Intangible ideas like these are the single greatest force that shapes civilization, and it takes a bolder man than I to write them off just because this generation of grubby fact-finders can't get a grip on their antecedents.
The various modes of worship, which prevailed in the Roman world, were all considered by the people, as equally true; by the philosopher, as equally false; and by the magistrate, as equally useful.
It sounds like you had no trouble getting a grip on your antecedents with that post - the whole thing reeked of self-regard. And hand cream. I know Tocqueville found religion useful as a way of countering your nation's beastly tendency to ignore everyone else for their own swinish purposes, or that some of the greatest music and architecture came about because they happened to believe in sky fairies, but that doesn't make it true. All I am interested in is whether the belief in god happens to be correct or not, the rest is a side-issue. People can believe what they like, even the Leprechaun Fallacy (as I shall hereinafter call it) where Art's 'stalker' is concerned. Perhaps, if Bach were alive today, he could be working on the St. Heather Passion, but I rather doubt it.
Intangible ideas like religion might help to shape civilisation, but they also do much to destroy them, as happened with Islam stifling scientific enquiry after doing so much to preserve the work of Aristotle.
