Christian institutions played an important role in preserving literate culture in Europe AFTER the fall of the Western Roman Empire. But before that, when the Empire and pagan Greco-Roman civilization were thriving, the urban public was more literate than at any time before the modern era. (One...
Not all religions have doomsday prophecies. Buddhism for instance. And many (though obviously not all) Christians and Jews interpret the prophecies of their religions metaphorically rather than literally. So what you have to say is fine when it comes to, say, Christian fundamentalists, but has...
Here is a pretty standard social-scientific definition of religion by the great anthropologist Clifford Geertz: "(1) a system of symbols which acts to (2) establish powerful, pervasive, and long-lasting moods and motivations in men by (3) formulating conceptions of a general order of existence...