to corrupt a group it would be pretty easy, like an instant cult, "just add water!" Let me know what you guys think!