(May 15, 2014 at 3:42 pm)Hegel Wrote: On individual level there is no need for argument here. To claim that religion has not have beneficial positive effects on individuals on regular basis, is delusional.
Yeah, some people do have a legitimate benefit of the mental placebo effect. It also has ruined countless lives, both in the direct fashion of religious conflicts, slavery, genocide and persecution, and in the indirect manner that results in religious-inspired child abuse (of which there are many kinds), the destruction of livelihoods, the demonization of individuals whose lifestyles are considered unacceptable, the resistance to legitimate science which leads to unprepared and ignorant children. The list of just the indirect negatives of religion could take up many threads.
Quote:A fact: on this planet, no society (except our own for less than a century) has existed without a religion.
A fact: on this planet, no society has ever attempted to exist without a religion (or a leader-worship system which was functionally identical to a religion). Let's actually try the experiment before we declare it a failure.
