The harms of religion

[Annik]

What should consent be based on, then?

Societal funcioning

How would that be determined?

[Napoléon]

Societal funcioning

Societal functioning? Not medical suggestion due to fact?

[Godscreated]

Circumcised men transfer less disease than uncircumcised men, this is a health issue.

You're talking completely out of your ass. That's not true even in the slightest. If anything, circumcision creates immediate health risks for the infants whose choice is made for them by ignorant parents.

You nor anybody else has the right to cut off a perfectly functional and necessary part of somebody's anatomy, your Bronze Age beliefs be damned.

You better check with medical websites before you shoot of at the mouth.

[Hovik]

You're talking completely out of your ass. That's not true even in the slightest. If anything, circumcision creates immediate health risks for the infants whose choice is made for them by ignorant parents.

You nor anybody else has the right to cut off a perfectly functional and necessary part of somebody's anatomy, your Bronze Age beliefs be damned.

You better check with medical websites before you shoot of at the mouth.

I have. You should check some actual recent peer-reviewed studies before you shoot off at the ass.

[Annik]

You're talking completely out of your ass. That's not true even in the slightest. If anything, circumcision creates immediate health risks for the infants whose choice is made for them by ignorant parents.

You nor anybody else has the right to cut off a perfectly functional and necessary part of somebody's anatomy, your Bronze Age beliefs be damned.

You better check with medical websites before you shoot of at the mouth.

You better check the recent studies that show it to be a myth. :3

http://www.ajol.info/index.php/samj/arti...14003/2617
A study done in '08. You can see the section on circumcision and HIV infection on the 4th page of the document.

[Godscreated]

You better check with medical websites before you shoot of at the mouth.

You better check the recent studies that show it to be a myth. :3

http://www.ajol.info/index.php/samj/arti...14003/2617
A study done in '08. You can see the section on circumcision and HIV infection on the 4th page of the document.

I'm not referring to one specific disease, all the diseases and around the world, not just in this country.

[Annik]

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/mora...e-and-stds
This might help you. It's the 2nd of a 6 part series. The second page has references to all studies, both mentioned and used.

[Hovik]

You better check the recent studies that show it to be a myth. :3

http://www.ajol.info/index.php/samj/arti...14003/2617
A study done in '08. You can see the section on circumcision and HIV infection on the 4th page of the document.

I'm not referring to one specific disease, all the diseases and around the world, not just in this country.

Alright, so then find me sources that directly corroborate the idea that circumcision prevents any sort of disease in any part of the world.

This kind of thinking is ridiculous. We might as well perform castrations to prevent testicular cancer, or mastectomies to prevent breast cancer.

People like you advocate abstinence-only education (which doesn't work) and refuse the use of contraceptives that actually do prevent the spread of disease, and then want to tell me that circumcision is the better way to handle it?

[FallentoReason]

It's really easy to disprove any religion at all, but what I'm having a hard time doing, is explaining the harms of it, or just the harm of believing in a god. I'm not talking about brainwashed idiots, I'm talking talking about normal religious people who teach their children to believe in whatever they do; what is the harm?

I think the deepest issue with religion is the intellectual prison that you have to reside in for it to work. Being a deep thinker myself I found it hard to express my questions about certain things to friends because knowledge in anything but God's ways is not really encouraged.

I got a pretty big shock from this last night actually. I went to Bible study with a friend (long story as to why I go...) and on the way home we were discussing different denominations and also my desire to want to venture out to different churches purely to see how they differ to my Pentecostal church. He was very much against the idea. Long story short, his arguments as to why I shouldn't question theology were as such:

"Some things are not meant to be questioned"
"I stopped asking myself these questions because I know God is real. That's all I need"

I asked him about his thoughts on other denominations such as Seventh Day Adventists and their belief that one doesn't go to heaven straight away but has to wait for the second coming of Christ. I also told him that I believe they got that teaching from Matthew where it says that the undead rose from the ground when Jesus died on the cross. I knew that this question would make him realise somewhat what I was getting at, which is the issue of not knowing what interpretation is right. Well... his response kind of left me speechless: *hesitation* "Isn't that in the Old Testament"?

