Is religion harmful?

[bunny]

Faith doesnt always cause harm. You can follow a religion without abandoning reason, it's just not often done. An atheist may not feel compelled to believe something for which there is no objective evidence (although I think most do about some non-God things). However, a religious person who believes based on subjective evidence alone and who also concedes any points which are subsequently contradicted by objective evidence is neither irrational nor inherently harmful.

[bunny]

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The comparison in context of the OP would be -
Is religion harmful? - Yes.
Are there secular philosophies that are harmful? -Yes.
Are there secular philosophies that are not harmful? - yes. moderate western democracies are an example.

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I agree that religion has done more gross harm than moderate western democracies. However, it isnt true that moderate western democracies cause no harm - I presume you mean the good things they have done outweigh the bad?

[yukoncpa]

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Tell it to Stalin.



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This is a good example of why faith is bad. Communists thought Stalin was a level above them, they learned never to challenge Stalin, but to obey him unquestionably. Even as Stalin was starving the people of the Ukraine to death, his people had absolute faith in him. He ran his country as if he were a God, and many people worshiped him accordingly.

[Peter666]

Who cares? It's all meaningless in Dawkins' world because there is nothing after death. So do whatever you want. Religion gratifies some people like drugs or reading science textbooks does for others. In fact, Dawkins' pisses off more people than he pleases, so he is harmful.

[Duke]

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In fact, Dawkins' pisses off more people than he pleases, so he is harmful.

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If the end-goal of life were for everyone to be ignorant and content, I'll admit that religion would be the way to go.

[Zeno]

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Is religion harmful?

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Depends on whom welds the most religious influence. See Torquemada or Girolamo Savonarola for the negative side of the ledger. See, ____________________, for the positive side of the ledger.

-Zeno, The Antipope

[MidGe]

Religions is harmful in the fact that it isn't truthful. Since all religions contradict themselves by sects, and only one could be true if at all, religion is as harmful as any other lie or denial of reality.

[rubberloon]

The interaction of the catholic church, the papacy and primarily western europe had massive effects. Including the persecution of heretics and pagans around 400 and the orthodox-catholic split around 700. The larger interaction of islam and its neighbors is still with us. As Djilas said (in Wartime, his account of Jugoslavia 1941-5) the first excuse for people to kill each other is language, the second religion, the third politics but they don't need an excuse to kill each other.

[luckyme]

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I agree that religion has done more gross harm than moderate western democracies. However, it isnt true that moderate western democracies cause no harm - I presume you mean the good things they have done outweigh the bad?

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from an earlier post -

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Breathing causes harm.
Overall, it's a good thing.

When we refer to a harmful or helpful action it is the sum of it's parts that matters, we'd be hard pressed to come with something that is 100% good or 100% harmful.

Picking some aspect of religion as 'doing good' doesn't answer the OP, it's a given that something about it would be useful.

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So we seem to agree that with questions such as, "Do you like porridge?" the yes or no answer means in sum total and it's not necessary to respond to them with every little aspect we considered in order to reach our conclusion. Life would become very long if disclaimers were implied as mandatory.
We all know people that are like that. "Enjoy your trip?"
"yes, the meals were good, but ... yadda,yadda."
the 'yes' answered the question, the rest is friendly chatter.
"yes" or "no" does not even hint at "in every little aspect".

luckyme

[bunny]

Thanks. It reads clearly to me now, I guess I was tired or not paying attention.