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.

:)

[Colin]

That's a quote from Jefferson, actually. I don't 100% agree with him, but his writing style, like other of the enlightenment era, is genius and I remember the quote so I decided to put it in there, just for kicks.

[Kayla]

+1 for Jefferson quote.

[Colin]

-1 for no citation!

[Vertigo_One [Ops Mod]]

Modern religion is outdated and unnecessary. Our need for religion to have a stable, structured society has long since passed and now the blind faith that is instilled on most people at birth is obtrusive to scientific and cultural development to the point where is risks countless lives every day.

 

Explain how this is true when the man who advanced the human genome project is a committed Christian?

[Eligh CS]

Ah, but one exception does not destroy a trend.

[Vertigo_One [Ops Mod]]

Its a pretty big example, the single largest scientifc undertaking in the field of biology. Also, can you prove this "trend". There's a rather large number of Christians working in science. I find it hard to believe that there's a genuine trend. Not to mention all the historical scientists.

[Colin]

I'm not talking about general sciences, I'm talking about scientific though. When it comes to the greatest mystery of the universe, the beginning of time itself, people of religion feel that '<insert your god of creation> did it' instead of actually trying to find out what happened.

Think about this, before Darwin, everyone thought that their god of creation made everything that is, all the animals, plants, humans, all as they saw it in their life time, and they were satisfied with that answer. Darwin proved that wasn't true, and now evolution is a generally accepted fact.

[Vertigo_One [Ops Mod]]

No he didn't. Darwin only proved how species differentiated from each other, he didn't prove how the universe or life on earth came into existance. Also, you want to talk about breakthrough sciences, how about the Christian who lead the human genome project?

[Matthew Hawkins]

No one would dare to say that religious people have not made scientific breakthroughs. Some of the most important have been by the religious and from different religions--Pythagoras, Darwin, Newton, Salk, Einstein and yes, Francis Collins. But those breakthroughs were completely unrelated to their faith. They may have attributed the reasons behind those discoveries to some concept of God, but it simply is not true that their religion helped them make those discoveries. Science is the only thing that you can credit scientific breakthroughs to. Religion had just as much to do with these discoveries as the scientists' hair color.

[Matthew Hawkins]

Today atheism among scientists is around 40% conservatively, while about 60-80% (depending on which of the dozens of surveys you go by) claim to be non-religious or atheist. I think its safe to say that you would be hard pressed to find more than a few scientists from the Enlightenment era that were atheists. 

If growth counts as a trend, then yeah, atheism is a trend among scientists.

Here is a link to one of the more scientific surveys I could turn up with a google search.

http://www.freethoughtpedia.com/wiki/Scientists_and_atheism

[Lena]

I don't know or care if anything in religion is true. What I do know is that it can bring people together. It can make people happy. Even if it does make absolutely no sense.  
It's also an easy way to prey on uneducated people, look at scientology. Who'd actually believe that we came to earth in a space ship shaped like an airplane and should have to pay all our money to read  scriptures that tell us our true meaning in life?
And Satinism and the like are just plain bad. But the religions that preach being kind and good, even if just a scam to get your money can bring people joy and togetherness.
But there are also those people who make a huge fuss over what religion people are and say that they cant bw peoples' friends unless they convert or something. But I think those people just need a little help understanding acceptance.
So all in all, I'm in favor of religion. As long as people dont get in huge discussions about it.. Then it can tear people apart..

[Rockccoli]

Me? well, I'd like to say that I can see an upside to religion, but I cannot. To me, it's bad. Very bad. I see it as nothing but an excuse for hatred, violence, discrimination, predjudice, and even an excuse to do good things, something no one should need. Yes, many would focus on the Christian religion, seeing how large and easily faulted it is. I, however, find fault in all religion. I would go on to point out the flaws, but I have a feeling no one wants to hear me rant about it.