Hi from Logikos

[Shinylight]

You have given examples of theists who have caused harm. I might have some issues with the details, but that is a tangent not worth bothering with. The point is, is it the nature of theistic belief that causes theists to cause harm, or is it the nature of the person.

Christianity and Islam's doctrines contain within them submission to the higher power, they follow what they believe their God tells them to do, a Christian would not kill a Muslim if there was no order from a deity. Thus I deduce that is the nature of their belief that leads them to do those things, with the exception of maybe the Hitler example, that one could be debated for years with no clear winner.

Again, some religious beliefs halt the advance of science, but not theism in general. In fact I would argue that the pursuit of science actually makes more sense within a theistic belief system than an atheistic one.

There are many types of theism, Creationism certainly halts scientific advancement, the Church in Europe definitely halted the pursuit of knowledge.

Many different areas of biological genetics have been slowed down because of the religious throwing the 'playing God' card, Stem Cell research, cloning etc...

Does theism lead to intolerance and bigotry and starving children? Again, it depends on which theists we're talking about.

Agreed

The simple fact is that the nature of theistic belief does not cause harm. This is obvious when we see that theism is perfectly compatible (in fact I would argue there is even an implication to) the belief that the world and the people in it are of value and should not be harmed. Theism does not cause harm; twisted people do. There is simply no implication from "X believes Y and causes harm" to "Y causes harm".

Theism does cause harm, theism causes twisted people, it gives people an excuse to murder and rape etc...