Let me start with a very important question, which is: is there any causal or conditional relationship between religion and civilization?
Causal relationships are characterized by two important criteria: temporal succession of the events, and correlation between the occurrence of events. Temporal succession means that the cause must precede the result. Correlation of the occurrence of events means that occurrence of the cause and that of the result are strongly statistically correlated; i.e. the occurrence of the cause indicates a very high probability of the occurrence of the result, and the occurrence of the result indicates a very high probability that the cause has occurred (and in case of the only cause, the occurrence of the result mandates that the cause has occurred. If it is assumed that the event 'E' results from the cause 'C', then 'C' must temporally precede 'E'. The occurrence of 'E' indicates that 'C' has most probably occurred, and the occurrence of 'C' indicates a high probability of the occurrence of 'C'. If 'C' is the only cause for 'E', this means that the occurrence of 'C' indicates a high probability of the occurrence of 'E', and the occurrence of 'E' indicates that 'C' has certainly occurred.
