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Purpose most certainly does not require religion. Social cohesion happens far better in the absence of religion. Finally, why would I need ritual. I loathe almost all pomp ant ritual. Regardless, you again need no religion for ritual.

There is no need.

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Again (I feel like I'm repeating myself), I didn't say that purpose requires religion. I didn't say that social cohesion requires religion. I didn't say that ritual requires religion.

I said that human beings requires those things, and that religion is effective at fulfilling those requirements. I explicitly made the point that something else could be fulfilling those needs better than religion can. However, I do not think that that thing is science - at least not in its current form.

Yet religion still exists and thrives after tens of thousands of years. In fact religion seems to be one of the only staples of human civilization, suggesting in fact that many people do have some kind of intrinsic need for religion in their lives.

In most religions, it was a death sentence to leave the religion. So that couldn't possibly have had anything to do with it?

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