we've had the knowledge of our own existance for thousands of years

why do you think that it hasn't become destructive yet

We have had the safety net of religion for thousands of years. But only recently has man become objective and rational enough as to realise the shortcomings of mythological explanations. And not even yet on a large scale, most humans still believe in fairy tales, which is the only thing between humanity and the abyss.

you act like the belief in "fairy tales" is a detrimental thing for human development

atheism has no tradition

Well, here's why. Sure, religion keeps you from existential crisis, but it also keeps you irrational. If you want humans to develop they have to be rational, and this is incompatible with religion without being schizophrenic.

It doesn't keep you irrational at all, where do you get this

Innovations is haulted by intellectual luddites called 'devout religious people'.

If you believe in God, you believe it has rational basis.

to describe religion as oppressive you'd logically apply the same to all human culture

You believe that God has explanatory power.

You believe that God causes you to travel into the afterlife.

It is no co-incidence that society has been moving into a secular post-cultural mode.

The vast masses of people dont need to be rational in the scientific sense

The masses are not naturally atheistic

Yeah, the masses of people don't need to be, but regardless religion is still irrational

It's broken down to having zero evidence, and purely being based upon "faith"

What doesn't have evidence?

God, afterlife, the whole bit...

Theism?

I think theism is the result of psychological evolution

Sure.

basically the amalgamation of the truest of all values

humans have a tendency towards hierarchy

I'm not talking about theism, I'm talking about religion

But you are making empirical claims based on psychology. These things misfire all the time.

humans cannot feel the same towards equals as they do to a divine power

define religion

explain @Deleted User

Have you heard of 'phantom limbs', where amputees still feel sensations as if they still had their limb?

The body is misfiring, even though it evolved this way.

Just because psychology evolved a certain way does not mean it exists empirically.

There a plenty of examples in psychology of sensory illusions.

There are misfires but this doesn't mean that the reaction itself has no evolutionary purpose

Again, you are confusing subjective purpose with objective empirical claims.

also, this relies on empirical observation, and religion isn't emperical for most people

Yes it is.

unless they have an experience like that

People literally think God will send them to Heaven. That's an empirical claim.

Which there is no evidence for.

Yes it is.