Religion.

Exactly! I think it's great that people have a religion they love and that gives them faith and makes them happy, but when they use that to push their views on others or to get other people to do what they think is right because the bible says so, is when I think it's wrong they should have respect for people's beliefs weather that's another religion or none at all, I believe religion needs to be personal and something you keep in your home and in your church, after all this country was founded on us declaring our religious freedom we didn't wanna be forced into a certain religion so we shouldn't force it onto other people

 

On the whole, religion has certainly been done far more harm to humankind than good. Judaic religions (Christianity, Islam, and other nasty specimens related to them) are the worst culprits, although most other religions from around the world have done their fair share of damage as well.

 

It's not Christianity's fault that culture declined during the Middle Ages. The fall of the Western Roman Empire, which was largely due to overreach and mismanagement, was responsible for the collapse of the vast infrastructure that made the sort of learning Ancient Rome is known for possible. And to be honest, considering what Roman society was like, in many ways the Middle Ages were an improvement.

It wasn't all peasants living in squalor, the (Christian) Byzantine Empire continued the cultural developments of the Western Empire, monks in Ireland and elsewhere preserved ancient knowledge, and most importantly under Islam the work of advancing science and mathematics continued. There is no gap of development between the fall of Rome and the Renaissance, the Renaissance was able to borrow from the extensive work of the scholars of the Muslim world, many of whom were Christians (e.g. Thomas of Aquinas).

 

Of course it is hyperbole to say that religion is entirely responsible for the 'dark ages', but it certainly didn't help the situation. Religion is a major barrier to scientific and cultural advancement even today, and its hampering only gets worse the further back in history you go.

As for Aquinas and co. being religious: all I can say is I wish I could see what they would've done if they weren't being limited by their religion's ideals.

 

As for net effect of religion, I would say its harmful. Thats not to say that some parts aren't fine, but the majority of it appears to be bigoted, prejudiced, opposed to progressiveness, murderous, corruptive and dangerous.

Oh, and wrong. Did I mention wrong?

 

Uh... wow... *blushes*

---------- Post added 27th Nov 2012 at 12:34 AM ----------

Careful, buddy, though many of us may agree with you... Tread lightly on this topic based on the "Code of Conduct". I don't want you banned...

---------- Post added 27th Nov 2012 at 12:45 AM ----------

I would love to know where the Data on the graph came from, but it seems too general. It may be accurate for Europe, but advances continued in the Middle East and Asia during this time period.

Mogget is right that the primary sociopolitical cause for the Dark Ages was the fall of the Western Roman Empire. That power vacuum coupled with the "civilizing" factor that the Roman Empire provided for the tribalism preexisting in Europe at the time, threw the region into a state of chaos and disorder that lasted for centuries. Climatically speaking, the dark ages fell in a period that was much colder than the preceding time. Let's just say the stars aligned for a perfect shitstorm.

I still stand by what I said about Religion currently being a hindrance to scientific progress, but I don't think it truly crippled it. Granted, had Gore been voted into office in 2000, then we would be exploring the galaxy... (kidding, mostly)

 

I miss the comfort of being religious. I have experience with Christianity and Theistic Satanism (yes, literal devil worship). Life as an ignostic (not a typo) is very dull and depressing but I've yet to find any other explanation that seems remotely valid to me.

 

This is going to be my rambling rather than answering the actual question, but whatever.

From my personal experience with religious people, I would say that religion is a good thing; they are frequently the kindest people I know, my closest friends (though having moved in church circles all my life, that may be because I've had more time to get close with them), often generous, and sometimes misguided but not rude. They attribute this within themselves to their religion.

From my personal experience with non-religious people, I would say that a lack of religion is not a bad thing; they are, well, people -- kind and helpful and so on. They are not necessarily as generous, but that does not go for all of them just as the adjective generous does not fit all religious people I have met. They within themselves do not attribute these things to their lack of religion.

In both groups of people who I have encountered on and offline, I would say that problems invariably arise not from beliefs or a lack thereof, or even stating yours and asking about another's beliefs, but from unwillingness to accept that it is okay for people to have different beliefs. Christians sometimes assume all atheists are immoral; atheists sometimes return the favour by assuming all Christians are idiots. This leads to bad attitudes and other issues.

