Without religion......?

Question

Without religion there would be good people doing good things and bad people doing bad things. Only with religion do you find good people doing bad things.

Do you agree?

I agree with some of the answers, I wish to take out the term 'only'. I am nt saying that being religious makes anyone particually bad. But what shocks me is when people martyr themselves expecting eternal bliss in the name of religion, regardless of whether they kill women/children etc. And no, its not just Islam, but through the ages, most religions have had similar experiences. Remeber persecution on Catholics then Protestants, then Catholics again (in what is largely the same religion) in the space of 8 years in Britain.

Answer 1

Yes, religion is the root cause of most sexual, racial, and sexuality discrimination. People use religion as a means of controlling and manipulating people, but when they're confronted they say "oh god told me to do it, you will go to hell blah bloody blah"

Answer 2

"Good" and "bad" are moral/ethical judgments which can be based on a number of things besides religion. Even if you established a religion-free code of ethics, there are too many random factors in human behavior to assume that anyone could exist in a constant state of goodness or badness.

So at any one given time, you would have good people doing bad things and bad people exhibiting good behavior, no matter whether religion existed or not. Both conditions would continue to exist as long as there is the presence of a moral or ethical standard.

Answer 3

No I don't agree. Before i had religion in my life i was a good person and with religion i am the same if not a better person. It is not only with religion that you find good people doing bad things. With all people religious, agnostic, atheist there are good people doing good things and bad people doing bad things. Just because you have a religious faith does not automatically make you a good person. Priests rape children after all, they are not good people doing bad things simply they are bad. There are good and bad in everyone in every religions and with no religion at all.

Answer 4

If you have good people doing bad things, they aren't good are they? As you said yourself, you don't need religion to have people acting in a moral manner, so why wouldn't good people be capable of doing bad things even without religion? I don't see why good people doing bad things is the exclusive domain of the religious (you used the word "only" which is what I'm going off of here).

Answer 5

I don't agree. I think generally speaking good people do good and bad people do bad. That's a massive generalisation, but relatively fair.

When it comes to religion I think it helps some fairly good people do good things they wouldn't otherwise do. It also encourages some fairly good people to do bad things. But mainly, I think it gives bad people justification for doing bad things, which means they do things that are worse than they might otherwise.

Overall religion does good things and bad, and that should always be remembered. I do, however, believe that overall religion is a negative influence on society.

Answer 6

There are numerous situations where good people may turn and do bad things, religion is just one of many examples. Everyone, no matter how good, has a breaking point somewhere and even good people can cross the line occasionally.

Answer 7

I agree and disagree.

Religion is man made. It is cause for division - Islam, Catholicism, Mormonism, Hindu, etc.

True faith and following the teachings of Jesus Christ will lead one to be a servants life. Faithful. Obedient. Respectful of authority on this earth and sensitive to needs of othes.

Also, keep in mind "ISM" has caused more death, persecution, war and hate than religion. I am talking about "communism".

Answer 8

The hate filled religious books are justification for many to do bad things. Maybe they are just bad to begin with and use religion as an excuse.

Answer 9

I don't believe in good and bad people. But it does seem that most wars was caused by religious freaks trying to force evryone to do things they don't want to do....Just because they're religious doesn't make them 'good'. Hitler was a christian for crying out loud! Thats guy who blew up the tube? Trying to kill people in revenge for iraq!? I wonder if he considered that a lot of the people in that carrige pobably did the peace march!

Answer 10

Nice of you to mention this but people always say this without proper examination. It is mostly unproven in modern times that religion or its performers are responsible for evil deeds.

There is a western thing going round in western countries that if you attack Muslims they should not retaliate because it is considered ungodly.

Answer 11

I think the major difference here, is that people who don't believe in punishment or reward, behave in truth to themselves--not out of fear or greed. What I mean is, the "good" or "bad" of them isn't CONTROLLED. I have Christian friends (yes!) & I know one, who in his heart of hearts, would kill someone he hates, but for the fear of hell. Is he bad? He does good deeds for his church, (with much grumping & complaining), because he wants to go to heaven. Is he good? An Atheist behaves true to his/her nature. Period. Religion or not, people will be people, don't you think? Except for that "influence" which causes some (I wish we had italics!) Christians to be UNTRUE. In that sense, I'd have to agree with you.