Religion Has Done More Harm Than Good
To the people on this forum who are debating whether religion has done more harm than good, here are three points I would like you to consider:
1. Many of you seem to attribute every charitable deed done by religious people to their religiousity. I don't see it. If these people were all atheists and agnostics and the Tsunami hit or Hurricane Katrina, would they all turn away and not help their fellow man? I don't think so. If you think they would, then you have a very deep misconception about the nature of atheists and agnostics. And if you think that all religious people would help out, then you also have a deep misconception of religious people.
2. While I contend the majority of good deeds would still occur even without religion being involved, the opposite is not true. You would almost never see "religious heretics" burned at stakes were it not for religion. Religious fervor is probably at the heart of over 90% of the large scale human vs. human atrocities this planet has ever seen. Take religion out of the equation and you don't have Islamic suicide bombers. Study human history and you will see that this same concept of killing infidels for a promised reward in the afterlife has shed enough blood to fill an ocean.
3. I believe that in a previous thread Sklansky mentioned that religion is good for "Prisoner's Dilemma" reasons. I don't see how this applies to religion but doesn't to atheists and agnostics. Couldn't atheists and agnostics also treat each other decently for prisoner's dilemma reasons. Wouldn't their long-term self interests which also include their interests in the welfare of their progeny also fall under this prisoner's dilemma framework. Maybe I don't understand the implications of the prisoner's dilemma example well enough to see its exclusive tie in to religion because how I understand it now, I just don't see it.
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