In the thought-provoking thread I started the other day, people voted that religion should remain legal. I'd like to know why.

Problems with religion -
• usually based on scriptures which are full of really immoral passages and outright nonsense
• inspire division/hatred/violence
• deny freedom of thought/restrict basic human intelligence
• restrict societal progress/tolerance of certain marginalised peoples
• restrict scientific progress/pursuit of facts
• make people write off their lives to some fabricated notion of afterlife
• even when they are edifying/encourage positive morality they only do so in some totalitarian, threatening sense (ie do x, y or z or you're going to hell etc)
• allow the exalting of people who have done (sometimes exclusively) dreadful things (ie Mother Theresa, certain clergymen)

Positives about religion

• really scratching my head about this...someone expound the virtues of organised religion so I can understand them better.