ANSWERS: 58
  • If you have, I'm curious about something: http://www.answerbag.com/a_view/5365725
  • Religion can be, and sometimes is, detrimental to society. Sometimes it religion is neutral, and other times it can be a force for good. - I have already answered your other question.
  • Definitely. Statistics agree: Societies worse off 'when they have God on their side' "RELIGIOUS belief can cause damage to a society, contributing towards high murder rates, abortion, sexual promiscuity and suicide, according to research published today. According to the study, belief in and worship of God are not only unnecessary for a healthy society but may actually contribute to social problems." More: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article571206.ece
  • Oh, it is. Bombed abortion clinics, shot abortion doctors, World Trade Center. . .I could go on. I just wish people would stop needing Santa.
  • all the time.
  • Sometimes I paint religion with a broad brush and think that--but when I do my reasoning is faulty. While religion has done much harm and has capacity to do great harm it has also done much good and has capacity to do great good. I choose to fight the battles that are most important--those where religions try to take away liberty or where they try to have their beliefs taught in place of science. I'm proud to be a card carrying member of the ACLU and People for the American Way. I should send some money to the JREF as well--but there's always more to do. And I do spend time calling out the preaching questions here on AB. I could use some help over in the Christianity section--they're down rating my answers pretty strongly over there. Anyone?
  • no- i know for a fact it is.
  • Every-single-day.
  • Yes, all the time
  • Only during inquisitions, witch hunts, or crusades.
  • I realize the fact that religion makes things worse for everyone.
  • How would we ever have got anything done without it? Religion has been a vital factor of evolution, with or without an actual deity. People need fear and hope as forms of motivation to advance, and religion provides this. We live in a damn cruel world, and people only delude themselves in thinking that we would be better off, or that we would become more peaceful beings without religion, just like believers delude themselves into thinking that God makes it all better. Without religion, we would find other reasons to rip each other's heads off. That could almost be proven, when you consider that most holy wars used/use religion as a facade for some other motive. Hard to say though...it would take a pretty big head to be able to genuinely state what societies would be like if religions didn't exist, and unfortunately, I'm just not that smart or analytical. Ask me about Silent Hill though, and that's a different matter. *Metaphorically goes to Hell.* Clang clang clang! Man I'm totally obsessed. Also, I'm atheist.
  • i think it is currently holding back progress- stem cell research, abortion, same-sex marriage...but then again, it gives people in bad situations hope. the poor and abused often cling to religion in order to feel secure. i suppose a belief in the afterlife and the commandments like "thou shalt not kill, be gluttinous, etc" are useful, but the stuff that people overinterpret and use for their own means is detrimental to society.
  • Religion can be blamed for a lot of bad in this world. But most of that is people going against what the religions believe like: + Abortion bombings + Terrorism Religion has done a lot more good in the world than bad. For example, a few things where the Catholic Church has made the world a better and brighter place are: + Relief from the Barbarian invasions of the early middle ages + Rescued Christian and pre-christian literature + Spread agricultural and animal husbandry knowledge + Started and protected universities + Sponsored and supported science and medicine + Created International Law theory + Developed and sponsored modern economic theory + Invented charity as we know it + Codified, expanded, and improved Western Law + Western Morality + Created just war theory + Sponsored and influenced art and architecture I suggest you read the book "How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization" by Thomas E. Woods, Jr. http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/history/world/wh0101.html In addition, Atheism has also been detrimental to society as is shown in four of the largest Atheistic experiments in history: + The executions and repression of the Reign of Terror following the French Revolution + The Soviet Union + Communist China + North Korea With love in Christ.
  • That all depends on which side of religion you're talking to and which society. For example, Southern Baptists will tell you its the most wonderful thing ever invented while the Palestinians and Iraqis may slightly disagree with you. It's all a matter of perspective!
  • Yes, and I still do. It seems to be more of a fact now than a thought.
  • Only when religion leaves the home and tries to pass itself off as a government. Religious government is never a good idea, ever. I think history backs this up in spades.
  • Not at all. Morals are not a bad thing to have.
  • In many societies religion has acted as an opiate, as Marx suggested, keeping the masses docile in a totalitarian regime. I consider this harmful.
  • The times when detriment occurs seems to be when the balance has been compromised. Coincidence? I think not. Still, I'd rather have religion in place. For the most part it motivates one to try to improve themselves......and be kind to others. I find a lot of value in that.
  • I still do!
  • Yes, it has been - but so have governments which were/are officially atheistic, such as virtually all communist governments. Their record of human rights violations and intolerance is unmatched. Here's the salient point on this: atheism or religion - both of which, if followed "religiously" (i.e. my way good, your way bad) are detrimental to society.
  • No I thought if people would be true and not just pretending the the world would be a betrter place as it would be Godly love everywhere.
  • YES and I still do. Think of al the people killed in the name of religion, all the cultures eradicated and consumed, all of the freedoms lost...it's a shame something designed to be so good is so evil.
