Can religion be positive

[robvalue]

I dunno... sure it can have positive effects. Whether I'd say religion could be a good thing overall in someone's life, I'd say probably not. There's a big price to pay for selling your intellectual honesty out. Maybe some people don't care about that, or don't actually take the religion seriously enough to go that far.

To me, it's no different than getting comfort from an invisible friend who tells you how wonderful you are, except it has a lot of extra baggage and knock-on problems. And by being religious, you support faith and religion as a whole, so you may be having a bad effect on other people.

So on balance, I'd say KILL THEM ALL I'd say that it can have good aspects but is generally bad, and certainly cannot accomplish things that can't be accomplished better in secular ways. I'd view it as a kind of mental shortcut, that comes at a cost. At best.