Has "religion" helped or hindered mankind as a whole?
Look at history, religion(s) have been responsible for holding mankind's pursuit of knowledge back, or worse yet, trying to control it for their purpose. The Crusades, witch hunts, Earth is center of universe, The Inquisition, Jihad, the Taliban, the Catholic church and Pope, ethnic cleansing(mostly along religious lines, yes?). If there was no such thing as any religion, would it be possible that we would be more advanced today? A lot of the great thinkers were persecuted and labeled heretics in their lifetime, forced to renounce discoveries and trains of thought that future students picked up on slowly, having to "re invent the wheel" every generation or so. Think of all the great minds that have been snuffed out over the course of history in the name of religion. Did the next Galileo die in the Iron Maiden? Was someone just as smart as Albert Einstein butchered because he dared to have his or her own beliefs in a world that crammed "GOD" down your throat in the "civilized world" of the 1500's? Would it have been possible to have the Internet in the 1800's without the churches meddling? Or automobiles in the 1700's? What do you think? I would like rational, thought out answers, for or against, not knee jerk ranting that only proves one of my personal beliefs about Pavlovian response in zealots. 10 points to the best argument, no matter which way you lean.
I am surprised at the lack of "helped" answers so far. Religion is a great motivational tool, and there have been many times in history where "religion" was the only thing that held a group of poeple together in hard times, (Dark Ages, the Plague, the Colonists ((except for Jamestown)), wanderings of the Jews, ect...