A simple question often deserves a simple answer.

Here’s one:

Do religions do good in the world?

It seems to me that the answer to this simple question is avoided on Project Reason.

What say you?

TheBrotherMario - 02 February 2012 06:19 AM

Do religions do good in the world?

(Andrew):  Sure…no question about it.  But they do more harm than good so, on balance, we’d be better off without them.
We’ve had this conversaton several times on this forum, btw.
Here’s one.

TheBrotherMario - 02 February 2012 06:19 AM

Do religions do good in the world?

How do you see what is good, Mario? Are you like my 2nd-grade teacher who stressed to her students that serving God is what’s good—nothing else. Or do you take a more Harrisian view that positions well-being (or apparent well being) as a final structural element to what is “good”?

What is religion for purposes of this discussion?  Is there any such thing as religion as distinct from what we might otherwise consider to be a culture?  Does a religion actually DO anything?

The real question is-do we need religion to do good in the world, and the obvious answer to that is an emphatic NO.

The church I grew up in raised money for all sorts of good causes. We used to go out and do things for the community as a congregation. My parents still do.

I’m not sure why this is a question—has anyone here ever questioned that religious organizations do good work from time to time?

bigredfutbol - 02 February 2012 01:02 PM

I’m not sure why this is a question—has anyone here ever questioned that religious organizations do good work from time to time?

.

Maybe I’m being technical, but I think the question of whether “religious groups” do “good” is distinct from whether religion itself is or “does” good.

Do religions do good in the world?

Very simple answer. No they don’t. Religions poison everything, read up on how Christopher Hitchens explained this issue.

I’ll just wait here and wait for BroMario’s other shoe to drop.  You’re too predictable.

The harm religion does is vastly outweighed by any good it might do.

Die fröhliche Wissenschaft (Rob) - 03 February 2012 04:18 AM

The harm religion does is vastly outweighed by any good it might do.

(Andrew):  Eh?  Did you mean that the other way ‘round?

Andrew - 03 February 2012 04:24 AM

Die fröhliche Wissenschaft (Rob) - 03 February 2012 04:18 AM

The harm religion does is vastly outweighed by any good it might do.

(Andrew):  Eh?  Did you mean that the other way ‘round?

Sorry, I got that ass about. I meant to say:  The harm religion does vastly outweighs any good it might do.

It’s been a long day. TGIF*!

*(TGIF ≈ CH3CH2OH)

I’m glad you realised it was a mistake. I know you would not think that I, of all people, would go soft on religion or backslide. Never! Unless I got proof, or at least convincing evidence, that gods were real. Can’t see that happening.

Cancer can have positive effects too.

Mike78 - 02 February 2012 07:00 PM

bigredfutbol - 02 February 2012 01:02 PM

I’m not sure why this is a question—has anyone here ever questioned that religious organizations do good work from time to time?

.

Maybe I’m being technical, but I think the question of whether “religious groups” do “good” is distinct from whether religion itself is or “does” good.

Well, that’s why I answered the question the way I did—because from a strictly literal angle, the answer to that question is “Yes.” My point being—BM thinks he’s setting up a “gotcha”, but he really hasn’t.

To say that the harm that religions do vastly outweighs the good was not only a “predictable” statement here, but a ludicrous one.

To question what “good” would be defined as is also “predictable”, and ludicrous.

When I was a youth counselor, I was part of an organization under the umbrella of Catholic Charities.Our program was situated in a large house on 14 acres of land, donated to the Catholic Church by a religious person. This scenario is multiplied many times in my state of Mass., across the country, and around the world.

These results are ostensible—young people from terrible homes (and there are millions of them everywhere) are being taken away from their damaging environments and family members and cared for.

This is just one (very important) example of how religion enters a real problematic situation and does “good” things about it.

To look away from these young people being helped, and to make intellectual claims about the poison of religious dogmas, or whatever is going through the mind of the secular atheist, promotes nothing but the intellectual claims. If the secular atheist had something as powerful as religion to put in its place, that would be a different story.

If you think government organizations are the answer, you then have no experience of them in this regard, for such organizations have proved to be wanting and failing on many levels when dealing with people in trouble. The program I was a part of fought against representatives the government agencies of Youth Services and Social Service to keep the kids in our care in our healthy environment, rather then shipping these kids out to large buildings and to sleep on gym floors in abandoned schools. You see, these agencies get big bucks for each kid, and housing them together in large groups keeps the money in the pockets of these agencies. (Another reality to consider is that in Sweden, for example, a country that is basically non-religious, over 40% of the children in government care are sexually abused.)

Now, if you think we should dismiss all the good that religions do and all the harm that secular institutions do, and “read Hitch”, a guy who killed himself through addiction and probably spent about a minute volunteering (another great religious activity) his time for the benefit of others, to get the truth about religion and what is “good” for people, you think wrongly, and show yourself to be a person who really doesn’t know (or doesn’t care) about the problems in the world and the best means to solve them.

Another thing, if you think the scenarios of a Muslim terrorist strapping on a bomb, and a Catholic pedophile priest violating a young person (and the superiors who hid them), are due to “religious beliefs” and not the “intellectual thoughts” of these people, you would again think wrongly.

These evil actions (and many, many more) are done throughout the world in many different arenas.

Religion has not cornered the market on “evil”.

But religion seems to have more than a market’s share on “good”.

...end of shoe dropping,,,