There is a world of difference between the individual's sense of spiritual being and the faith he has in it, and religiosity as a cultural headlock.

Being forced to agree with arbitrary or authoritarian data makes people stupid and chills expolration, promotes mindless adhesion to the group and dimnishes individual thought as a value.

Havfing a personal sense of one's own spiritual existence, which is a very different thing, tends to make individuals more alert and confident and better at the game. But that has nothing to do with the kind of religiosity that Dawkins and Sam Harris are protesting against, which is more on the lines of rote surrender of cogntive self-determination .

Just MHO.


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