Random middle of the night thoughts on religion

[Prodigy54321]

Can false belief be "good for society?"

IMO, false beliefs can be good......for the people who don't hold them.

so a group believes that they will be rewarded in an afterlife for things they do on Earth...one of things is giving to charity and helping in other ways such a volunteering...

IMO, there is no denying that a population with this belief will be more charitable than one without it...and so, religious people claim that this is a good thing that religion has over a lack of it...

and they're kind of right...this is quite a good thing for those recieving the charity...

for those who are giving, they happen to believe something that isn't true...so their charity that is due to this belief can be seen as a bad thing for them...they're putting out and putting out, but they'll never get their reward.

I suppose that we could argue that their belief that they will get a reward and the good feeling that comes from it is worth their charity..but I don't know of any way that we could know whether or not this is true.

so this group of people's false belief is good for people who recieve their charity...and may be bad those who are being charitable because of this false belief.

the bottom line is that the things that religion gives us that we think of as "good" cannot just be dismissed under the notion that people will do it anyway...

when religious people talk about how religious people give so much to charity and help in their communities and compare it to the good things that atheists do...we can certainly talk about atheists who have given so much, like Buffet and Gates (and others...I rememeber something about a tremendous organization in India, I believe it was..not sure though..just from memory)...but really, I find it hard to believe that if we have two people, one who believes that they will be rewarded in an afterlife for doing charitable works and one who doesn't...the former wouldn't be more likely to give more...*although there could be a chance that this belief hold people back from being very productive..and thus, are less capable of giving larger amounts..like gates and buffet for instance.

anwyay, I don't know where I'm going, as usual...but

religion can be good for society, right?

or does the fact that people believe something that isn't true outweigh the good that comes from it...or since we don't know any specific figures..can it ever? or can it never?

and yes, I assumed there is no afterlife...at least not one related to charity on Earth.