What has religion done for humanity?

[Nutbush City Limits]

I believe Abrahamic faiths have done the most damage. I am an antitheist, but I actually quite like Paganism, Taoism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism etc., though, I would never be one myself, I have the deepest respect for them; I have no respect for the Abes.

Given us excuses to get into water fights with each other
(Image)

Happy Mesha Sankranti/Songkran to those of you who celebrate! Happy Bengali, Cambodian, Lao, Myanmarese, Nepali, Sinhalese, Tamil, Thai, and Vishu New Year!

Good point lmao. And today is my birthday, so this is really quite nice to see

[Kilobugya]

I believe Abrahamic faiths have done the most damage. I am an antitheist, but I actually quite like Paganism, Taoism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism etc., though, I would never be one myself, I have the deepest respect for them; I have no respect for the Abes.

Hindu fanatics seem to pretty harmful too, considering how they behave in India nowadays. And Tibetian variety of Buddhism was pretty authoritarian and kept the population in a feudal relationships with the monks. I don't know much about the others, but I feel the "Abrahamic faiths have done the most damage" is an availability bias, an eurocentric view, we just happen to know much more about them (and since they are "dominating" the world since many centuries have had more opportunity to do harm).

[The Blaatschapen]

I believe Abrahamic faiths have done the most damage. I am an antitheist, but I actually quite like Paganism, Taoism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism etc., though, I would never be one myself, I have the deepest respect for them; I have no respect for the Abes.

Hindu fanatics seem to pretty harmful too, considering how they behave in India nowadays. And Tibetian variety of Buddhism was pretty authoritarian and kept the population in a feudal relationships with the monks. I don't know much about the others, but I feel the "Abrahamic faiths have done the most damage" is an availability bias, an eurocentric view, we just happen to know much more about them (and since they are "dominating" the world since many centuries have had more opportunity to do harm).

Imagine the Aztec religion being so widespread

[Kilobugya]

Hindu fanatics seem to pretty harmful too, considering how they behave in India nowadays. And Tibetian variety of Buddhism was pretty authoritarian and kept the population in a feudal relationships with the monks. I don't know much about the others, but I feel the "Abrahamic faiths have done the most damage" is an availability bias, an eurocentric view, we just happen to know much more about them (and since they are "dominating" the world since many centuries have had more opportunity to do harm).

Imagine the Aztec religion being so widespread

Indeed... I hope they would have "softened", like Catholicism "softened" since the days of the Inquisition, but who knows... on that topic I remember reading an uchronia novel in which that was the case, the Great Plague had been even stronger pushing Europe back, and the Aztec ended up dominating the world. Was a funny read, but I probably wouldn't have liked living in that world.

[Odreria]

I believe Abrahamic faiths have done the most damage. I am an antitheist, but I actually quite like Paganism, Taoism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism etc., though, I would never be one myself, I have the deepest respect for them; I have no respect for the Abes.

reddit moment

[Bollonich]

deleted

[Kilobugya]

I am from India and consider myself agnostic. I recognise the shortcomings of Hinduism in many aspects, and am a staunch critic of it too, but I just wanna get a hold on exactly what you mean by Hindu fanaticism, cuz there's loads of different groups here.

I was referring mostly to the policies of BJP (which from my understanding are backed by the conservatives/fundamentalists Hindu) such as opposition to LGBT rights or anti-Muslim stances. But there is also the murder of Gandhi, even if it's a bit old, it's a symptom of a problem among some more extremist/fundamentalist/fanatical followers of Hinduism (but sure not all of them).

[Suriyanakhon]

Religion is extremely broad and I can't pretend to be familiar with the history of every civilization or religion, but my own religion (Theravada)'s contribution to humanity can be seen throughout Sinhalese and Southeast Asian history. Buddhism served to educate the population by entering the youth into monastic education, introduce the Pali language & literature, and inspire monuments such as Shwezigon Pagoda which are world heritage sites. In other parts of Asia, such as Tibet, China, and Japan, forms of Buddhism also served to educate, introduce a lingua franca, and inspire works of art which are still admired to this day.

[Aguaria Major]

By all means: tell me that is false, theist.

Do you have a fedora by any chance?

No, but I have an Irish walking cap.

