Reply #39: Just as in the individual there is a Superego (to borrow from Freud),

[Ron Green]

in society there is a Church: something to play the parent (both nurturing and critical), to tell us what we SHOULD do. Our social psychological need is met this way, just as our social need for id is met by the market, giving us all the stuff we want, even if it's not good for us.

Getting rid of religion would be just as impossible as getting rid of the marketplace. My hope is that we can encourage religion to be more spiritual, more scholarly, more tolerant and loving, just as we would want a marketplace that's more fair and empowering.