  • religion is a foundation for a moral human code. a man with no religion will do anything if there are no laws to stop him. and remember these rules we have in society, like no stealing. no killing. sounds familiar huh. its based on religious beliefs.
  • Yes, I have and do. Having said so, I think it's possible religion was beneficial to evolving civilization. However at this point the benefits have been far outweighed by the detriments. +5
  • Every day since I reached the age of reason.
  • the majority of the people in jail are christians because they look for god because they broke the law. they are looking for a way out of the crime they commited. they need religiopn just like the rest of society.
  • Yes, It has been killing common scene scene the dawn of ignorance.
  • Religion is a broad term. Not all religions are the same and not all are detrimental to society. Anyone that says religion in general is detrimental are relying upon "statistics, studies, and polls" to get their answers instead of doing the studying themselves. I couldn't, with all good conscience, give my view on anything unless I did a thorough investigation into the matter. Going right to the source is always the best course of action.
  • I do. It is.
  • Yes. http://www.pluralism.org/news/article.php?id=2432
  • Only if it spells Jihad
  • Yes I did, and after I left the church for good at the age of 16 years old--which put me at odds with my own father, a baptist preacher--I did embark on an outright research which culminated in an assertion rather than just a *thought*. Religion has never been the underpinning for moral consciousness--its own history asserts that as an irrefutable fact. For it is well documented in the history records of the church, that its role in society, particularly during the Medieval period, was a wicked and treacherous one. And I'm not so sure that those adjectives would suffice to actually describe the monumental evil deeds of the church. The INQUISITION alone, for example, established in Europe somewhere around 1231, with its trend of totalitarianism and tiranny serve as irrefutable evidence to those charges. Whole of Europe, as the church pretentiously asserted and exerted its power, plunged into a monumental havoc that lasted for more than a thousand years. During this period Europe experienced an insurmountable decadence--not only spiritually, but intellectually as well. Essentially drifting away from what characterize people as "civilized", and retrogating into a condition only slightly better than a primitive state. This period came to be known as the "Dark Ages"--all thanks to religion.
  • Not exactly; It's religious people who cause war, hate, corruption etc.. (the concept of god and shaping the earth and all aren't too bad)
  • finally other people are starting to realize this!!!
  • Religion has been and is the most damaging experiment in social and cultural perversion we have foolishly undertaken. It took something as pure and innocent as the requirement for belief and poisoned it for nothing more than fiscal reward and political power. It is responsible for more pain and misfortune than any dictator or regime. It has more blood on it hands than all the Stalin's and Hitler's in this world combined. Religion is the ultimate confidence trick. It has managed to make people believe in something they will never see, touch, taste, or hear. Though they think they will, but only because they are told so. Not because of any evidence to prove it.
  • Along with everything taken to an extreme, and which forces others to submit has proven to be detrimental to society - to INCLUDE atheism. Cite some of the most totalitarian/authoritarian governments of the past century have been officially atheistic.
  • I use to think that way, until I got a revelation, of how most religions try to teach peace and harmony to their followers. If their followers are corrupted by non-believers, or even their own evil tyrannical authorities. then there is no telling what steps they will take to try and prove themselves. !$!$!$!$ I truly believe we all have a specific purpose given to us by our Creator.
  • Religion is a broad term that needs to be narrowed down a bit. But to answer your question, I suppose that certain types of religions could be detrimental to society.
  • I've thought that before, but I've also thought it was beneficial. It really depends on the person.
  • Yes, I have
  • I did... But it's the real meaning behind it that transcends all belief systems.. Not the rituals and sunday meetings.. It's what Jesus said. The eventual corruption of the power of the church kinda f'd things up. Yet here we are.
  • if you think that the masses comprise society and opiates are detrimental, then religion is detrimental to society
  • Society is religion. Most of the crap about religion these days is by spiritually handicapped white coats who have spent most of their lives in dorm rooms smoking and drinking. Religion has always been with people along with invention it's what brought us out the caves and into civilisation. From every excavation ever done a place of or item of worship has been found. Today we are slaves to our technology and materialism much as every society before goes when it starts it's decline so when we stop believing in each other and start pursuing individual ends society breaks done and wars start.
  • I believe fanatics of any kind are detrimental to society, that includes many other types of people other people then the religious. The parties in politics in example have an quasi-religious group following, this creates people dumb enough to vote only based on party, not based on the issues, you could run Hitler and they would vote on him if he was in their party. So the religion itself isn't the harmful part, it is those willing to push it to excess.
  • I think that the control that religion exerts over people is detrimental to their personal growth and experience on earth. I think people were meant to explore our world, not be coerced into one narrow view or be controlled by fear. God is supposed to represent unconditional love and presence, not hold people's souls as hostage under threat of eternal suffering in hell for being human and making choices that religions deem wrong. How can we grow and learn if we are under constant threat of doom and peril for allowing ourselves the opportunity of exploring all that life has to offer? Knowing that a lot of those things go directly against most religions prevents a lot of people from just being human. People cannot learn if they are not allowed freedom to make mistakes.
