Is religion, overall, a harmful or beneficial thing to humanity?

[CK the Fat]

I know side arguements have come up about this in other threads, but I'd like to consolidate it here.

I believe that, despite religions that teach to kill others in suicide bombings or religions that tell followers to discriminate aganst others, religion as a whole is beneficial to society becase it also teaches concepts of hope, love, morality, and virtue that most of the world values in some form or other.

As long as it's not harmful to others or completely shuts off the person's sense of reality, belief in a greater power is at worst an "innocent" lie necessary for the mental well-being of humans.

 

[Joy]

No religion, that I know of, teaches to destroy other religions. It's people that teach that and think that. Religions teach good morals and ethics. I mean, look at th Islamic faith, they teach to give a certain percentage of your salary to charity. They tech to not eat from sunrise to sunset to see how it is for the poor. They bring people together in harmony during the trip to Mecca. And, that's just one religion.

 

[Sir Jecht]

I believe that, despite religions that teach to kill others in suicide bombings or religions that tell followers to discriminate aganst others, religion as a whole is beneficial to society becase it also teaches concepts of hope, love, morality, and virtue that most of the world values in some form or other.

As long as it's not harmful to others or completely shuts off the person's sense of reality, belief in a greater power is at worst an "innocent" lie necessary for the mental well-being of humans.

LOL it's like your saying people are too stupid to realize that we need moral values in order to keep the world from being more chaotic than it is today, but instead a lie to justify ourselves and think of ourselves as "moral" human beings because a greater being says so.

Anyways religion can be beneficial if you truly like to delude yourself into believing your a good person who shall get a great reward in the afterlife for really only looking out for yourself in the end, but that's a good thing since it gives you a reason to act civil at least in some cases.

^I hope that wasn't seen as religious bashing cause honestly it wasn't meant that way^

I don't really think religion is harmful, it just the people who take it to the extreme are the ones who I think are harmful(even to the religion itself). That's just how I see it, it's the people who interrupt it wrongly or twist it to justify something they did when they know it's wrong. =/

 

[Square Ninja]

Religion has been both beneficial and harmful to humanity, despite what some may argue. Often those who argue that religion has only harmful focus solely on organized religion, which is a prime example of retarded dogmas and nonsensical practice.

 

[Laffy Taffy]

Anyways religion can be beneficial if you truly like to delude yourself into believing your a good person who shall get a great reward in the afterlife for really only looking out for yourself in the end, but that's a good thing since it gives you a reason to act civil at least in some cases.

HAH! I like that.

Anyway
Benefits of religion:
1 unity
2 charity
3 umm civil or human I dun know what to call it.
4 hope (you know not going through life "ohh I'm gonna die and rot and that's it")
5 just a little bit of integrity

bad things:
1 War
2 discrimination
3 Using your religion to justify your actions (in a bad way of course)
4 killing,bombing, mind control and all that other crap.
Dependng on how you use religion it can be either good or bad. My belief is it's pretty good.

 

[CK the Fat]

"LOL it's like your saying people are too stupid to realize that we need moral values in order to keep the world from being more chaotic than it is today, but instead a lie to justify ourselves and think of ourselves as "moral" human beings because a greater being says so."

Well obviously we don't fully trust ourselves. Otherwise governments wouldn't exist and we could live one with nature and live in perfection Disney Movie compassion and all that hippy crap

 

[Robeh]

3 signs to determine that you have found a civilization.

A place of holy worship or sacred area.

an economy, either barting, equal distribution, or free market

The Gallows

As aristotle had said "If God did not exist, then humans would feel the need to create one." Though this isn't exactly an argument for whether or not God exists.

As for religion itself, well it gives people a unity. As for everyone claming God told them to kill; open up any religious book, doesn't matter which one. Usually you can find the phrase "Thou shalt not kill." or some variation of it written in it. It is the people who preach killing of others, not religion itself. It is the peoples' interpretation and it is the people who are the problem. Even Thomas Jefferson, a well known diest said that "If you take the bible and take out all the articles of miracles and God, you have a practical pamphlet on how to live."

as for CK's argument, I have a hobbesian view on humanity, the war of all against all. In fact though Hobbes wasn't well liked by either the church or parliament. His views were christianity secularized.

 

[var1ables]

Benefits of religion:
1 unity
2 charity
3 umm civil or human I dun know what to call it.
4 hope (you know not going through life "ohh I'm gonna die and rot and that's it")
5 just a little bit of integrity

Religion has been used many times to seperate people, not unify them. Christians are supposed to be a unified version of pagan and jewish beliefs(AKA taking holidays and practices from both sides), but it only further seperated both.

Some of the most greedy people i know are christians, or at least call themselve christian. During the middle ages, and even post protestan reformation, the church was basically a mass of bigwigs that refused to give to the people and keep the wealth for themselves.

Civil rights? The southern slave holders used a quote from the bible to justify there enslavement of the africans,etc.

Hope? Christianity believes that the end time is here, and they have for the last 1950 years.(the approximate date of the writing of revelations)

Intergrity? See everything above.

That's only Christianity. Mayan, Islam, judism, and other religions are just as bad.

As aristotle had said "If God did not exist, then humans would feel the need to create one."

That was Voltaire, and he said it in the enlightenment period eras after aristole died.

I don't like western religions, at all. But you see Shinto and Buddhism are both very good religions, but seeing as the majority of people aren't those,
so i'd have to say overall it's a bad thing.

 

[Robeh]

I always get those two confused when I quote them but alas.

As for western religions, most of them started in the east. (For christianity, if it wasn't for Paul, who started as a critic and opponent to Jesus, Christianity would probably wouldn't have spread past a few of the hebrew villages.)

