Religion is a useful model
"All models are wrong Some of them are useful" ( aphorism in statistics ) Belief is in your deeds Let's observe first that we can never contain the whole complexity of the world in our brain. In most situations, we often use fuzzy heuristics to take decisions. For example, when a child makes a small mistake, you can never know if it's best for his future to punish him or to forgive him. The punishment might teach him to not do it again. The forgiveness might teach him to forgive and would protect his self esteem. We usually use our intuition and just hope it does not matter so much if we are wrong. We have stronger guidelines for more serious situations. "You shall not murder" is widely accepted as a strong rule in both religious and secular societies. However, there are exceptions to this rule, for example it's usually acceptable to kill someone to prevent more harm - like other killings. The only way to assess someone's adherence to a certain bel...