Is religion a force for good in the world?

[Simon]

Excluding the existence of any supernatural powers, or any comment whatsoever on the fallacy or truth of religious belief, and based only what we have seen [i]as a direct result of religion in this world[/i], can we see that religion is a positive or negative influence on the world as we know it?

Thoughts and feelings, questions, queries, doubtful points, moans, groans, itches, bitches, theories, queries, unwanted pregnancies; all is welcome here. Spill your mind into text.

:)

[Tòmachan ~blogs admin ~]

I'd suggest Christopher Hitchen's book: God is not great. A really good read, and he leaves out most of the hard to understand stuff as well :)

[Vertigo_One [Ops Mod]]

A great read? Its been criticsed by virtually every newspaper for being the opposite of that, as well as badly thought out and just like a long, unimpressive rant.

[Tòmachan ~blogs admin ~]

Gott'a give man his choices Verty, if you only suggest the bible for him to read, would that be gods way?

[Olivia]

When it comes to the individual, it is usually a good thing, providing that he or she belongs to the religion of his or her choice. If they're forced to do something against their own personal beliefs, then it is bad.

When it comes to groups, it is nearly always bad except for how it relates to the individual (being part of a group of like-minded people can be comforting and enjoyable).

[MilesMuhammad]

that depends on the religion itself. i m Muslim, so i will talk about what i know, there is a Hadith (words told by the prophet PBUH) in Islam that says that good and bad are both obvious (of course, Islam itself also provides guidance to differentiate between them).

please feel free to criticize me, i m very open-minded

[Olivia]

What does PBUH mean? A Muslim in my class used it in her presentation in which she quoted from the Quran and I was confused.

[Vertigo_One [Ops Mod]]

Peace be upon him

[Ace of Anton]

I 'd say no.  I could back that up, but I don't feel like typing too much up front, so I'll wait for someone to challenge this.

[Abreo]

I CHALLENGE THIS!

[Micah Sanders]

I think that it is both good and bad. It is good because people often use it as reason to do something awesome, yet there is also the genocide side of it all, which defiantly sucks.

[Abreo]

I know this should have been obvious but I just realized that, like everything else, the majority of problems that stem from religion is due to authority. I think if we got rid of organized religion, and people began to realize that they themselves don't know god nor can they speak for him most of the problems involved in religion would be solved. Somehow I feel like that'll never happen though.

[Crystal Cockerill]

1) Religious texts are propaganda for their respective religions, but only in the way that fairytales were intended to be for morals.

2) Religion (at least, as seen by atheist me) is something that humans need in some part of their society, not their personal lives, to keep them from hurting others too badly. The expectation of some part of society to be a force for good keeps the "less good" impulses of entire communities in check. However, when a religion gets to the point of hating or hurting people outside their beliefs, it's time to take a step back. I'm not even talking about religious extremists or anything either. If your 10 year old daughter is telling people that they're going to go to hell for not accepting Jesus as their savior, or your 14 year old son is bullying some kid because he belongs to a different faith to the point that the kid stops coming to school regularly, it's too much.