Also, most of the religions of today are more or less the success stories of Cults, from when Moses freed the hebrews and brought down the ten commandments,

Christ serving and teaching those who would listen and his death, and what happened after (Whether or not you agree if he rose 3 days after is irrelevant, Scholars agree that whatever had happened after his death helped make christianity what it is today.)

Muhhamad riding into mecca, getting rid of the relics of the other false gods and keeping the opal rock, the symbol of the true God.

As for eastern religions and the mysticism, theres mysticism in all religions, it's a shame that most of the time you hear of the dogma rather than the mysticism.

As for eastern religions, yeah there nice but the only thing I don't like about them is a good portion of them tend to give leeway to the ideology that if you're born different, then you can be treated like an outcast. (Caste system in Hinduism, reincarnation in Buddhism 'in a sense') etc.

 

[Dogenzaka]

Some of the most greedy people i know are christians, or at least call themselve christian.

Then that makes them hypocrits, no ?

 

[CK the Fat]

"Usually you can find the phrase "Thou shalt not kill." or some variation of it written in it. It is the people who preach killing of others, not religion itself. It is the peoples' interpretation and it is the people who are the problem"

Unfortunately, the old testament does teach morals like "eye for an eye" and to kill every single man, woman, chilld, and livestock (what did THEY do?) if a town you conquer is not Christian.

"As aristotle had said "If God did not exist, then humans would feel the need to create one."

Definitely not Aristotle, the Greeks had multiple deities in the first place. Not only that, but Greece was a pretty secular nation in its golden age.

"Then that makes them hypocrits, no ?"

Everyone is a hypocrite except me

 

[Phoenix]

You guys gotta remember, if you want to attribute the good things that have been done in the name of Christianity, you *must* attribute the bad ones as well. No double-standards.

Now that that's out of the way, it's hard to say. It depends on the nature of the person, really. Some can live without religion, and some can't.

 

[mz. eggsy]

Native Americans. They have no culture without religion. Where've they gone? Without religion, they've just dissolved into society without a trace, other than the moniker of "minority".

No longer do they play instruments for their agrarian pantheism, it's usually for competition. There's a distinct beauty about the former kind that can never be found in the latter.

 

[Joy]

You guys gotta remember, if you want to attribute the good things that have been done in the name of Christianity, you *must* attribute the bad ones as well. No double-standards.

Now that that's out of the way, it's hard to say. It depends on the nature of the person, really. Some can live without religion, and some can't.

Didn't they partake in a genocide?

 

[Phoenix]

Didn't they partake in a genocide?

That was the point. Christianity is responsible for the good and the bad done in its name, or for nothing of it at all.

 

[Square Ninja]

You guys gotta remember, if you want to attribute the good things that have been done in the name of Christianity, you *must* attribute the bad ones as well. No double-standards.

Man, that sounds familiar. Oh wait...

Religion has been both beneficial and harmful to humanity, despite what some may argue. Often those who argue that religion has only harmful focus solely on organized religion, which is a prime example of retarded dogmas and nonsensical practice.

 

[Phoenix]

Not really. Read closer. Your point was that religion has been both beneficial and harmful. My point was that if you praise the religion for the good, you must damn it as well for the bad.

 

[Ysu]

I truly think that Society can function without religion. I'll list why below.

Morality, ethics, kindness to others, peaceful ways of thinking; all of these philosophies can be practiced in the absence of religion. We don't need religion to tell us to be a good person. Some of the kindest, charitable and most pacifistic people I know are either Atheist or Agnostic. They have cleansed themselves of religious views, but they have retained the morals that every human being, religious or not, follows.

Hope. Another one that always comes up. Is False Hope better than no Hope at all? Of course it is. However, when you come to the realization that the hope you followed was false, that is when you are devastated. Should we have to put that burden on people? Also, should we let people truly believe that there are better days ahead? If we tell them that they must work for themselves with no "net" to fall back into, will people not work harder? Strive harder for those better days in life rather than be assured of better days that may never come?

War. War is inevitable. I am convinced that it is, unfortunately, human nature to fight. It's that primal quality that keeps us from ever achieving anything truly great. Though we live in the modern times, we are still as barbaric as the peoples of old. If we eliminate religion from our world, we would only remove but one reason for wars in this world. We would go back to fighting over the one thing that all nations of all time have fought wars for; resources.

People shouldn’t be so preoccupied with religion or the afterlife. We could be spending that time doing so much more for others. So much more would be accomplished.

That’s my view. In the end though, It doesn't matter whether you have religion in your society or not, its because we're human, that we are destined to fall.

 

[CK the Fat]

"You guys gotta remember, if you want to attribute the good things that have been done in the name of Christianity, you *must* attribute the bad ones as well. No double-standards."

Pretty much we all have so far.

"Native Americans. They have no culture without religion. Where've they gone? Without religion, they've just dissolved into society without a trace, other than the moniker of "minority"."

Though I cannot recall any religionless native american tribes (not that I don't believe, it's just I have not ever been taught about them, or if so, I have forgotten), I would say there are more factors to their decline than just religion.

"That was the point. Christianity is responsible for the good and the bad done in its name, or for nothing of it at all."

Which way do you think it balanced overall, though? Or do you think it is impossible to really say?

 

[var1ables]

People shouldn’t be so preoccupied with religion or the afterlife. We could be spending that time doing so much more for others. So much more would be accomplished.

EXACTLY!

Though I cannot recall any religionless native american tribes (not that I don't believe, it's just I have not ever been taught about them, or if so, I have forgotten), I would say there are more factors to their decline than just religion.

Yeah the white man committing genocide(the majority being Christian), and then exiling the remnants of the tribes.