Overall, has organized religion done more good, or more harm for humanity?

Question

Not does religion do good or bad, because most would agree it does both. Overall, would you say it's impact on humanity has been more positive or more negative?

Answer 1

Hi Chris

My personal opinion (which is all one can really answer these sorts of questions with) is that it's half of one and half of another. I think it really depends on individuals.

Religion (for the most part) provides the followers of that specific religion with a moral code. Usually these moral codes are humanist in essence, and that can only prove to be a good thing for societies as a whole. This is shown by looking at the basic moral guidelines of most religions, and the number of charities and hospitals that have been started by different religious groups.

Sometimes, when interpreted in a way that the scripture probably wasn't intended to be, religion can lead to violence and wars, as has been shown in recent year with terrorism by extremists and years ago when the crusades took place.

However, if we look now at non-religous people, such as atheists (People who believe there are no Gods) and agnosticists (People who dop not know whether there are Gods or not), this pattern is the same. Some are good (Charity work etc.) and some are bad (Crime, Murder etc.).

Religion has obviously done some good in the world, as it is possible that someone who has faith in a certain religion does not run a bad path whereas if they didn't have their faith they may have done. I believe that the opposite is also true, however. All of the evidence taken together in this way could lead someone to wonder whether Religion really has any impact on the world at all. Indeed, if religion did not exist, would there be any less bad people? Any more?

I will finish this post as I started by saying that my belief is that Religion, taken as a whole, has a neutral effect on the world.

The bbc has come very good message boards if you'd care to discuss this further. I would advise you, however, that a lot of fundamentalists and atheists tend to bash each other there, and anything you post may quickly be turned into a hot debate!

I hope this post has helped. It's just my humble opinion so i don't claim it to be factual.

Answer 2

I'm having a hard time figuring out what good it has done at all. The claims that religious people make about how everyone would become depraved sociopaths without religion are absurdly bogus.

Without religion, there would be much less tolerance for political authority, which would be a good thing.

Answer 3

if you look at it simply, more harm. but if you look at it deeply you will see that all of the wars caused by organized religion did lead to either an advancment of the arts or one of sciance and technology. so i would have to say that though it has created some massivly awfle wars, it has overall lead to the betterment of mankind. even though i myself do not belive in a higher power, i do think that religion did do more good than bad to the world.

Answer 4

I would say more good. Though oranized religion has done some bad things, it is not doing them every day on large numbers of people. However, on a daily basis organized religion does more good for people than bad.

Answer 5

Overall I think it's slowed down progress for humanity. If religion didn't interfere we'd probably be a whole lot better off technology wise.

Answer 6

It has surely done more positive. When people serve God, they notice the folly in living under a totalitarian government. The Commies outlaw religion because of this.

Answer 7

Harm. It has led to massive corruption, led to the deaths of millions upon millions of innocent people. Led to the destruction of healthy, functioning, leaver societies. Led to slavery. Led to war in the Middle East and other places as well. Led to greed, selfishness, poor morals, holier than thou attitudes among different humans. People have been punished for their religion, and people have punished others because their religion told them so.

Answer 8

Harm, if for no other reason that the amount of good that it has done is negligible. It obviously detracts from clear thinking, as can be seen by the number of anti-evolutionary rants that appear in this forum.

Answer 9

Overall positive. It gives people Hope and a reason to Love.

Atheism, however, is overall negative. It strips people of purpose and condemns them to utter insignificance.

Answer 10

Definitely more harm, no argument there. If any of these violent religions, like Islam, Christianity and Judaism, with their invisible man in the sky god were true, this god surely would come down to earth and establish the true religion and end this endless violence.