Occasionally I’ll have someone tell me that I’m too hard on religion. Heck, sometimes I even wonder if I’m just an angry, bitter person with an ax to grind.

I started this blog almost a year ago with the goal of trying to open some dialogue between Christians and atheists, so in some of the early posts I held back. I contacted some college buddies who are now pastors with their own blogs and offered to let them do some guest posts to open more dialogue, they not only didn’t take me up on the offer, they didn’t even respond. So I emailed my theology professors from college and made the same offer, they didn’t respond either. I even posted an offer to do a Skype debate that would be hosted by Chariots of Iron. Nobody’s taken me up on the offer. The best I’ve gotten is a few (very few) arguments in the comments and a few email exchanges.

For a while I was holding back to be fair, with the hope that someone would offer an opposing view so I could more freely respond. That didn’t happen, so I stopped holding back.

As I state in the comment policy, I encourage disagreement. If you think I’m wrong, let’s talk about it. That’s want comments are for.

Periodically I wonder if I’ve gone too far. I worry that I may have become as dogmatic and close minded as that which I’m arguing against. In spite of that fact, that the only thing I’m dogmatic about is the need for evidence, that got me thinking about whether or not there is anything good I can say about religion.

There are specific examples of good that has been done. For example, the Seventh-day Adventist church has spread education and health care to parts of the world that desperately need it. The trend that arises in those areas is that the first generation converts and are very fervent, the second generation gets an education and becomes affluent, then the third generation drops out of the church. In that scenario, it’s doing something good, it’s improving education and standard of living. It’s also teaching people enough critical reasoning skills that they can see the absurdity of their beliefs and reject them in three generations.

Religion as a whole can give people much needed hope. It can prompt people to set aside their own selfishness to help others. But shouldn’t people just want to do good things because it’s the right thing to do? If they think they’re doing it for some far off reward, is it still as good? It’s obvious that even atheists can do good things, just look at the biggest philanthropists, Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, both atheists.

It was the monasteries of medieval Europe that kept the light of education and literacy alive in the West. It was also the church of that era that burned books that didn’t support their agenda and silenced the early scientists who challenged their view of the world.

Many of the greatest works of art, music, and literature have all been inspired by religion. Countless of the greatest works of art, music, and literature have also been obliterated because of religion.

The Crusades, Inquisition, and al Queda would not have the power they had/have if it had not been for their religion. Heck, they probably wouldn’t have even had enough motivation to start without their faith.

That’s all in the past, or at least doesn’t apply to modern Christianity, right? For that we’ll have to wait for next time.