Speaking in general with more ideas from wider sources and all, religion can be a force for good or bad. There are gay-to-straight therapists, there are suicide bombers, and there are those who try to block gay marriage at every turn. There are charities, there are good councellors, and there are those who try to push for gay marriage at every turn. A lack of religion is less likely to be a force for anything; there are non-religious charities, councellors, and gay marriage advocates, whose lack of religious focus does not come into that.

Overall, neither are inherantly good or bad, with good and bad things being done in the name of religion but few things at all done in the name of atheism though most things that happen are non-religious. On a personal level, religion is generally good; on a higher level, it is more likely to be bad. This means that it may have hindered and be hindering society as a whole, but that is the fault of people attempting to push their morals on others.

Therefore in conclusion, tolerance is what is beneficial and intolerance is harmful. Both can arise from theism and atheism though I've already said that intolerance beyond a personal level is more likely from religion; we need to focus on tolerance at a high level so that regardless of religion or lack thereof good happens.

 

I have no problem with religion as long as it doesn't have a problem with me, leave me alone and i'll leave you alone, live and let live etc.

 

I think religion is a good idea and all. Teach people to live by a moral code and not to sin.
Then again, communism is also a great idea, people just ruin it.

If the idiotic people were removed from religion, i would most likely follow one.

 

Religion (usually) includes dogma. Dogma is bad. Religion has good parts, the bad parts almost entirely stem from dogma, imo.

(like for example, "god definitely exists" and, stemming from that, "god thinks this")

 

I couldn't disagree more. Lynne Kelly put it better than I could:

Some believers accuse skeptics of having nothing left but a dull, cold, scientific world. I am left with only art, music, literature, theater, the magnificence of nature, mathematics, the human spirit, sex, the cosmos, friendship, history, science, imagination, dreams, oceans, mountains, love and the wonder of birth. That’ll do for me.”
-Lynne Kelly

 

Agreed.

And chocolate.

 

Miz Purple wrote

Whether or not one believes in a God or not for me isn't the issue but instead it's the taking of sides that I feel is the destructive nature of religion. It pits millions of people against each other when they should be instead reveling together in the miracle of life.

 

The Erosion of Progress by Religions - YouTube

THeres a longer video on it that goes into more depth. Regardless of the other contributions religion provided to humanity, it clearly has held back our technological and scientific progress. Really the only way it helped teh progress of society was by promoting literacy back in the middle ages among clergy, but thats pretty much it. Everytime a scientist stoped asking questions and simply proclaimed "god did it" as an easy way out was a loss for humanity.

---------- Post added 27th Nov 2012 at 11:47 AM ----------

Thomas Aquinas wasn't a Muslim nor was he part of any Muslim culture really. And to be honest all he did was throw around a bunch of logical fallacies trying to prove the existance of God.

 

I agree with Owen. I found my life withen Christianity to be dull and depressing because it was forcing me to be something that I was not. Now that I am not religious anymore, my life has changed for the better.

 

The reason I find it dull and depressing is because I've lost the comfort of prayer and believing that a benevolent spirit who loves me is guiding me through my time on earth to an eternal existence after death. The reason I stopped being religious was not because I disliked Christianity or religion as a concept, rather I had no way to prove the existence of a god. I had no way to prove the nonexistence of a god either and feel as though all other religious standpoints assume too much about the nature of a deity and do not adequately define what one is and thus ultimately make illogical and baseless assumptions about the existence/nonexistence of a deity. Science, art, literature, and the pleasures of human life are great, but temporary. Eventually I will die and nothing that I love now will enjoyable.

 

just b/c ppl have done terrible things in the name of religion does not mean that it has 'held humanity back' [or is even to blame for these things] at all. & many super important scientists have been religious too.

 

Considering how religion seems to be a dictation of how many think I have to behave such as being straight, how it demands that everyone obey and results in threats if you don't such as South Park having to censor because of death threats from extremists, seeing how it ignores all logic and spits on my face and the face of fact and reason, I would say, that religion is something I can live without as I see enough conflicts caused over it that I want no involvement in nor do I care about because they are a waste of my time and yours. It is good to have faith if it gives you strength but not if it forces others to do things they shouldn't do nor care about.