[MrHayden]

Despite the innumerable religion debates on TSR, I have yet to spot a thread specifically for this debate. Is religion a greater source of good or evil in the world? What do we all think?
To me it's a no-brainer: the unbelievable horrors caused by religion throughout history - and still happening now - must outweigh any of the "good" that comes of it.
Is there anyone who can provide some substantial support for the value of the religious position to society? I am interested to see if anyone can provide something more sensible than "it gives people a sense of hope" or anything silly along those lines.

Please let's not turn this into yet another "does God exist?" arguments. As much as I love them, I don't want this to be the place for another one.

[Einsteinius]

Depends how you look at it

[Idle]

While it can be used for good many wars are caused by it.

[alexsasg]

I think in theory, it is good in the sense that it unites people. But if this cohesive function is even true in practice, it would still create conflict between different groups, regardless of whether it united people within them.

So it's definitely a major source of conflict and social divisions. Whether you interpret that is being evil is up to you.

Oh lordy, I have been revising too much functionalism.

[mmmpie]

There are some uniquely unpleasant things which religion can bring about - like killing people for belonging to the wrong one. There are some quite good things too, but I can't think of any which are unique to religion.

So I've gotta say no.

[cl_steele]

its entirely subjective it can be used for either unfortunatly more often than not it appears to be used for wrong [or at least on a more high profile scale]

[lukas1051]

I I think when you consider the overwhelming number of people affected by the wars all across the Middle East, Africa and Asia caused by the conflicts between Christianity, Islam and Judaism, it's impossible to deny that religion is a good force. And that's without mentioning the lack of human rights in many countries because of a state religion, or the ignorance billions of people hold due to religion being forced into peoples brains from a young age. A bit of charity cannot make up for that.

[M4LLY]

Good

[MrHayden]

(Original post by alexsasg)
I think in theory, it is good in the sense that it unites people. But if this cohesive function is even true in practice, it would still create conflict between different groups, regardless of whether it united people within them.

So it's definitely a major source of conflict and social divisions. Whether you interpret that is being evil is up to you.

Oh lordy, I have been revising too much functionalism.

Ah tell me about it, good ol' Durkheim.

[Steevee]

It's both. But I'll go back to my old analogy.

Religion is like a dangerous dog. It's a warm, loving, comfort to those who know it, seek it and embrace it. However it has a tendancy to bite a lot of people a lot of the time. And no matter how much someone loves a dog, no matter how many people love a dog, if it's always biting people, it has to be put down.

[FrigidSymphony]

For religion, doing "good" ends up being "giving people something to believe in". When it does bad, it's usually "loads of people died for *******s". I know which outweighs which.

[miser]

I think at it's root it tries to be a force for good, but human nature abuses it and jumps at the chance for justification for wars and segregation.

I think, overall, it's caused more harm than it has good, which I also think is ironic since when it is stripped of all the dogma and superstition, its core can be seen to be simply about causing as little harm as possible. I think humanity's stage of scientific and rational development has out-moded religion, but religion's central tenets of doing good to others will not be eroded so long as we have literature and free expression.

[Xotol]

Those are some pretty terrible poll options. They, first of all, assume that religion has caused millenia of horrific evils (not necessarily disagreeing with it - but I suppose some religious people might not agree with this entirely). Secondly, it leaves no option for people that believe that religion has 'ballsed' up a few things, but also done good - but not enough 'good' to outweigh the bad.

As for your question: Is religion a force for good or evil?... it's really neither. It can be used for both 'good' and 'evil' (those are arbitrary terms non-religiously btw) by people, but it, itself, does not exert any force. You seemed to have answered a different question in your op, which is something more akin to 'has religion been used for good or evil'. Notice that this only includes the past (as we don't know what will happen in the future).

[Josh93]

Historically I think it has been responsible for far more harm than good; peace can only be maintained through tolerance and one thing religion tends to be really, really bad at is tolerance.

That said, I suspect that if religion didn't exist we would still manage to find something else to justify killing each other over

[overninethousand]

can you name one moral action or statement that that a believer in religion can perform that a non believer cannot? ie is there an good deed that is only performed by believers and therefore due to religion and not natural things such as empathy - bet you cant

on the other hand can you name an evil action or statement that is only performed by the followers of religion? - a few quickly come to mind

[Inverse]

Religion is/was a good way to control the simple minded of a civilization, but did/does so through obscene acts and fear mongering.

This was posted from The Student Room's Android App on my HTC One X

[Inverse]

(Original post by overninethousand)
can you name one moral action or statement that that a believer in religion can perform that a non believer cannot? ie is there an good deed that is only performed by believers and therefore due to religion and not natural things such as empathy - bet you cant

on the other hand can you name an evil action or statement that is only performed by the followers of religion? - a few quickly come to mind

without religion good people will do predominantly good things and bad people will do predominantly evil things, but it takes religion to make a good person to mostly evil things.

You could at least reference Christopher Hitchens' quote.

This was posted from The Student Room's Android App on my HTC One X

[overninethousand]

(Original post by Inverse)
You could at least reference Christopher Hitchens' quote.

This was posted from The Student Room's Android App on my HTC One X

i did at first but then edited it out. what difference does it make?

[kaypc]

overall it's good, the reason people think its evil is because the media hardly ever reports any of the positive thing's of religion. people generally want to read about the bad stuff in the world. not a day that i dont pick up a newspaper and see that there's someone who has been raped or murdered or some war going on in the world but if you take into account the whole worldwide population, how much of it is actually made up of these psycho's.

[Xotol]

(Original post by overninethousand)
can you name one moral action or statement that that a believer in religion can perform that a non believer cannot? ie is there an good deed that is only performed by believers and therefore due to religion and not natural things such as empathy - bet you cant

Can you guarantee that every religious person who gives, say, charity would do the same if they weren't religious?

While I agree that atheists can do good in the same way religious people can, it may well be possible that the reason some religious people do good (i.e. give charity) is based on their religious teachings - and that they would not give to charity without this (and I imagine this is the case for some people). Thus, religion has technically has contributed some good - even if it's not that major and does not 'outweigh' the bad as stated in the OP.