Athiests, Turning it on its head, what are good points about religion?

[chimpanzees88]

Atheists you are well known for the dislike of religion and lack of belief in god, however there must be some good points about religion which you have adopted may it be being kind to others or giving to charity.. so what are they..

 

[EmotionsBlindYourLogic]

A good person doesn't need religion to be good, my friend. The second largest, formerly first, transparent charity in the world is the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation. He is an atheist. If religious people do "good" deeds and use coercion then it is not a good deed. See aid in Africa as an example. Good begets good by example only. Coercion is not needed and does not work to beget good.

 

[RockMySocks]

Religion does have its good points, I am glad that such a system exists that people can use faith to help them and make them strong and gives them something to lean on, Its a useful psychological device for some people.
Sure charity and kindness are both great too but these things are not mutually exclusive to being religious, there are plenty of charity organisations with no religious connections.

 

[RobertAbuse]

Nope, can`t think of any.

Religion did not start such things as kindness and charity by the way.

 

[AstroPhobia]

I don't dislike religion, i dislike the religious people who preach all the time and claim they're 100% right and that everything from the bible is "fact".

I can't think of many good things tbh, religion causes wars, women being inferior to men, racism etc.

 

[RebeccaLaurie]

There are individual theists whom I respect, such as Francis Collins. (If you don't know who he is, he headed the human genome project for years. He's also a devout Catholic).

I also respect the fact that religions have founded many hospitals.

As for the charities and missionaries, I have mixed feelings about them. When I was a Christian and a student at Olivet University, I saw first hand in Cameroon, Africa how the starving are bribed with food and medicine to convert to the doctrine. I prefer to donate to secular charities like "OxFam, UNICEF, Doctors without Borders, Project Share, and so forth because they feed the starving and bring medical supplies without making some poor mother convert to Christianity just to get a bowl of rice for her baby.

I can't think of anything "good" done by a religious person that hasn't been done, or couldn't be done, by a non-religious person.On the other hand, I can think of many "bad" things done because of religion, such as honor killings, that would NOT have been committed without religion.

 

[ThePortugueseguy]

ahahahah
I haven't adopted anything of religion! I don't like evil things.
I am a vegetarian, blood donar, i also helped many people throughout my life, but it all comes from my conscience.

 

[Badhorse]

Some of the theists on here say that if they didn't believe in god they just wouldn't care about anyone else. So I guess religion can be good because those people don't turn a blind eye to the world like they say they would if there wasn't a god.

 

[Morgan]

It provides people with hope, makes some people follow a moral code out of fear of eternal damnation, it makes life less scary.

 

[Parrot]

Religion does do some good in the world; I don't deny that. What I deny is that you absolutely need religion to do it. Good people would do good things anyway, whether they're religious or not.