Is religion good or bad for humanity? (On balance)?

Answer 1

As a race, humans need something to believe in... something to get them through the drudges of day to day life. Let's face it... things are tough today, but nowhere near as bad as they used to be in centuries past. People needed a reason to go on, to believe that things got better from here. Religion appears in every culture in every part of the world--that has to speak volumes about it's necessity as a cultural staple, even if it doesn't mean there has to be one god.

On that note, more people have been killed in the name of God than for any other reason. Many people feel that religion is a route to peace, to acceptance, to tolerance. Unfortunately, it always seems to end up as a route to justification of violence! The sad part is, those who respect a god/religion for its peaceful virtues are often not motivated or aggressive enough to obtain or maintain positions of power. It is always those who are willing to decieve and maneuver politically that obtain these positions, and thus are more likely to use religion in a more violent manner and make it into policy.

I would say its quite a toss-up, and given the prevalence of religion in all its forms, we'll never know. There has simpy never been a truly atheist state, so we can't know how that affects cultures or their effects on others. But personally, I think the current violence in the middle east is a pretty good indicator. The nature of religion... that it sets traditions that "have always been and always will be" and the often black-and-white-with-no-gray-area morals...often seems to just prolong conflicts and grudges beyond the generations that inflicted the first punch!

As Orlando Bloom said in Kingdom of Heaven:
"None of us took this city from Muslims. No Muslim of the great army now coming against us was born when this city was lost. We fight over an offence we did not give, against those who were not alive to be offended."

And so religion happens.

Answer 2

That's a good question that I've thought about a lot. I have an atheist friend and he says that all the trouble and war in the world's history has been caused by religion. I argued that the communist regimes in the Soviet Union, China, and Cambodia were antireligious yet responsible for as much destruction and death as any religious crusade. It is not necessarily religion that is bad for humanity, but ideology. When people put an idea ahead of there conscience, that is where all the trouble starts. Like Philip Roth said, "You should never hit anybody about God."

Answer 3

Hmmm.... a world without religion equals a world without moral values...

Despite the fact that I think Christianity, as well as most other religions, is just a big load of crap... I'd have to say that religion in general is the foundation upon which humanities moral values have been built. Hence, without religion... there would be no moral values, no right and wrong, no good and bad... nobody would have ever known the difference. Therefor... religion is good for humanity... without religion of some sort humanity would not exist.

Answer 4

It has done some good in the past – fear of God has undoubtedly been an effective form of behavioral control for large communities. I doubt mankind would have progressed to the level it has reached without it, but we are well past the time where religion is necessary. Superstitious nonsense and wasted thoughts on what happens after death only serve as a hindrance to the continuing and so very necessary development of new technology. Now is the time when we must, end religion before religion ends us.

Answer 5

I'm happy, have plenty of hope, and believe in others for my support in my life. I am solidly atheist and have no problems with science's current holes in theories (come on, we've had about 500 years to put together theories about the universe and Christianity has had about 2,000. Don't call bull **** on us just because we haven't had as long to develop a comprehensive theory about everything!).

Religion can be good or bad, the way I see it. If you are a Quaker, religion is the most awesome thing ever. Theravada Buddhist? Wonderful! Peaceful Muslim, Jew, or Christian? Come over for dinner, we'll talk history of our beliefs and have a good ol' time! Fundamentalist Christians/Mormons who envision the "rapture" is near and continually harass homosexuals and women making a choice about that parasite that will suck nutrition from their bodies for the next nine months? You better go lock yourself in the basement until God gets here, because I don't want to see you.

Militant religious practices are what damage the world. Traditional Christians a couple'a thousand years ago were good people. Ottomans about 600 years ago were not too bad either. Just at some point religion became some pissing contest about amassing power and not trying to find answers to the unknown and communal support.

Why can't we all just join Yogi Bhajan, pray for peace, and call it good?

