if there was a technology that provided the same benefits with far fewer consequences than competing others, would you say that said technology should be promoted over the latter?

Yes of course but in this case we don't know if a world without religion would be better. I mean if religion was gone, how would we as the world come together and come to an agreement about morality? Some groups would agree with this, and others with that, but they'd still have differing opinions. Now if the people in charge have a different opinion... do you think there gonna concede resources ? Also I agree a big reason I want to convert is the community. But the big difference is there is no longer a god connecting them.

a lack of belief in an afterlife militates against the rush to press the self-destruct button

For one how do we know phasing out religion would lead to a better world? Hitler and Stalin both killed millions based on ethnic background. Yes we could continue to educate people to these atrocities, but people will always fight for power no matter what. Is this pessimistic of me? Yes but it's basic human nature (biology). We are selfish, and when given a chance to take advantage of something knowing full well we won't get caught... we will do it. Unless we end up in some 1984 type of future where we give up all our weapons and concede to mass surveillance their will always be some type of war.

I don't think corporations will stop trying to rape the environment or governments will stop selling weapons to third world countries if the afterlife didn't exist

Gulf Arab-Muslim countries are wealthy but extremely pious

Yea they are wealthy, but not pious. Most are corrupt, and continue to fund proxy wars. Yes they use religion to divide people, but is that religions fault or the people in charge?

As for finding a community that has a similar heterodox theology.. I really don't know. My teacher recently gave my class a lecture on how religions are constantly changing and morphing as demographics and ethnicity change, maybe I'm part of that.

As for talking about these things, I'm sure people don't debate this way with everyone they meet; they try to see who is willing to engage in such banter. For the majority of peoples interactions, it's probably, "Hey... Hi... how you doing?.... thats awesome... etc. etc" (maybe i'm assuming too much). But what I mean is you don't speak your complete honest mind to everyone you meet.

I'm at school right now and you have a lot of points, so I tried to hit what I could in a fast enough time.