Retiredstev

The religious have been the vast majority forever and to think they are not the greatest force of evil in the world is foolish.

It would be like saying the vast majority did not breath the most polluted air.

The religious can be said to have dominated most reals, --- except for the truth in most of us, that says that there is no supernatural god, --- but we will stay in that belief for our tribes and families.

Love for family and tribe first, Truth second.

Nice that the lie part from believers is dying.

In the past I would spend hours to fill pages with a long list of independent examples of how religion has destroyed the lives of specific individuals. As for the world? religions based on faith (belief in things wished for without ( and in some cases defiance of evidence supported truth) has hobbled the minds of many faithful to be oblivious to the reality that our actions have consequences. The results of religion inspired faith over facts supported by evidence (scientific method) have provided and continue to provide significant damage to our world. For example, religious inspired "Jesus will keep our world good until he comes to save the faithful" climate change deniers in positions of authority who promote the unsupportable degradation of the chemical balance of our world by failing to recognize and subsequently support or fail to manage fossil fuels have and will continue to destroy the fragile ecosystem we have thrown out of balance. Years ago I taught my middle school science students research climate change. No longer. Too dire. Long ago I was stuck for about an hour next to a minister while waiting for a helicopter. He asked me why I didn't respect his authority. I explained to him his position as a promoter of faith "truth" devoid of fact or actual fact based truth damaged the way people understand the world and we can no longer afford to make decision based on fact free faith based "Truth" over real world demonstrable testable truth Before the helicopter arrived he recognized his position as a promoter of faith over facts was damaging our world. He was in tears. I told him about checking out the Clergy Project but months later, he was still promoting his faith.

If you are actually curios, check out potholer54 youtube channel and other feeds that end with .edu (domain name reserved for college and university). Science deniers (people of faith) are in the process of destroying our world.

On a simpler lever, this debate exemplifies evils conducted specifically by the Catholic church.

I'd say it is very true.

If you just consider the insistence in believing myths, so people start from a position believing a lot that just isn't true. It puts people at an intellectual disadvantage.

Then there is all the hate, and the use of beliefs to discriminate, do general harm and kill those who believe differently, or have different cultures, or just don't fit into the narrow minded box of beliefs of a particular religion.

Stop it.

You sound stupid.

On a site like this, one sees most often criticisms of 'religions' rooted in how they've directily fueled and motivated many overt forms of terrible human destructiveness. My opinions don't exclude those kinds of connections but go what I believe to be more deeply and primarily as causes of harm. Whether the harm or good is 'true' depends on the scope of one's world..

Frame of reference has EVERYTHING to do with how things like religion, good and harm are defined. My frame predates current and even many ancient religious narratives and myths. Things exist for reasons and truth is best discerned by accurate (sometimes lucky) interpretations of motivations served by outcomes, expected and not.

Human imagination is a gift of powerful but often dubious value; depending on who is doing the conjuring. The world, in the broadest and longest sense is a frightening place for all species. Having reasoning and imagining ability ought to better serve us than it has and probably would have, had our 'kind' not been so ready to turn over the work required to reason and imagine to others only too anxious to assume those duties for us. Somewhere in the nascent fog of paleolithic existence we hungered for understanding when our fledgling ability to think and reason welcomed assistance. This was also a time of dawning for the world's oldest profession. No, its not the one you think.

My best guess is the earliest profession was also the earliest 'racket' as well; feeding, as all rackets do, on human insecurities, fears and ignorance. In later microcosm, that racket reappeared as the earliest organized crime racket. Protection is the, incidentally, elder twin of Salvation and both are functionally identical; just as politics and religion share common functional principles. The names differentiate and change depending upon theaters in which they are employed, but they are as united as right and left hands.

With a reaction to a new environment being, as it makes sense to be: 'What is this place? Whats it about? Why am I here? The most natural behavior is to set out answering those distinctly human concerns. When trauma touches us fear results and how much more ripe a condition could there be to welcome answers and protection from those fears? Cultures readily provided canon compatible functionaries to provide for those insecurities while also serving family/clan/tribal associations and traditions.

These were relatively benign aspects of ancient cultures into the Neolithic period wherein human societies, hand in hand with advancing agriculture and migrations necessitated by desertification began to become more male dominated and property oriented. Along with the expansion of both concepts of rightful male domination and property definitions concomitant changes also occurred in religions. Strong, angry, jealous, proprietary male godheads also proliferated and goddesses waned in status along with women and children. Women and progeny further degraded in status to that of property, like slaves and livestock.

This is where I see the dawning of religion as a destructive, cursing presence over human societies. It is rightfully observed that the family is the building block of societies. They are also the building blocks of character structure and function. The individual human character structure is but a building block of the family; albeit differentiated. One and all, individuals are the ELEMENTS of society and 'building block (compounds) families'.

We wonder how do millions of people for eons readily accept enslavement to some iconic, exalted leader who ultimately becomes a tyrant? It is the structure of that into which they were born; an omnipotent, unquestionable 'father' upon whom ALL depend for definition, protection and sustenance. We're hard-wired for it after 6,000 or more years of variations on the same male dominated principles.

Theology has never completely separated from secular authoritarian institutions even with the advent of self and relative self-government. The last, best attempt was made in the USA and with relative success. But to be charitable to our nation's founders; who can crawl out of a cesspool without a coating of residue? Theology, the oldest profession, has never ceased to hold out that post-life guarantee of Paradise and to a degree, morsels of present life salvation for any and all 'takers'. Read 'rice Christians'.

