What's your biggest beef with religion?

[johan]

Its impact on hindering advancement in science and medicine.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Its impact on hindering advancement in science and medicine.

Like putting us a thousand or so years behind where we should have been because knowledge is dangerous to belief.

[Sal]

Its impact on hindering advancement in science and medicine.

Like putting us a thousand or so years behind where we should have been because knowledge is dangerous to belief.

I'm convinced if it wasn't for the Enlightenment era, we'd still be living in the middle ages.

[Whateverist]

I have three major beeves. 

I see no beef.

---

I'm sure most of us have multiple "beefs." But this thread isn't about those. Just about your biggest one. Theists encouraged to participate.

Mine: It's anti-intellectual. -- It discourages and disparages intellectual curiosity.

Your complaint is too broad. There are religious groups that encourage and have developed thousands of years worth of writing, critical thinking, and curiosity. Religion launched modern science. Seems you need to narrow things a bit since it is trivially easy to find a defeater and render your point invalid.

For that reason I think I'm even more against the mountains of contingencies constructed from the assumption that God is a thing.  I'd much rather hear about someone's feels for God than all that stuff.

[drfuzzy]

The complete de-humanization of anyone who does not believe in their particular brand of imaginary friend worship.  This spawns tribal, insular, and judgmental behavior which has led to genocide, pogroms, and tearing apart of family ties, just to name a few obvious examples.  --  And all in the name of a deity that nobody can prove exists.

[Neo-Scholastic]

Mine: It's anti-intellectual. -- It discourages and disparages intellectual curiosity.

Personally, I do not think that is even remotely fair or accurate. I think you're painting with far too broad of a brush.

While it is true that a narrow strain of self-promoting American evangelicals seem to encourage willful ignorance, the whole Christian tradition is filled with prominent scholars, scientists, and thinkers. The influence of Christian intellectuals extends from the early Church Fathers to the founders of the scientific revolution like Pascal, Liebnitz, Francis Bacon and even Swedenborg. Then there are notable Christians like John Ruskin, Milton, Gladstone, and Bonhoeffer. David Bentley Hart is one of my favorite contemporary theologians and I don't think anyone could seriously call him anti-intellectual.

[Minimalist]

I agree with Mencken.

[RoadRunner79]

Mine: It's anti-intellectual. -- It discourages and disparages intellectual curiosity.

Personally, I do not think that is even remotely fair or accurate. I think you're painting with far too broad of a brush.

While it is true that a narrow strain of self-promoting American evangelicals seem to encourage willful ignorance, the whole Christian tradition is filled with prominent scholars, scientists, and thinkers. The influence of Christian intellectuals extends from the early Church Fathers to the founders of the scientific revolution like Pascal, Liebnitz, Francis Bacon and even Swedenborg. Then there are notable Christians like John Ruskin, Milton, Gladstone, and Bonhoeffer. David Bentley Hart is one of my favorite contemporary theologians and I don't think anyone could seriously call him anti-intellectual.

You may also note, that a number of those lived during the “dark ages”. Which seems to be another bogus reason I’m seeing a lot.

[Neo-Scholastic]

Personally, I do not think that is even remotely fair or accurate. I think you're painting with far too broad of a brush.

While it is true that a narrow strain of self-promoting American evangelicals seem to encourage willful ignorance, the whole Christian tradition is filled with prominent scholars, scientists, and thinkers. The influence of Christian intellectuals extends from the early Church Fathers to the founders of the scientific revolution like Pascal, Liebnitz, Francis Bacon and even Swedenborg. Then there are notable Christians like John Ruskin, Milton, Gladstone, and Bonhoeffer. David Bentley Hart is one of my favorite contemporary theologians and I don't think anyone could seriously call him anti-intellectual.

You may also note, that a number of those lived during the “dark ages”. Which seems to be another bogus reason I’m seeing a lot.

I'm often amazed my the degree to which people discount the intelligence and unfairly judge the morality of people in the past, not just with respect to religion, but pretty much everything. In many ways, the ancients seemed smarter and more wise than us so-called modern and enlightened folks.

[RoadRunner79]

You may also note, that a number of those lived during the “dark ages”. Which seems to be another bogus reason I’m seeing a lot.

I'm often amazed my the degree to which people discount the intelligence and unfairly judge the morality of people in the past, not just with respect to religion, but pretty much everything. In many ways, the ancients seemed smarter and more wise than us so-called modern and enlightened folks.

The Information Age is great in many respects, but increased information doesn’t necessarily mean increased wisdom or knowledge intelligence.