You may want to read part 1 before starting this post…
Let’s look at religion today.
Religion is a tool that holds people in poverty and glamorizes suffering. Just look at the work of Mother Teresa and all the palatial churches in the middle of shanty towns.
Religion attempts to deny people control of their lives, this is most clear with the Roman Catholic Church’s dogma on contraceptives. Of course we also can’t forget the Evangelicals here in America with their attempts to undermine women’s access to contraceptives and abortion and their drive to push abstinence only sexual education.
Women will get abortions whether it’s legal or not, its just a lot safer if they can go to a legitimate clinic. People will have sex whether or not they have the tools and education to handle it, the difference is that when they aren’t prepared, they’re more likely to contract SDIs, have unwanted pregnancies, and even have abortions.
The best way to eliminate poverty is to give women control of their reproductive cycle. This allows them to delay having a family long enough to get an education and gain valuable skills that allow for supporting a family of a reasonable size.The best way to do that is with comprehensive sexual education and easy access to contraceptives. Religion doesn’t care about that. It just wants to control people.
Religion allows people to harbor beliefs that are completely irrational and non-verifiable, based on some emotion or tradition. This weakens people’s demand for evidence and grasp of reality. Its a travesty that only half of Americans will acknowledge that we share a common ancestor with the other great apes, a travesty that wouldn’t exist without the mental clouding brought by religion.
Religion excuses hate.
Hate towards women. I’m sorry, but if you deny people the right to drive, subjugate them in relationships, and refuse them equal pay and position just because they have one more of a certain chromosome than the other half of the population, that’s not coming from a place of love. For the Christians who don’t think this applies them, if you would deny a competent and qualified minister an ordination because she’s a woman, then you might want to think again.
Hate towards LGBT people. Sure, some religious people try to hate the sin but love the sinner, but how is it love if you want to deny that person equality, companionship, and intimacy?
Hate towards those with different opinion. Why else would Mit Romney’s membership in the LDS church even be a campaign issue? Why else would atheist billboards be vandalized? Why else would people protest the construction of a Mosque?
Religion allows people to look at stories of genocide and say that it was just. I can’t imagine any other way an otherwise sane person could justify the wholesale slaughter of a people and rape of their virgin girls.
In the final balance religion does more harm than good and brings with it a greater potential for evil than for good. Religion is nothing short of a plague upon humanity, so no, I don’t think I’m being too hard on it.
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The very thing that helps us hinders us. Isn't that how life is? Religion has done harm… yet it has also done good too: Like most large institutions. It has the ability to bring people together for something bigger then themselves. While I don't support the hate or evangelical voting what they think is "moral" I don't know what I would do without a group of people who were in it for something bigger then themselves.
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So yes, I think you are too hard on religion, but that's why it's your blog 😉
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The same good, such as large institutions and having people join together for a greater cause than themselves, could be said for Communism and even Fascism. Those systems are great on paper, but in practice their potential for harm is too great to be worth the good they provide.
My argument is that the same applies to religion. It tends to do more good than harm, but the potential for harm is so great that it's not worth the good.
As far as the large institutions, you can't say most. Most hospitals are not religious. Most universities are not religious. Heck, I'm not even sure that most relief organizations (either by number or dollars) are religious.
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Really I can only speak for my experience, and the churches and institutions that I have been too have done 90 good and 10 percent bad. I'm sure there are institutions out there that are opposite. You can't throw the baby out with bathwater.
I never said most Large institutions are religious. But I am saying that many large organizations have done harm as well as good. And I see many religions doing more good then harm which would disagree with your above statement because of the "potential for harm."
Another point to your atheism, I get agnosticism because it's about not knowing and admitting you don't know, but it seems that your Atheism requires you to look at what's most probable and make a decision… in Faith. There is NO scientific way to know that there isn't a God, and no way to prove scientifically prove that there is. So you must be putting your faith in Atheism… (odd way of saying it). Get what I'm saying?
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Most religious groups do more good than harm. However, there are a few that do great damage to the world and they are all capable of great evil. Religiously motivated hate is so incredibly powerful because people can call evil good and think they will get rewarded for acting on it. Just as an example, it's amazing what people will do for 72 virgins…
If we could remove the religious influence from the culture, then sexism would quickly fade, the LGBTQ community would quickly gain equality, science wouldn't be hindered by the evolution vs. creation "controversy" or the climate change "controversy", and stem cell research could progress at a much faster rate.
If it weren't for religion in American I'm certain that the US would still be #1 in science. Instead we are quickly falling behind in science, education, civil rights, and a number of other areas. This isn't all because of religion, but it's definitely a huge part of it.
As far as the atheist vs. agnostic thing, I'll address that in tomorrow's blog post.