It's not as obvious as you make it out to be. The charity, values and hope that you speak of......people had, and practiced, all of these virtues way before there was ever any religion. All religion did was come along and claim those virtues as their own. As if us poor humans would still be no better than club wielding neanderthals without it. One question: If religious people are so on the side of salvation, redemption, spiritual second chances and all that, why have I never heard of a religious person saying a prayer for the person/entity that needs it the most? The devil. Why hate on him like they do? Why not love him like they love all others?
Counter arguments -If people would donate the amount of money to charities instead of giving it to the church... just imagine the good that would do. The church here loves to praise how "they give money to charity" and use that very excuse to justify all the donations etc that they get. And then when someone did a bit of research, it turned out that less than 5% of their budget went to charity. -And how many stories of priests abusing small children have we heard? So is the church better at "teaching values" than any other institution... for example school or as common sense would dictate: your own home? -Hope. Or false hope? I guess that's the question... but I do understand your point here. Some people do feel better because they pray... even if it doesn't do anything. So I guess I'll accept this point... kinda like placebo medicine. It's purely psychological but it works.
One of the issues is that religion is more than just church and God these days. I visited a spiritual retreat that was supposed to be ( I use those words for a reason) affiliated with UU, and thus those principles held. I found that to be a farce as no one went to church (a few chose to) most people there didn't hold the beliefs and they always asked for donations for the retreat. I never donated ( I volunteered there) because I could see how the money was spent and ow hypocritical it all was. People also noticed this, as when it came to Thanksgiving, they wanted to charge a large amount for dinner only, and as a result they only got 6 bookings, and people mentioned it was supposed to be a church based place, so why was it all about the money. Religion has become a business, and has lost sight of it's original intent, which was to guide and help those in need.
I'd argue that religion has been a business for over a thousand years already. Probably even earlier. Remember how in the middle ages all your sins were forgiven if you made a sizeable donation to the church? D
Religious provides moral guidance to those who otherwise may stray into immorality. Of course some people don't need religion to be moral, but many do. I'd say it provides a good framework by which to lead a life, and helps form communities. Overall I'd generally say it is good.
I'm an atheist, but I definitely recognize the positive impact of religions on many people. In fact I've often envied the sense of inner peace and positivity and joy that radiates from many of the Christians (and Mormons!) that I've met. The concept of religion as a whole has never made any sense to me, but I definitely see the good that religion can do in people's lives. It just isn't for me, and never has been.
Those thing you sad for are quite irrelevant to those things you said against. I am just being pragmatic about this. I am not so good with history but i know that my religion ( Orthodox Christianity) differs a lot from Catholicism. I do not remember any wars were led by and for my church. Still, in medieval ages people were very pious and although they did not fight in the name of God like Crusades or Muslims,they believed God will justify their cause and will help them if they are righteous.The wars we had were always for freedom and never to conquer. I might be wrong about this but still i cannot find those pure and basic facts about good that religion brought to our world. It is as if the point of it is to manipulate the crowds and use them for benefits of some third party.
I think, Positive impact of Religion, possible only when world's population is well balanced, Education system must be better, Human must have Freedom of speech and Law system must be Morals based. On Earth, we have limited natural resources and without food and water, hard to follow morals of any religion. Poverty in world rising fast, so, trust on religion is getting weak. millions abuse religions, but before abusing they don't check, Did they took responsibility as a Citizen of this world ? In world, we can't expect same culture everywhere , but basic morals same everywhere. In short, Positive impact of Religion only possible, when there will be no beggar in world. when economies will take rid of word Poverty. Some people are educated but, to earn bread and butter is very hard for them and some people have bread and butter but they consider education as negligible factor. Provide bread and butter to educated people and who have bread and butter take proper actions against or in favor of them so they promote education. I think, this is big challenge in front of us or economies.
I feel like only postive thing is for example if you are on drugs and you turn your life around by going to religion. Other than that I feel like religion is on earth to control people. Just think about it. It tells you what to eat, how to talk, how to carry yourself, and etc. But if you are doing bad for yourself and you turn to religion it can get you out of trouble but you will turn to a zombie
It has been my general opinion that even though, religions have been used mostly as excuses to go to war while they have also been influenced but other factors. Most of the time people want land, money, and power, and use religion as the reason for going to war. Religion also do much charity work, so yes I believe that religions have a large influence.
