If religion was purely a matter of individual private belief it could be just dumped in with all the other irrational thought patterns that so bedevil Homo sapiens (and presumably sapiens ancestors, though the other apes seem to be purely rational), a curiosity for psychological investigation perhaps. The problem is that one essential part of the religion virus causes its carrier to attempt to force all the other carriers of slightly different religion viruses (or none) to switch their beliefs, by force if necessary (and it usually is). This makes it as lethal as any of the other killer viruses that have haunted human history – Black Death, Smallpox, Cholera, Polio, Typhoid fever. Unfortunately, while we have vaccinations for these other killers, a search for immunity to religion has so far proved unsuccessful.
nomdeplume 
I just gave a Doctor blogger shit, because he wanted to remedy falling church attendance by going out and “compelling” the masses to return. 😯
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Oh dear! A bit like compelling children to undertake religious brainwashing in state schools.
But an approach with some history. Christianity compelled attendance until the last century, and many other religions still do, with harsh punishments for those who don’t.
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