Religion can be a good thing??

[DeistPaladin]

Welcome to the forum.

There are some beautiful or positive things I can conjure up in my mind thinking about Christianity:

- The example you give is a commonly heard testimony with variations on the theme. People who are suicidal, they had an addiction, their life was a mess, etc and then found Jesus and got their acts together. To what extent these stories can be believed and whether another structure would have provided the grounding they needed is a good question to ask but we can be glad they did turn things around.

- A rousing Gospel choir or an inspired performance of Handel's Messiah etc.

- The little old lady who lights a candle in a Cathedral for her dearly departed husband and dreams of their reunion in "Heaven". Sure it's all fantasy but it provides her some comfort.

- Charity organizations with people who feel inspired by Jesus' love to take action. To what extent Jesus has anything to do with their charitable nature is a good thing to question and there are secular charities as well but we can still appreciate charity whatever the cause may be.

- Community and social support.

If it all stopped there, I wouldn't have a problem with it.

It's all the bad and the potential for worse that outweighs the good.

I also wonder if secular communities could provide all the good listed above (with the exception of the fantasy one) without the dangerous dogma. I think we've discussed the idea of an atheist church in another thread that could provide the same community and support.

[KichigaiNeko]

Religion really is the opiate of the masses.

While the REAL people get on with running the universe........

from Perth glad for another Ozzie in this forum

[Faith No More]

When you counter this with all of the bad things religion has gotten good people to do religion doesn't come out looking so good.

[Sarcasm]

So the only reason why he is doing good now is because he believes if hes a good little boy he will get his little prize at the end of Life (Or something along those lines, can't say i know this, perhaps he just enjoyed the 'love of God' or some other bull crap, but moving on). So, if Bill Gates promised a criminal a billion dollars if he stopped his criminal career for the next 5 years (or any other substantial amount of time) does that really make the person any good? Or if he decided that he chose God because he felt more nurtured and began seeing the good things in life, how does this prove that we couldn't show him this by just simply showing him the good things in life? I don't really agree with this because typically the way they get the person to start listening is to threaten them by speaking of Hell or other things that they will face if they continue their ways.

[Anomalocaris]

Religion can help many people in many circumstances, but in mostly non-cummulative ways. However, it does this by making many more people more stupid in many more circumstances, and in such as way as to make the effect of their stupidity cummulative across generations. Even worse for religion, it can not long survive without making people stupid in this way. So it is not possible to fundamentally reform religion into a positive force.

[Captain Scarlet]

Looks as if you have anserwed your own question. The 'idea' of religion is good.

Is it? At least in the Abrahmic faith, this is the idea of an all seeing, all knowing, judgemental, tyrannical authority; where the best you can hope for is to boost his fragile vanity for eternity in some kind of virtual world sanitarium...

[Cinjin]

I submit that religion cannot be a good thing, but that it may have a positive effect on certain people in comparison to what they use to be.

Realistically, this guy might still be an asshole. He's just not near the asshole he use to be. Furthermore, who's to say that he's even legit or that he even really believes what he's tellin people he believes. He may just be saying that to garner favor from the all the people he has hurt in the past. Shit, he may have just realized, "I'm gettin old and I don't have anyone to care for me" and so he uses christianity as a way back into his family's life. People are suckers you know.

I would never want to justify all the bad just to get the sliver of good. So my answer is no. Plus, I've never seen it for myself.

[Justtristo]

I will admit religion can be seen as a good thing for the people involved. Although it is debatable if living your lives under an illusion can be seen as a good thing. I would argue people are better off if they did not live their lives under this illusion.

However religion and superstition is a malign influence on our civilization. The sooner it is excised from our society and replaced by rationalism and reason, the better.

[JohnDG]

A person in general isnt a very good one, we all have bad thoughts and do bad things, most people use religion to make themselves feel better for what they've done. And in somecases, entices them not to do what they truly wish to, for the reward of eternal life. In other words it helps keep the animals in control that can't control themselves.