EDIT: B-nizzle, mind telling me how "communism" murdered 300 million people? I assure you, "capitalism" has murdered far more in a much shorter time. We killed 10 million Vietnamese in the Vietnam war alone. IBM sold the same machines to the Germans that were used to track Jews in the death camps. I would sufficiently say IBM was responsible for a portion of those 6 million deaths. We sold chemical weapons to Saddam in the Iran-Iraq war that he gassed his own people and over 100,000 Iranians in that war.

That is just three incidents, two of which were committed by US-based corporations and the one before was committed by a variety of US defense contractors and our draconian, paranoid foreign policy.

*I put both ideologies in quotes because neither has been entirely pure by definition, but indicate Soviet-Totalitarianism ideology and American-Corporatism respectively.

Answer 6

Good. Religion gives people direction and guideposts for their lives. Most of the bad things that people do in the name of religion have very little to do with the religion at all. I don't blame Christianity when someone who kills abortion doctors in the name of Jesus. Jesus never once said "Thou shalt shoot in the head those who you find immoral." Sorry, not in there. The Middle east conflict is about land and oil much more than religion. After WWII the UN handed a chunk of land over to the Jews, even though people were living on that land. I'd be a little annoyed too. And the Crusades, with the possible exception of the First Crusade, were way more about gaining money and land than anything religious. Religion was just a handy excuse. "I'm going to carve out my own kingdom...in the name of God, of course."

The clash between Hindus and Muslims in India has far more to do with culture clashes between natives and new arrivals, not to mention the clash over the land of Kashmir, sitting between Muslim Pakastan and Hindu India.

The Catholic/Protestant fight in Ireland hasn't been about religion in a very long time. It's just a conventient dividing line, since the English invaders are Protestant and the natives are Catholic.

As my uncle's bumper sticker says: "I'm pretty sure that when Jesus said "Love thy enemy," he did not mean kill them."

Answer 7

More wars have come from religion than any other cause. More people are killed today for religious reasons than any other.

Religion speaks to the deepest part of a person's heart, and it usually builds bonds with others of the same religion. So differences in religion make highly religious people fear or despise the "other" of a different religion.

Seems to be bad for people groups, though most claim it's good for them personally.

Answer 8

It's good, it keeps you in check...everyone has bad tendencies...religion, puts you back in focus with importance of life....not money....not fame, not material importance....but the plain simple fact that you are alive....you get to breath....you get to experience life...just about everyone is to some degree caught up in the material side of this world....which religion tells you to chill, just indulge in the earth....that's what it was created for....but a couple different religions I know preach and foresee war...so whatever, stopping to smell the roses is a dream....the roses are dead.....but those that still try to live great and with faith...I think will have a great reward...and I'm jealous....

Answer 9

I personally think anything in the wrong hands can be bad. The basic ideas of religion are good. I mean love thy neighbor, don't kill, don't steal, etc. But too many religions teaching "dueling" things have proven over history to be bad. I mean do you really think the attacks on the world trade center and pentagon did ppl alot of good? Do you think the mid east crisis is good? Did you think the holocaust was good? All of this was religion backed, and all of it hurt and or killed millions of ppl.

Answer 10

My take is this:
Religion is definitly very bad for the earth and it's people. First of all, it teaches people to be very judgemental. It has been my experience that people who are very religious look down on people who are not, and are constantly judging based on their religious standards. This works against the people of the world living in peace, because it causes division between people. My second and main reason why religion is evil, is that it's side effects are war after war after war, and death after death after death. If you look back in history, a great deal of wars came down to "Our god is better than your god, and we are going to prove it by killing you off." The holocaust for example, was based on other things such as racism, but a large part was an attack on the jewish faith. The war going on right now is another example of a religous war. Call it a war on terror if you want, but it comes down to the Islamic east vs. the Christian west. The list goes on and on, and more and more I fail to see the benefits of religion. I see the benefits of being spiritual, and feeling connected with the earth and your surroundings, but whats the difference between joining a cult and joining a religion. Seriously, I am very scared my president makes decisions based on an what to me is an imaginary friend.

I give religion a big thumbs down. .

What do you think?