Has and is religion the biggest hinder to human progress and understanding?

Question

If it is, why?

If it isn't, why not?

Don't get too rowdy kids.

Answer 1

Yes it is. For centuries people still believed that the Earth was flat and the sun revolved around it because that was what the church preached and that was the way they wanted to keep it. They went so far as to murder Nicolaus Copernicus and Giordanni Bruno for proving otherwise and threatened to do the same to Galileo Galilee. For centuries anyone who seemed to have an unnatural knowledge of agriculture was accused of witchery.

Even today the church still condemns valuable medical research such as stem cell research and cloning and refuses to approve birth control methods or the use of condoms to prevent AIDS.

Islamic fundametalists are every bit as bad as Christian Fundamentalists and run some of the most murderous regimes in the world. They believe they must kill all infidels. Infidels is interpretted by Radical Islamic Fundamentalists as anyone who is not one of them.

Answer 2

Absolutely!!!
As long as religious leaders refuse to relinquish their control over the poor, uneducated masses, in essence giving up their power and dominion over others, there will always be a boot on the throat progress.
In almost all religions they have foreseen the possibility of their own demise and told their followers that it is a sin to question the Creator. Also, that those who would try to bring peace and order to this chaos, they have created, should be seen as enemies and anti-Christs.
The only way to bring about a new age of reason and progression, would be to prove them all wrong. Find some artifact that would define the origins of man beyond a shadow of a doubt.
But, that is not a battle I will see in my lifetime or that of my children.

Live well .....
illuminostic

Answer 3

I know people who have faith and are religious but have a good life, they are doctors, lawyers, surgeons, scientist, etc , people all who can make a difference and progress in things, but also same time have faith, so it does'n't really matter about religion, religion is between God and urself, it also depends of what kind of progress, progress for the good? for the better? or for the worse? and sometimes religion can play a part in all this, sometimes progressing in making say human clones is against some religions, but still can be possible, but would not really matter because human cloning does not make a big difference to progress, u get what im tryiing to say, Progress has always been there and will be there, religion does not stop this, relgion is as i said between u and God and after life.

Answer 4

The main objective of most religions is 'unification'. It is a sad fact that people fight a lot because of religion. But this still does not mean that religion is a hindrance to progress..coz, even if you root out all religions, people would still find new ways to fight..for eg on basis of race, colour, nationality etc. I believe religion should be propagated such that it's true meaning is made crystal clear to all...this probably will lessen misinterpretation and the consequent quarrels.

Answer 5

Will check back to see just how many 'rowdy kids' felt like answering this 'common' question . . . and on St Pat's Day nite.

Religion IS, and HAS BEEN (provably) a great hindrance to human progress and understanding . . .

Why? read your history of the world . . .

Answer 6

No, religion has contributed a great deal to human progress and understanding. The clock, for example, is an invention that made the industrial revolution possible, and was the product of monastic life. Mendel did his work on heredity as a member of a religious community.

Many hospitals and universities grew out of religious impulses.

Libraries were preserved and copied through the "Dark Ages" by monks.

Answer 7

Narrow mindedness is #1 with a bullet. Religion is just another name for ritual offerings. Whenever we do anything by rote long enough we tend to beleive the ritual is valid. Change is constant. Adapt or die. If your perspective limits your intellectual capacity you need a new one.The biggest hindrance to understanding sometimes is progress. What do you define as progress?

Answer 8

i don't comprehend why each and every guy or woman might have faith something from the Bible. this is merely an historic e book of myths that replace into written with the help of primitive adult males who believed that the Earth replace into the mounted center of the universe, and it replace into flat and coated with the help of a great sturdy dome observed as the firmament. The Bible endorses genocide, slavery, rape, incest, human and animal sacrifice (i.e. Jesus and formality sacrifice of animals), and distinctive different evils. people in many circumstances %. out what they think of is sturdy and forget approximately concerning the undesirable.

Answer 9

Yes. Because religions don't like questions and questions are essential to progress. But questions also lead to doubts in the religion.

Answer 10

Religion can be a plague, but taken on a caring, self-spiritual level it is usually not a problem. Religious fundamentalism promotes nothing but hate and bigotry, and alas, does give individuals an excuse to totally shot off their brain. A brain that is not thinking is clinically dead.