Newbies and serious competition for theologies were ideologues ala Marx et al, offering their own brands of promises in return for loyalty to the ideology 'godhead' promising more palpable forms of Paradise right here on terra firma but still, always, sometime in the future. Pie in the sky and on Earth are both forms of salvation to frightened mental captives. The price? Loyalty says it all. Merely surrender, abdicate your most precious human gifts of reasoning and imagination and the 'ism' will take care of the rest in either or both 'worlds'.

Denominations of people like currency, have ideological and theological value assignments, with 'their own' members being highest, god and destiny favored specimens with all others of lesser status. As lessers they're expendable, beginning with the least. It is the basis for dehumanization and license of our most murderous, distinctly male propensities.

Religion more harm than good? There's no contest but between gods and ideological competitors. Both are products of exclusively male dominated "civilization" for 6+ thousand years. Both merely serve up protective, infallible fathers to feed deeply ingrained expectations within flawed human character structures.

A world wherein women and children share parity of status and importance within their respective natural roles in human societies and in which property no longer includes humans in any status holds a promise of real protection and salvation. Would that any of our generations could survive to witness it.

Ask the Jews.
Religion is superstition, so how useful is superstition?
If religion is needed to compel sharing, where does that leave true kindness?
Under religion, charity is poisoned with insincerity and reduced to being a cheap recruiting gimmick.
Religion is all about imposing absolutes where they turn into hate and exclusion.
Religion utterly destroys the intrinsic ethics people are born with, replacing them with idiotic myths.
Where is the true, honest, honorable good provided by religion?
What good provided is by religion that isn't poisoned by greed and ulterior motives?

The worst harm, billions brainwashed.

I recommend that you not worry about it at all. It is Saturday night afterall....

Any who have studied war will know that religions are the major cause of war.

Even as we speak, the religious use homophobia and misogyny to mentally war against better than half of the world population.

Nothing quite like religions that have you hate your own women and gay children.

Regards
DL

Religion does no more harm than the equations of quantum mechanics. People who claim to be religious do both good things and harmful things in the name of their religion. It is helpful to think analytically about such matters.

Religion itself has never done any good
Most of the good that religion lays claim to being responsible for, was throughout the ages, the work of dedicated morally genuine people who happened to be religious. These men and women would have done so anyway without their faith, but are modest enough to allow their "god" to take the credit.
Unfortunately their personal god is all to often personified by smug amoral priests in extravagant robes willing to take payment for another's act of freely gifted charity.

Those events for which religions have definitely be responsible were were acts of monstrous cruelty
CRUSADES
INQUISITIONS
POGROMS
WITCH HUNTS
HERETIC BURNINGS
GENOCIDES
EXTIRPATIONS
CHILD EXPLOITATION
DEATH BED THIEVERY
TERRORISM
HOLOCAUSTS
FORCED CONVERSION
SEXUAL DISCRIMINATION
HOMOSEXUAL PERSECUTION
AND UNENDING WARS

It seems you are moreso referring to theocracy a form of government.

Religion ... pure and faultless is this: to help widows and orphans in need and avoiding worldly corruption. James 1:27

There are forms of theocracies that has perhaps done more harm than good. It also depends on what side you are on as to viewing if it was good or not. And the sixe of the theocracy and how much population it had an effect on.

Like the United States of America theocracy government of the Masonic lodge secret religion racist devil worshipper European invador governmental terrorist since their freedom from England July 4th, 1776 raping these lands from the original indigenous inhabitants calling them such as Mexicans, indian and native American to establish their mark of the beast-666 capitalism slavery in accordance with biblical text is often considered "good" by some "patriototic" people.

On the other hand some small theocracies by people like atheist and agnostic Jim Jones only really effected the 900+ people killed by drinking the agnostic atheist koolaid.

I do not know whether it has caused more harm or more good in the past, and I don't think that it would ever be possible to tell. What is certain is that its claims to be the originator of morality are certainly false. Since being a social animal we certainly had an instinctive morality in the beginning, and the earliest codified moralities, probably started with political institutions like clans, tribes and trade networks, since almost all known early religions are morally neutral, and politics began long before religions saw the profit to be gained in being players in the morality game. They were late on the scene.

The problem with religion however is that, there are, both, good and bad morals, and religion alone of all human intellectual institutions makes no distinction between them. It can support anything from, giving all your goods to the poor, to human torture and sacrifice in order to feed the blood lust of the gods. Without any demand for proof or justification. Unlike philosophy which at least demands logic, science which demands that as plus experimental proof as well, and democracy which at least asks for the weak justification of popular support.

And given that traditional theist religion, has now been totally eclipsed in the market place of ideas as a provider of good morality, by modern secular institutions, such as human rights, secular law, respect for democratic principles, secular education, moral philosophy, social sciences, and international law etc. etc. The only people who will have a real use for religion in the future, are those who wish to pedal bad morality, and need to find ways to justify that, by using institutions which can command unthinking respect without asking questions. So that to my mind at least the love affair between religion and evil, will only get ever deeper, closer and more totally complete as time goes on.

Religious leaders hungry for power do the harm religion just makes it easier

In my opinion, it was more the people who did all the harm in its name by perverting whatever was written in the considered "Holy Books". In older times, where life was brutal, might have been needed to give a sense of guidance to people. Nowadays, it has lost its purpose as people have better sense of right and wrong. Nevertheless, the same way many religious people did very wrong in the name of it, also many did good. Those people who did wrong in itsname, and many still doing, give religion a bad name.

Both the most conservative and most liberal apologists take the position that religion was a crutch that the world no longer needs.

No way to measure scientifically. Opinions will vary according to personal preference. My personal view is that religion originally saved H.sapiens from extinction, but is now probably pushing us toward it if not reformed.

Religion has caused more harm than anything else ever!

Not sure how to measure a quantity of truth but it's pretty obvious to any object observer that the claim that the harm is small ignores reality.