Christianity Harms Society. Why I Mock Christians

[GodsRevolt]

My contention is that the church, in that instance, is merely an apparatus that facilitates natural human charity, that would still exist without the church, while taking a large part of the credit for it. Sure, this apparatus is larger than any atheist one, but then, what would you expect from an organization that's had hundreds of years of undeserved cultural supremacy?

But the charity? That's not dependent on the church.

Not dependent, but made necessary. As a Catholic in a privileged position I am expected to use the goods that I own in moderation and save the best for guests, the sick, and the poor.

I posted a thread today about the millions of dollars in hush money that the church paid in order to keep the victims of sexual abuse by priests silent: I would say that prioritizing the church's reputation above the vilifying of pedophiles counts as promoting harm... not to mention, it's hardly "humble, truthful of courageous."

You do not condone it, and neither does the Church. You and the Church are in agreement. Paragraph 2389 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

I'll remember that next time I see a picture of the golden papal throne.

This is witty but fails to make the point I believe you were shooting for.

Actually, yes on the latter case: god justified wars rage throughout the bible, and there's plenty of orders within that book to go to war against... pretty much everyone who doesn't agree with you exactly. Have you read it?

This is the "Old woman and her Bible" routine. It is convent to say that the Bible justifies wars to the reader because there are verses that do so. It is also convent to say the Bible does not justify wars because there are verses that do so.

So I will correct my statement. There is something called a just war, but it is not to be taken lightly and should only be pursued when all other options have failed.

Everything comes down to individuals in the end, because organizations can't make actions without people. This is just dishonest deflection; the real point of contention is twofold: were those bad actions justified or motivated by the religion involved, and more broadly, should the people claiming to be speaking for the all knowing creator of the universe be conducting themselves in this manner? It's a credibility issue, but you seem to be arguing that, because the church itself didn't rise up out of the ground and perform these actions, therefore it has no culpability.

Bold added.

I am arguing that the Church is not responsible because, like I said, the Church does not promote harm. When someone does so, whether they be a participant in the Church or not, they are acting OUTSIDE of the Church's expectations.

And this is the root of your problem. You cannot seem to separate the Church and its believers. It is unfair scapegoating, as if all the bad in the world comes from the Church, the only pedophiles in the world are priests, and whenever someone who claims to be a Christian ends up on the news for doing something wrong it proves that the whole system is fucked up and full of heartless morons.

The Church is what interprets the Bible, the sole authority, and if you looked into what it had to say instead of stealing quotes from quotes from quotes, you might be able to expand your world view and not be so single minded.

The difference here is that science also does real, demonstrable good that couldn't have been accomplished without the scientific establishment, while the church does nothing as a tradeoff for the harm that comes out of it. As I said earlier.

But since you seem so sure, then answer me this: can you name one demonstrably real, positive effect of religion, that requires religion and could not be obtained through secular means?

You are going to laugh at this but -

Guilt

and the need to say that you are sorry.
Society requires nothing in this regard, only that you pay for what you did wrong through some sort of punishment. Religion requires it, even when you don't get caught. Religion gave us "I'm sorry" and the secular world is trying to dispose of it.