Do you agree that religion is ultimately a destructive force in the world?

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I'm not talking about personal belief. Seeking personal enlightenment through spirituality is fine and dandy. What I mean is religion as an institution- "we are the only way to salvation". Surely through its dogma and inhibition of true enlightenment (discovery), religion has a negative impact on the development of society? Please no answers claiming that religion is the basis of all moral values and creativity... It quite clearly isn't. The beauty of art and human morality was around a long time before any modern religion.
 
I disagree. By pretending religion has special significance in human history, you're giving it a divine power which I don't believe it has. In other words, giving religion so much credit or blame is just an extension of pretending it's holy when it isn't (I'm an Atheist, so I obviously don't think it is).

Religion did not swoop down and command people to do anything. People invented it. People reinforced it, often by force. People bowed to it willingly and killed or stopped thinking in its name. In every step of the process, it was people that decided what to believe and how to practice.

You give an evil person a fork, it becomes a weapon. You give a regular person a fork, and it's just an eating utensil. Religion is no different. It's a cultural artifact that is modified by the context of the believers culture. It's a two-way street like everything else, obviously, but still: it's to ways. Religion does not inherently cause one outcome.
 
Ultimately? That's highly debatable but one way to look at it is that so far as I'm aware no atheists or agnostics of flown a plane full of innocent people into a building full of innocent people, nor have any bombed at a Planned Parenthood clinic or blown themselves up in a crowded marketplace. The irony of religion run amok is what people will do in the name of their God.
 
Nope

I think if religion never existed then something else would have filled the void.

We are social creatures that like to gather in like minded groups.
Religion doesnt inhibit true enlightenment and discovery anymore than any other group does. People in positions of power used human behavior and religion to push agendas. That can happen in any group or organization because some people are just followers by nature.
 
Only Christianity and Islam seem to be the destructive force in the world, because they seem to be the only religion that truly thinks that they are the only way to salvation.
 
I think religion is a tool like anything else. It can be positive or negative depending on who is using it, but used correctly and in the way God intended it is always positive.
 
Religion has led to the most destructive conflicts mankind has ever experienced over the millennia.

It has no place in modern society.
 
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