The book of Job was probably the only book in the bible that has any form of credence as being written in the time period the story was set it. THe other ones are all fabrications after fabrications. (like new translations of the bible) I think if you look at it as a mythology, used in ancient times, to teach lessons in that time period using the language of the times, then its just literature. Ironically the religions used mass illiteracy as an excuse to basically justify anything they wanted at any time.

Literacy and education ironically started with religious learning. And to this day US education is still heavily built on a religious foundation. But the sort of irony is the business of religion lost its control over people. And that primal instinct to control other people sadly has had a devastating impact on US education.

Gave us the dark ages and Trump to begin the next dark age.

I think the one thing the religion does that is most damaging to education and society at large is that it reaches their members to obey authority without question. An over used, yet handy example is how Europe got primed for the rise of Nazis by having been taught to obey authority without question by the churches.

More recently, in the U.S. churches are teaching people to reject science and scientific findings in favor of church doctrines and blind faith (and obedience to the church).

That ther happens to be some wisdom in "holy books" is mostly because there was no other contexts in which to express what one had learned outside of a religious context. My attitude, is take the wisdom and leave the religion (and "magical thinking" ) behind.

It instills a deeply damaging sense of shame and guilt regarding sex and sexuality, for one.

The history of the church is about repression, suppression, and denial. It's history if full of godlessness atrocities by the hierarchy of the church. The utter absence of godliness in the name of god is amazing. The crusades, the inquisition, the witch trials all examples of holy work in the name of god. In the earliest times the church was not as much a religious group as a political entity to be reckoned with, bargained with as well as be at war with. It's history will shock the most devout believers of what it is to be one of god's warriors. Think of all the hidden history in the secret libraries in the vatican. I would hope that what is in there would be revealed one day.

If civilisation had never entered a religion inspired dark ages, then perhaps but not for certain we would have had an extra 1000 years of scientific endeavour accrued. So, who knows where that would have gotten us, maybe even reaching for the stars, rather than just peering up at the planets? Thus in retrospect it looks like religion has harmed us immeasurably.