You are oddly intermingling science & religion. Religion could Easily be left behind in a generation with proper education (not like the USSR tried to do it, by edict/coercion)
Science is not a belief system that could be abandoned, why discuss it as if it could be? And why act like scientific discoveries have intrinsic "goodness" or "badness"..it is the Utilizers of discoveries (us!) that cause results!

"It was designed, either directly or indirectly, by evolution, and is an indelible part of human nature. Or at least that’s the scientific view." How can that be "...the scientific view.", if it cannot be shown by experiment that it is true (proven).

That is not science, but hogwash. At a time when the range of human knowledge was limited and the range of tools to deal with an environment which humans did not control, humans often felt powerless, weak, and ignorant. That is a most unpleasant situation for any human -- almost intolerable. To compensate, they created false gods that were proclaimed to have the wisdom and control. Then, be aligning themselves with those false gods and worshiping them, they believed that they would gain the favor, access to control and wisdom of the mythological beings.

Then priestly cults arose which created myths, dogma, and rituals. That gave those priests power and control which they used to control the minds and actions of the believers. That pattern is the same for almost all religions in human history. But, it did NOT aid in human evolution. It is and always has been a deterrent to effective response to the environment, and an obstacle to real human advance..

Do you really believe this post, or are you playing devil's advocate?

It comes across as back-handed support of religion.

I have always felt that anything that explains, justifies, excuses or validates religion, even if one rejects it, makes it stronger. Like Captain Kirk standing up to "Apollo" we need to mock, jeer and laugh at religions and wish them to disappear.

Don't confuse with organized religions, which were definitely designed by definition to dominate the idiots who believe by those who encumbered themselves as the religion leaders. I disagree with the BBCs opinion that because a religion has positive contributions, they all do, like any human being, even Jeffrey Dahmer had positive contributions, that doesn't mean " we should appreciate Dahmer when we can." So fuck Dahmer AND fuck religions!

Even witch drs used it to control the tribe so of ours it's been created to control others

Evolution does not "design" anything either directly or indirectly. Certainly religion has evolved and has been beneficial, in helping to create a community spirit and in the case of Islam, conquering much of North Africa and Europe. If that is seen as a benefit. It also kept much of western Europe from developing for hundreds of years during the "dark ages"

In my opinion , religion began as a way to explain , what was unexplainable at the time . Religion grew to influence the way people thought . Some used religion for the good of the populations - hospitals , for instance .Others have chosen to use religion to control the populations , to increase their own power , and to accumulate wealth , money .

That's something to think about

Religion has its place in history but it hasn't evolved. Instead of being something that wants to help humanity, it has become something that wants to control it.

Religion isn't....in my vocabulary

Here's what I think is an interesting scriptural verse from the apostle Paul about growing up in faith. It could, I think, be applied to a human race that is growing up too.

When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things - 1 Corinthians 13:11.

I hope we don't throw out the baby with the bathwater in a rush to mature. But it isn't obvious what the bathwater is. I'll stick my neck out and say I think it's morality.

Blossoming into religion...feh! Let the blossom die. It's the fruit that's more useful anyway.

I respectfully disagree. Religion absolutely was started to control the masses, especially women and the working class.

I feel spirituality for lack of a better word may be an evolutionary enigma, but religion is man made. To go from the point of curiosity to enforcing your beliefs for a sense of security and demanding materialistic tithes so you can devote fully to enforcement is humans creation.

According to who's science? Cause thats exactly what religion is today and has been throughout history if you observe it scientifically. Sounds like some more bible troll rhetoric to me. So science isn't immune to the hubris of mankind, so what, religion is the direct result of the first occurrence of hubris, to diefy and establish said controlling class and to subjugate the ignorant that would mindlessly accept that hierarchy, and ingrain it so deeply that no one would think to question that mythology and even devote their whole life to a fiction.

I have never been HORRIFIED or
MUNIPULATED by a science fact!!!
I have ( and continue to be)been regularly SICKENED by acts purpatrated in the
"holy" name of religion-continiously.SNAKE OIL*** has a placebo effect (benifit)-but it isn't sold anymore.
I humbly summit,we as humanity deserve better...

Religion is the crack of the people.

I believe your position is correct.
unlike most other mammals we have a very long childhood.
due to this we expect that there are powerful controlling beans that will provide for our every need. of course is our parents, as we get older we realize that our parents are flawed people like ourselves. the need is great the god-shaped vacuum is there, so we create a all powerful parent without human frailties. we can assign the attributes to the God as we see fit. the Roman assigned to their gods based on the values of their society.
the Jews and Hindus selected gods with attributes that reflected their society.
clearly if horses had a god it would look like them and reflect the values of their society.
knowing this does not free us from the god-shaped vacuum, it's still there.
it is my belief we will fill it with something, science, civil rights, or the acquisition of things.

This is what I think...

What pseudo-scientific nonsense.

There is no such thing as human nature. All behavior is learned from ones environment.

If you raise a child inside of a grey ball from birth, and they never saw anything else, you will raise a blob of a human.

If we accept the evolution of religion as stated in this article and accept that it evolved along with our societies from shaman based to god based, then we can see that, at a minimum, the god based religions are false. Because if there were a creator god, humans would have started off believing in that deity rather than evolving into it. At least every creation myth I’ve encountered had gods who were much more interactive with humans in the early days than anyone would sanely clame they are now. The same idea works for monotheistic ideologies.

If we can assume that any law giver god is not a true god, but rather a social construct, it would be just as foolish to live our lives by the dictates of that god as it would be to try to live by the legal systems of several thousand years ago. While there are almost certainly redeeming qualities that are worth our time and consideration, as a whole the ideas fail to meet the needs of a modern interconnected world.