[Odreria]

What has atheism done for humanity? Nazism, reddit, communism, and Nick Clegg?

[Bollonich]

deleted

[The Blaatschapen]

What has atheism done for humanity? Nazism, reddit, communism, and Nick Clegg?

Different topic.

[Eastern Aestorusia]

What has atheism done for humanity? Nazism, reddit, communism, and Nick Clegg?

That second one is oh so true.

[Aguaria Major]

What has atheism done for humanity? Nazism, reddit, communism, and Nick Clegg?

1) The Nazis weren't atheists. They believed the "master race" to be "God's chosen people", and as a result, Hitler sent archaeologists all over the world to look for relics to validate this supposed fact. The Indiana Jones movies never happened as depicted on screen since Indiana Jones is a made up character, but believe it or not: the Nazis actually did go looking for the Ark of the Covenant and the Holy Grail . Himmler specifically wasn't a Christian, and wanted to replace the existing religious order with ancient Germanic pagan religions, but the rest of the party thought he was a crackpot for this.

2) None of those other things of consequence (that last bit is key since Nick Clegg isn't responsible for genocide and dictatorship the way the USSR and other authoritarian communist states have been and his worst crime is just being annoying) are a direct result of atheism, while the millennia of genocide, persecution, violence and holy wars religion has caused are just that - caused directly religion;

Communists, for instance, don't become communists because they don't believe in god. They become communists because they believe that is the best route to a more equitable society (aside from tankies, of course - they don't care about ideology and are just in it for the hammer-and-sickle iconography).

Arguing that the dictatorial regimes of the 20th century became so because of atheism is just a straight-up lie.

[Nakena]

I believe Abrahamic faiths have done the most damage. I am an antitheist, but I actually quite like Paganism, Taoism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism etc., though, I would never be one myself, I have the deepest respect for them; I have no respect for the Abes.

Hindu fanatics seem to pretty harmful too, considering how they behave in India nowadays. And Tibetian variety of Buddhism was pretty authoritarian and kept the population in a feudal relationships with the monks. I don't know much about the others, but I feel the "Abrahamic faiths have done the most damage" is an availability bias, an eurocentric view, we just happen to know much more about them (and since they are "dominating" the world since many centuries have had more opportunity to do harm).

The irony. Oh the irony.

[Punished UMN]

I believe Abrahamic faiths have done the most damage. I am an antitheist, but I actually quite like Paganism, Taoism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism etc., though, I would never be one myself, I have the deepest respect for them; I have no respect for the Abes.

Given us excuses to get into water fights with each other
(Image)

Happy Mesha Sankranti/Songkran to those of you who celebrate! Happy Bengali, Cambodian, Lao, Myanmarese, Nepali, Sinhalese, Tamil, Thai, and Vishu New Year!

Good point lmao. And today is my birthday, so this is really quite nice to see

Whether you like it or not, Christianity is basically responsible for the proliferation of humanist ethics and the idea of "thou not it" relations; that humanity is a trait possessed by all humans and that all possessing it are entitled to a certain standard of treatment. It is not found in most other religions. Christianity often has a bad track record of putting that idea into practice, but it has that idea. The Pagan cultures had normalized infanticide (and I don't mean abortion, killing your infant children was a cultural norm throughout the world prior to Christianization) and human sacrifice (Greece and Rome practiced it to). Hinduism and Taoism had widow-burning (where the crowd would toss the widow of the deceased onto his funeral pyre) and the latter had cannibalism.

[Punished UMN]

Hindu fanatics seem to pretty harmful too, considering how they behave in India nowadays. And Tibetian variety of Buddhism was pretty authoritarian and kept the population in a feudal relationships with the monks. I don't know much about the others, but I feel the "Abrahamic faiths have done the most damage" is an availability bias, an eurocentric view, we just happen to know much more about them (and since they are "dominating" the world since many centuries have had more opportunity to do harm).

The irony. Oh the irony.

While there is irony there, he's completely right.

[Bollonich]

deleted

[Talvezout]

Honestly, the main issue with threads like these is that they are topics that are incredibly nebulous - one can argue that humanity has done damage under the guise of religion since time immemorial. Now does this mean religion itself is fundamentally flawed? While I am a wavering Catholic who has been grasping with my beliefs, I would say no. But does this mean that people have not done harm while under the belief of religion? Also no.

