>We’d all probably be happier with a solid narrative underlying our senses of self and society.
Religion, at its most fundamental core, is about providing a set of guidelines and contexts with which to make sense of life and the world around us so we can spend less time bickering and worrying about things that we ultimately can't do anything about.
I feel the mad rush to reject and remove religion from society in the 20th century onwards has caused significant damage that we should address. It's not like religion is gone either, we've simply found impromptu replacements that are inferior and repeat a lot of problems religion dealt with already (eg: politics, "science", fanboyism, etc.).
religion needs to evolve and grow with the development of humanity. the currently dominating religions are no longer capable of addressing all the needs of our global society, which is why they are losing ground. but instead of finding a viable alternative we get distracted, as you say, by inferior replacements.
Religion as a binding factor falls apart in a society where it's trivial to encounter multiple someones with a different holy book than yours, each who claims theirs is the only correct one.
only if that religion claims exclusivity in exclusion to others. in order to address todays problems a religion must not do that but it must be inclusive and open to all. technically, at least to a degree the abrahamic religions do that in that they do claim that their predecessors are genuine and their followers are considered people of the book. the fact that many members today reject them is a misinterpretation of their respective holy words.
a modern religion must be inclusive to all others, not just the abrahamic religions. at least all those who expect a return of their prophet which is the case not only for all abrahamic religions but at least also for buddhism, hinduism, zoroastrianism, and even native american religions. (there may be others, but i am not familiar with those)
Religion, at its most fundamental core, is about providing a set of guidelines and contexts with which to make sense of life and the world around us so we can spend less time bickering and worrying about things that we ultimately can't do anything about.
I feel the mad rush to reject and remove religion from society in the 20th century onwards has caused significant damage that we should address. It's not like religion is gone either, we've simply found impromptu replacements that are inferior and repeat a lot of problems religion dealt with already (eg: politics, "science", fanboyism, etc.).