Is Religion really that useful?

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Is religion really useful? Its a fact that those who are commited to a religion lead a happier lifestyle. So it brings personal happiness, I cant see much use to it besides that. What it does do though is limit the progress of humanity. You have people who choose to avoid medicine and practices that could benefit us all such as stem-cell research or manipulation of the genetic code and are made to be viewed as bad by these large organisations. Think of it this way, there are millions of christians. Since the catholic church is viewed of as a group, whatever the higher ups say it taken as the belief of all christians, while 50% of these christians might agree with the practices the church condemns. So the higher ups have so much control, but are people unopen to the usefulness of this technology. Also you have wars based on religion, which causes the unhappiness that people experience in the first place. Bombings, murders, racism can all be found to stem from religion. Religion can be used as an excuse to justify crimes against humanity, when it claims to be doing the opposite. This can be seen from the Crusades carried out through middle ages. Or the stolen generation, where aboriginals where taken from there families to assimilate and convert them. So can someone enlighten me on why religion gets to play such a big part in politics and other peoples lives when its meant to be an individuals beliefs? How is it really so useful? And if you agree, share your views as well