Also this question is always Christian-centric - as seen by a post previous in the thread, it's a little foolish to claim that Abrahamic religions have done the most damage when you can argue major religions all over the world have ostensibly done damage. After all, humans are social creatures, and will look for any valuable reason to exclude the "other" - religion is just an easy way to do so.

(Also, this is a minor quibble but it is somewhat annoying that people are content to label Abrhamaic religions as "bad" when they almost exclusively refer to Western Christianity and Islam (to an extent). Eastern Christianity is a whole different beast, plus what has Judaism, Baháʼí Faith, Bábism, Druzism, Mandaeism, Samaritanism, Shabakism, Rastafarianism, etc., done that warrants such ad hominem attacks?)

[Zurkir]

Honestly, the main issue with threads like these is that they are topics that are incredibly nebulous

Perhaps that’s the point. I offered enough to lay the foundation for discussion and aside from the here-and-there whining about something that - as I’m saying for the third time - is a big general theatre of discussion entertained among academics I’m satisfied with what I’ve seen.

Part of the slight vagueness in the base point is it allowed for a diversity in direction when it came to interaction and debate.

[Washington Resistance Army]

I believe Abrahamic faiths have done the most damage. I am an antitheist, but I actually quite like Paganism, Taoism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism etc., though, I would never be one myself, I have the deepest respect for them; I have no respect for the Abes.


Good point lmao. And today is my birthday, so this is really quite nice to see

Whether you like it or not, Christianity is basically responsible for the proliferation of humanist ethics and the idea of "thou not it" relations; that humanity is a trait possessed by all humans and that all possessing it are entitled to a certain standard of treatment. It is not found in most other religions. Christianity often has a bad track record of putting that idea into practice, but it has that idea. The Pagan cultures had normalized infanticide (and I don't mean abortion, killing your infant children was a cultural norm throughout the world prior to Christianization) and human sacrifice (Greece and Rome practiced it to). Hinduism and Taoism had widow-burning (where the crowd would toss the widow of the deceased onto his funeral pyre) and the latter had cannibalism.

Rome outlawed human sacrifice a hundred years before Christ was born and the act was already so rare in the Greco-Roman world it was mostly a symbolic gesture.

[Senkaku]

I believe Abrahamic faiths have done the most damage. I am an antitheist, but I actually quite like Paganism, Taoism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism etc., though, I would never be one myself, I have the deepest respect for them; I have no respect for the Abes.


Good point lmao. And today is my birthday, so this is really quite nice to see

Whether you like it or not, Christianity is basically responsible for the proliferation of humanist ethics and the idea of "thou not it" relations; that humanity is a trait possessed by all humans and that all possessing it are entitled to a certain standard of treatment. It is not found in most other religions. Christianity often has a bad track record of putting that idea into practice, but it has that idea. The Pagan cultures had normalized infanticide (and I don't mean abortion, killing your infant children was a cultural norm throughout the world prior to Christianization) and human sacrifice (Greece and Rome practiced it to). Hinduism and Taoism had widow-burning (where the crowd would toss the widow of the deceased onto his funeral pyre) and the latter had cannibalism.

Getting into a dick-measuring contest about which centuries-old, continent-spanning religious/cultural traditions committed worse atrocities is... probably not a recipe for anything but a long and ultimately fruitless threadjack.

[Zurkir]

Whether you like it or not, Christianity is basically responsible for the proliferation of humanist ethics and the idea of "thou not it" relations; that humanity is a trait possessed by all humans and that all possessing it are entitled to a certain standard of treatment. It is not found in most other religions. Christianity often has a bad track record of putting that idea into practice, but it has that idea. The Pagan cultures had normalized infanticide (and I don't mean abortion, killing your infant children was a cultural norm throughout the world prior to Christianization) and human sacrifice (Greece and Rome practiced it to). Hinduism and Taoism had widow-burning (where the crowd would toss the widow of the deceased onto his funeral pyre) and the latter had cannibalism.

Getting into a dick-measuring contest about which centuries-old, continent-spanning religious/cultural traditions committed worse atrocities is... probably not a recipe for anything but a long and ultimately fruitless threadjack.

