Religion, good or bad?

Question

From a non beliver.

Answer 1

"The Root of All Evil" according to Richard Dawkins

I agree

Richard Dawkins is my god (pun intended.. oh my aren't I funny)

Answer 2

I'm a Christian.

Religion can be either good or bad. It's not decided by any one given thing. Religion has done a lot of good, and a lot of bad. What makes it what it is? Organization. A lot of people view anarchy as a much better form of government than any man-made form. And in many ways, it would probably work better, but only if everyone works together instead of all the greed that's going around, and everyone wanting to one-up. That's the same as religions. They keep trying to one-up, and forget that their purpose is to win souls for God and not themselves. They have this thing called a "soul-count" where they tally the number of people that confess that they want to get saved. Then they get so wrapped up in that number that everyone they've ever led to the Lord turns into a statistic. They're just "another person got saved by (insert name) this past week" in a church bulletin(sp?).

And then there are people who use the name of their religion in a loving manner to show people that the connotation that's been attached to their name doesn't apply to everyone. They raise the name of Christianity to a standard closer to the one that Jesus set.

Religion... I wish it could die. But as long as there are souls out there that will eventually come to the point where they say "I'm a sinner. I'm going to hell." As long as those people exist, I will keep the label of "Christian" for the sake of Christ, regardless of what religion has become.

Answer 3

Its not the Religion that is good or bad, its the individuals who read and hear what they want to and so act in a manner that they believe is right.

All through history people have gone to war under the name of religion. People, nations etc have suffered because of this.

So its the people, the individuals that are either good or bad.

Answer 4

If you seek power and influence it's excellent. What better than a divine omnipotent mandate to justify your position. It commands the poor and disempowered to accept their lowly position and legitimises war and atrocity against the 'other' (non-believers).
Also a good way to raise great wealth from the faithful that their sacrifice will be rewarded in heaven. Now where did I put my bible/koran?-must go forth and smite, preach etc and be all things to all men!

Answer 5

hmm now let me think - pretty much every war ever taken place has something to do with religion - id say its a load of old crap just dividing people even more. religion has nothing to about loving, being kind and sharing. im not saying all religious people are like that - but there are a large number of people who use it to their own nasty advantages to brainwash others.

Answer 6

Bad. Every war since time began is to do with religion one way or another.
It's said that if we ever colonise another planet, Then we should stop religion starting on that planet.
But we will sadly never get the chance to stop religion.

Answer 7

Its good if you are a believer who is not trying to convert anyone!

its bad if they are fanatical about it and will live there lives by rules that were written 2000 years ago, by many different people, also leading them to disassociate themselves from certain people purely because of there beliefs.
even missing out on True Love because of Religion.

Answer 8

If you read Richard Dawkins, his take is that all religions are bad.....The God Delusion. Really tight arguments, not for the uneducated, nor those who do not read well. Had I been the guy's editor, I'd have asked him to dummy it down a little. #8 last week on the NYTimes Best seller list, for apparently there are some smart readers out there....

Answer 9

believe and religion is not quite the same. you can have one without the other in all ways. and one should also discriminate these two from "tradition", that is something third, which can also stand alone by itself.

Answer 10

Religion bad...Jesus Good : )

Answer 11

Bad.