Mr.Playstation said: Hey Christian here :P. I would like to debate point six where you said that organised religion is fundemently bad thing ( I agree with points 1 and I guess point 7 so feel free to start a debate on the others or even these two, if you want ) Anyways I don't believe that organized religion is a fundemently bad thing since looking at this from today's relatively peaceful time religion serves no other reason than to unite us into one big community. Sure hundread's of years ago, religion devided alot of groups of people but nowadays with acts such as "Nostra Aetate" ( Talks about how each religion needs to respect each other ) and the constant attempts at unifying all forms of christianity under one leader ( The Pope ) make this much more clear ( That organised religion is about peace not war ) At a personal level religion helps me feel part of a community. Today I went to Church and you know what, I actually felt like I was in a commuinty ( The type you feel when you're gathered with your family ). I know that religion can be seen as if it's still stuck in the 1500's but it really isn't, it's now more willing to accept other people's beliefs even if they may not be in line with ours ( And hence peace is number 1 on each religion's agenda )
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You're taking a pretty narrow view of religion. You are ignoring that the entire middle east, and large parts of Africa, that are suffering incredibly due to the influence of religion. Then you have the mass pedophilia of priests whom the catholic church has fought to protect, acts of prejudice against gays, the insistence of taking away individual rights, etc. There are still many places where you can be killed for believing the wrong thing.
My issue with organized religion is that it fundamentally teaches you to obey. It teaches you that someone else is qualified to instruct you on what this all powerful being wants. The catholic church, where the pope is literally viewed as divine (and I like this pope but divine he ain't), is particularly dangerous in its heirarchical approach. The idea that the clergy is godly and to be implicitly trusted is why they've gotten away the abuse that they've gotten.
All of this is not to say that religion has no good value. I know some organizations do charitable work, and it can be valued for the individual. But, I think that these services can be rendered without the dogma and heirarchy that can, and have frequently, been abused to terrible ends. I've felt a sense of community in many places without religion being involved.
I think the good of religion can be done without religion. However, I think the bad done by religion cannot be done without it (or at least would be much harder to do). To beat up on the Catholic Church some more, can you think of ANY organization that could survive such a scandal as the catholic church did and still survive?
Edit: Just to clarify if it's unclear, I don't think that everything done by organized religion is bad. However, I think the potential for abuse created by the system outweighs by far its potential benefits.