Are Strong Religious Beliefs Helpful Or Harmful To A Society?

Are strong religious beliefs helpful or harmful to a society? Overall, strong religious beliefs are mostly harmful because they are what resulted in the Aztecs being kicked out of Atlan and helped to cause the end of the Incan empire. Although, they can be helpful because they provided the Aztecs with land.
Strong religious beliefs could be harmful to a society because it is what resulted in the Aztecs being kicked out of Aztlan. Aztlan is the place they decamped after having to leave their original homeland. Their strong religious beliefs prompted them to kill the Aztlanic emperor’s daughter as a sacrifice to one of their gods (98). In anger the emperor banished them -- leaving the Aztecs landless -- so they had to walk in the heat of the desert for 40 days straight in order to find land. The evidence suggests that if the Aztecs did not have strong religious beliefs they would not have been kicked out of Aztlan and could have made a better use of those 40 days spent wandering and the 200 years spent building the city they settled (http://www.ancient.eu/Tenochtitlan/) by creating new technological advancements.
The Incan empire ended because the Inca believed their emperor was descended from their sun-god, Inti. Consequently, they gave their emperor unlimited power and riches. Then, when Francisco Pizarro came to the Incan Emperor and kidnapped their emperor, their empire quickly dissolved, for they could not live without their ruler. Additionally, to get back their ruler the Inca gave the Spanish a roomful of gold and silver in ransom which the Spanish took, but did not comply and kept the Incan emperor. Although, if they did not think so highly of their ruler a new ruler would have been chosen and that silver and gold could have been used to help better the society. Thus, strong religious beliefs are harmful because they helped to cause the end of the Incan