system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
CMV: Religion has a net negative impact on the world

I’ve been thinking about the role religion plays globally, and after a lot of internal dialogue I’m cautiously confident that religion causes more harm than good.

Here is my reasoning...

Most religions claim dogmatic authority on truth, and are over-confident relative to the evidence they have to support their authority.

Meanwhile, humanity has science, an epistemological tool that consistently outperforms religious dogmatism in separating fact from fiction.

For the majority of the religious world, science takes a back seat to dogmatic religious authorities, and there is an associated opportunity cost. Instead of using the best epistemological tool humanity has ever devised for answers, they turn to spiritual leaders for answers.

For example, suppose I grew up in poverty and wanted to get out. I could read social research on what I could do to improve my situation, or I could ask my pastor/mullah/rabbi/yogi etc. I would advocate that the moral thing to do is point people towards science and research, and away from doctrine and dogmatism.

I could certainly envision a form of religion that would always defer to evidence and reason when available, thus removing the opportunity cost of adherence; however, such religions make up a minority of religious people today.

CMV!

Update: as I hash this out, I realized that I should clarify that with the advent of classical philosophy in Ancient Greece, religion lost the crown for “best humanity can do”. I would argue that philosophy is a better tool to understand the world than religion, and in a perfect world would have replaced it immediately. Because religion is dogmatic, and very reluctant to cede authority to alternative epistemologies, it became burdensome. In other words, the world would have been better off if it had gracefully bowed to philosophy way back then (and later, to science).
gpt
Basically every historical document we have today from before the 1500s is available because of religion. They are also responsible for most of the medical advancements into the modern Era and arguably contribute more to the progress of medical science than anyone else. 

As well as every major "age of enlightenment" was caused mainly by the stability religion brought to large areas.

It might seem useless in the modern Era but religion was a basic part of life for the majority of the time civilizations were a thing.