Question by Ninja Rabbit 007: How many atheists/agnostics can admit that religion/spirituality does do good in the world?
That religion/spirituality isn’t all bad and evil?
I’m an atheist and I can still see the value and importance that religion/spirituality play in the world. And the many good things that come out of religion/spirituality.
This question isn’t just exclusive to Christianity, Islam, or Judaism; but rather any and all forms of religion/spirituality.
Best answer:
Answer by Espouse obfuscation
Sure, I’ll admit it. But it does more bad than good.
Add your own answer in the comments!
One.
I think there was a guy named Hitler who thought he was doing good because of his religion.
‘In his speeches and publications Hitler spoke of Christianity as a central motivation for his antisemitism, stating that “As a Christian I have no duty to allow myself to be cheated, but I have the duty to be a fighter for truth and justice’ -wikipedia
I know it’s a fallacy to associate, but you have to agree that ‘good’ is a perspective of personal agenda.
It does do good on an individual level, but when it spreads it’s just nonsense.
i can’t agree.
Yes. There are a few religions that I find to be peaceful.
The Abrahamic faiths are the most violent. The violence is written in their texts.
Worship of a cruel God can foster cruelty from its followers.
What good has ANY religion ever done for the world, EVER? There’s a better question for you.
Look at Blood Song, for example. Passing judgement as taught by her particular religious faith. Is this making her a good person? No.
*Edit*
I have plenty of ‘Thumbs Down’ but no one has yet to tell me one good thing Religion has done for both our past or present.
Sure. Plenty of things I disagree with do some good in the world.
Well, they have done a good job of keeping the population down with all of the holy wars and murders they commit.
I guess they have to do a certain amount of charity work so people won’t completely turn away from them, but they don’t seem to do much of that these days.
religion and spirituality are two totally different things. but yeah, they can do good.
How is being delusional productive for anyone? I mean sure playing pretend might make people feel better but does it really do any good? What other forms of “Religion/Spirituality” are productive? New age healing? Scientology? No all of it needs to go.
Well, I would separate religion and spirituality. Spirituality is fine, but religion brings along tons of problems.
There are people, and there’s organised religion. If people can be sufficiently inspired to do good as a result of spiritual experiences, and if a group of people brought together by a shared faith can help others better than they do alone, not only is that a good thing, but it’s the core function of religion.
Any logical and reasonable person can see that in a world completely void of religion people would be more tolerant and more intelligent.
Like wars, blocking scientific advance and telling people they are sinners no matter what?
Sure, I concede it does some good. But the bad outweighs the good, to be honest.
Now that is a brave and sensible statement.It appears that you are not of the “all or nothing” philosophy based on pride and principle.I admire that in anyone who admits to what is as clear as day !!!
God bless,(and a gold star)
Catholic.
Religion does do good, I’ll admit that. It’s not the religion itself, it’s the people who abuse their influence and give certain religions a bad face. People usually then just generalize from there.
Certainly religion does some good. Nobody denies that it does some evil too. The tough question is whether it does more good than evil.
Do people who are religious or spiritual do good? Absolutely. Do these people do good because of their religion. That’s a trickier question.
Most religions have in their dogmas and doctrines statements they are supposed to follow that are both morally sound and morally reprehensible.
But by which criteria do those religious people choose which ones to obey and which ones to ignore?
Societies change, morals change and the religious community is no different. But those changes are independent from religion. It’s easy to look in a religious text and cherry pick those parts that agree with modern ethics, but you have to skip over an absolute horrorshow of grotesque statements and commandments to find them.
Christopher hitchens asked these two questions on his last book tour.
Name me an ethical statement made or an action performed by a believer that could not have been made or performed by a non-believer
Name me an evil statement made or an action performed that could only be made by a believer
the first remains unanswered, the second should take anyone less than 30 seconds.
christianity and islam is guilty for many evils
spirituality is different to religion
spirituality is great for the world, and ourselves
but organised religion, no, its not good for the world
beleifs and hope, faith and spirituality are good for the world
but when they get messed up with all of humanitys worst traits, that religion brings forth in most people, well, thats nothing but damaging for us and the world
Of course it does good in the world. I also recognize that it is a coin, where the obverse side also has many bad aspects as well.