The more one is convinced that religion X is true, the less one relies on knowledge to truly understand reality, whether that also includes an understanding of your own holy book. Disabling one's own ability to reason is lethal in my opinion.

Another quick example of the possible physical damage that religion can bring about:

I was talking to a different friend at Bible study about my search for what the Gospels are really trying to say. I was telling her how if we're meant to believe that all of it is real, then why don't some things from the Gospels every happen in reality? An example I gave was from Mark 16 (the bit that was added on later.. but nevermind that...) and how it says that one will not be affected by deadly poisons. Well, I've seen Christians get a little tipsy before from beer (a poison), so where does that leave us with the literal interpretation? Long story short, she reassured me that God will reveal the true meaning of that passage and that "who knows, one of these days you'll surprise yourself and you'll drink something deadly and nothing will happen"!

It worries me that such a religion can a) disable an individual's reasoning and therefore b) open the door to countless fundamental misunderstandings about what actually happens in reality.

[Aiza]

Really? You can "disprove" any religion?

I don't know about the harms of religion but I could talk about how religious people compare to irreligious, I am sure to balance out the majority of the posts ITT.

More religious people have greater longetivity, coping skills, and health-related quality of life; less anxiety, depression and suicide:
http://www.mayoclinicproceedings.org/art...7/abstract

People with no religious affiliation are at elevated risk for depressive symptoms and disorders:
http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/aa...2/art00008

Religious people have less distress and distrust; are at low risk for morbidity and mortality:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12008795

Religiously unaffiliated people are more likely to attempt suicide, have fewer reasons for living, have greater impulsivity, aggression and substance use disorder:
http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/cont...61/12/2303

Religious behavior is associated with life satisfaction--and moreover, both atheists and religious who live in areas with more religious are happier; and both religious and atheists who live in areas with more atheists are less happy.
http://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/docs/...200901.pdf

People who are very religious have significantly healthier marriages than those where both are irreligious or only the wife is religious.
http://jfi.sagepub.com/content/33/2/246.short

Religiousity/spirituality is related to better cardiovascular, neuroendocrine and immune function:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12674818

Religious people report better health, have healthier social lives, greater confidence in the healthcare system and less likely to smoke:
http://www.princeton.edu/~deaton/downloa...gust09.pdf

Religious people have lower mortality risk:
https://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/186...060_fm.pdf
http://www.psy.miami.edu/faculty/mmccull...t_meta.pdf
http://digilib.bc.edu/reserves/th707/stcl/th70713.pdf
http://hsb.sagepub.com/content/45/2/198.short
http://psychsocgerontology.oxfordjournal...S102.short
http://tro-helbred.org/wordpress/wp-cont...rvival.pdf

Religious people are more likely to donate to charity and to volunteer: both religious and secular charities mind, and all the types therein:
http://www.hoover.org/publications/polic...ticle/6577

On the big 5 factors of personality (OCEAN), religious people are more agreeable (more altruistic and empathetic), more conscientious (greater self-discipline and self-organization); and have lower levels of psychoticism (ie low agreeableness and conscientiousness in combination):
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/art...6900002336
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/art...6999000689
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.11...393.x/full

Religious youth are less likely to get in trouble with the law (including drinking and driving, fighting, using a weapon); more likely to behave in healthy ways:
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.10...0000096371
http://heb.sagepub.com/content/25/6/721.short
http://etd.ohiolink.edu/view.cgi/Harris%...1298674896

Religious youth are also less likely to get teen pregnant, and more likely to use birth control properly the first time (interestingly enough):
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/art...3603000960

Religious youth score higher on standardized tests, do better in school:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.11...0/abstract
http://eus.sagepub.com/content/35/1/27.short

Religious youth cope better with stress:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/art...3408000926

Religious people show healthier behaviors in general: drinking in moderation, not smoking, excerpting, going to the doctor, using a seatbelt, etc.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/art...3505002409
http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.10...0001631722

Religious people have better self-control:
http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/bul/135/1/69/

Religious fathers have better relationships with their children:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.11...382.x/full

And so the mommas aren't left out, religious adolescent mothers have better relationships with their children; and religious children are better adjusted socioemotionally:
http://www.springerlink.com/content/7310881743275572/