  • Every war is religion based, go figure.
  • Absolutely... God kills.. The Devil does to, but not near as many people.. Then the churches have outright murdered millions and millions over he centuries.
  • No. I can think of lots of things that are detrimental to society but religion is not one of them. Poverty, gangs, child-abuse, drugs, alcoholism, teenage pregnancy, divorce and crime is detrimental to society. Religion doesn't even come close. I'll never get what the vilification and obsession with religion is.
  • Anthropologically/sociologically, there is no society without religion - indeed, culture and religion are the same thing. (Or as is more commonly stated by anthropologists: "There is no such thing as religion; there is only culture.") Among the developed "Nation-States", the ones that aren't really one nation (one people with one culture) are the ones that exhibit the typically accepted traits of societal dysfunction (high rates of murder, suicide, violent crime, illiteracy, innumeracy, teen pregnancy, illegitimacy, alcoholism, drug abuse, etc. - intriguingly, all of them accept suicide directly related to the number of marginalized young males in the society, and thus something of a testosterone index), and the less cohesive the culture, and the greater the presence of alien and hybridized subcultures, the larger are the metrics of societal dysfunction. In other words, “Our diversity is our sickness.” Not that I’m arguing against the advantages of America’s so-called melting pot/mulligan stew – but it only worked well when the base remained the base, and the newcomers took on the characteristics of the base, adding only a few seasonings of their own, i.e., when the aliens adopted wasp and/or Scotch-Irish culture – completely assimilating – contributing only their cuisine, their music, their dancing, and their genes to the national mix. A strong cohesive culture and national identity, and an absence of marginalized youths, is what makes for good low scores on the various indexes of societal dysfunction. But the various indexes are biased (not so much in what they include, but in what they exclude) in favor of closed societies and especially Fascistic societies (in which national identity IS the religion and all youth are conscripted, indoctrinated, and included from an early age). The tired complaint of the anti-religious that religion is a source or cause of evil, is nonsense. LOVE - be it love of a woman, love of one's children, love of an ideal, love of country, love of one’s heritage, love of one’s ancestors, love of God, love of justice, love of "truth", or (especially) love of self - and the passion it evokes is the source of all fanaticism, zealotry, criminal behavior and, ironically, genuine hatred. (If you love your child, you hate his murderer. If you love your country, you will hate those who attack and humiliate it. If you love truth and knowledge, you will hate determined bastions of ignorance.) That passion often leads people to do evil is no condemnation of passion. What else but passion would cause people to actually do anything requiring any significant effort, risk, or sacrifice on their part? If human love and the passion and devotion it evokes are the root of all human sins of commission, then so also are they the root of all human achievements. It was religious passion that ended the slave trade - at least everywhere that Britain and its Navy held sway. It was religious passion that ended slavery in America. It was religious passion that built the first universities. It was religious passion that effected prison reform in the 18th and again in the 19th century. It was religious passion that brought literacy and primary education to the children of the masses, girls as well as boys. It was religious passion that established democracy and civil liberties in Britain, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Sweden, and America. It was religious passion that built the greatest monuments, the most beautiful works of art, and the most powerful works literature and oratory in human history. Indeed modern Liberals seem willfully blind to the fact that the origins of Liberalism are in Christianity (though its politics (view of the role of government) has been greatly confused by a bastardized combination of Catholic social doctrine (courtesy of Irish and Italian democrats) with Protestant individualism (courtesy of Anglo-Saxon Protestant Democrats) seasoned with a mass of legal legerdemain courtesy of reformed Jews). That “religion” has produced Pharisees, fanatics, and opportunistic fakes, is irrelevant – so have “science,” “reason,” and “irreligion” (e.g., the Sophists, Robespierre, Bolsheviks, eugenicists, Fascists, Maoists, Pol Pot, the Unabomber, PETA nut-jobs, and the mass of quacks and pseudo-scientists pandering some panacea or sensationalist theory).
  • Yes, religeon fills people up with fear; chauvinistic morals; pride and arrogance. If you look at it, some of the worst transgressions in history and even some people's personal lives, such as my own, were because of religion. As my brother very wisely says, "The world would be better if it were atheist."
  • There has not been a day in my life, as far as I can remember, where I have not believed that religion is detrimental to society.
  • Yes, it most certainly is!!
  • Opinionated, judgmental people are detrimental to everyone. People who carry this trait into religion do injustice to religion, people who carry this trait about other people's beliefs are just as bad.
  • at one time i blamed religion for all of the worlds evils. but since i've aged and learned much i see it's far more complex than that. there are many reasons besides religion for "evil" in the world.
  • Anything involving humans is detrimental.

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