That’s religion debate 101, didn’t you know?

[Suriyanakhon]

Whether you like it or not, Christianity is basically responsible for the proliferation of humanist ethics and the idea of "thou not it" relations; that humanity is a trait possessed by all humans and that all possessing it are entitled to a certain standard of treatment. It is not found in most other religions. Christianity often has a bad track record of putting that idea into practice, but it has that idea. The Pagan cultures had normalized infanticide (and I don't mean abortion, killing your infant children was a cultural norm throughout the world prior to Christianization) and human sacrifice (Greece and Rome practiced it to). Hinduism and Taoism had widow-burning (where the crowd would toss the widow of the deceased onto his funeral pyre) and the latter had cannibalism.

Rome outlawed human sacrifice a hundred years before Christ was born and the act was already so rare in the Greco-Roman world it was mostly a symbolic gesture.

And many forms of Daoism strictly prescribed vegetarianism to the extent that even milk and bread were avoided because they were considered “impure,” while there were some which had a more lenient view toward meat, none that I'm aware of ever advocated cannibalism. Unless we're going on legends about cannibalistic ogres and demons who tried to eat holy figures because they thought their flesh would make them immortal, but that would be like asserting that the Bible advocates listening to weird snakes about apples.

[Aerlanica]

Religion, in it's earliest form, allowed humanity to give reason and explanation to the unexplainable. Thor being the god of lightning, god creating heaven and the earth, the world tree in Norse Mythology and Japan being formed from fragments of coral all gave humanity a way to give reasoning and understanding to what they didn't know. When science came along, it may have omitted this need for religion, yet people still follow it.

Likewise, it also gave humans a way to base morals and ways to follow life. Looking along humanity we see the golden rule reflected in Islam, Judaism, Christianity. The Ten Commandments, the noble eightfold path, the beatitudes, maybe even some virtues of the pantheons, all these ways gave information to humans to just not be jerks, to love one another and to follow a set of rules.

However, religion has also been used as a weapon of war. The crusades, jihad, sacrifices of prisoners of war to gods, hell, even saying christianity was under threat from the communists. Stating that not doing something will send you to hell. The Protestant churches supporting the Nazi's. Religion has been used for good and for bad.

So what has religion done for humanity?

If there was no religion, why would people have need to work virtuously and kindly in the past? if there was no Jesus, would people love their neighbour? would they fear the day of judgement, or jahannam, if they acted in a less than savoury way. Would they not strive for inner peace and kindness if there was no Nirvana? probably not.

But it also means that if there was no religion, humanity would be very different. Maybe we would have advanced more. Maybe there would have been a higher emphasis on humanism. Maybe we would have advanced that little bir quicker. Or maybe without purpose or meaning, without understanding, without anything to rely on as a solid foundation of "why the world was" we would have faded away. We will never know.

So what has religion done for humanity? In my opinion, it's shown how we're human. How we want to understand what's going on, how we want order, how we want some sense of reasoning and understanding in the world. How we want to have guidance even if it is not our own judgement. How fear can be used to bring order, how change is not welcome. How we want to know and understand. It's shown how we can conform, or resist, how we can sacrifice or hold dear to our morals and beliefs.

I recognise that my answer is one from an agnostic perspective, and I understand that I may have upset some individuals. For that, I apologise. However, this is how I see religion. You may see it differently, and that is my final point. Religion may be helpful to some, it may give them guidance and hope. Religion may be seen as a capitalist, or conservative construct focusing on placating the masses. It may be seen as a dynamic tradition constantly adapting to the advancing ages, or it may be seen as an outdated construct that we must shire before we advance.

Maybe Religion has served it's purpose, or maybe we still need it. I don't know.

The answer to that question, of what religion has done for humanity, is not as black and white as 1 + 1 = 2. To find a definite answer is...well...not so simple.

So I end my answer with this; the answer to that question, What has Religion done for Humanity, is not set in stone, rather, it is dynamic as the weather and the ocean currents; always changing, always moving, never constant. Your answer to that question may be similar or different to others, but ultimately, your answer is your own.

And never, ever let anyone force you to change that. But never force someone to change theirs.