Organised religion creates more problems than it solves?

~ Throughout human history the institutionalized religions have contributed far more to creating problems in the world than they have contributed to solving them. ~

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?
And why?

I agree cause it is the truth, the fact of pushing/forcing ones faith and whats goes with that faith on others makes up great part of our history

Originally posted by xmarksthespot
~ Throughout human history the institutionalized religions have contributed far more to creating problems in the world than they have contributed to solving them. ~

To what extent do you agree or disagree with this statement?
And why?

Religion has been used by powerful people to do evil things. So, I agree

just to point out faith and religion aint only the christian way

Originally posted by Storm
Religion is a powerful factor in many conflicts around the world. Sometimes it is a cause for conflict, sometimes it simply helps sustain conflict, and other times it is used as a pretext for conflicts that have deeper roots in other issues.

Insightful stuff. But with the "And why?" I was looking more for specifics of how organised religion has contributed to the world's problems or contributed to solutions for them.

I agree that some religions like christianity, judaism, islam,... involved in politics and cause more problems than they solved, but there are religions which never envolved in politics, like buddhism, hinduism, jainism,....

yes Atlantis........but.....

if you had a magic genie who could grant you any wish you wanted. If that genie specificly asked you, "do you want me to make it so religion would never have existed?"............what would be your answer? There's always going to be some throwing out of the good with the bad.......but is it a fair price, would it be worth it?

the good men of religion throughout history would lose nothing, they would still be good men. All the bad things that have happend which has been attributed to religion would however be gone. Millions upon millions of innocent lives would be redeemed.

I think religions should be like a branch of the philosophy, there is nothing wrong with philosophy, its just knowledge... and I like knowledge. There are religions which are like this.

Originally posted by Atlantis001
I think religions should be like a branch of the philosophy, there is nothing wrong with philosophy, its just knowledge... and I like knowledge. There are religions which are like this.

Yes, and is very divisive...that's the main problems with it...It's always the US against THEM....the we are right and everybody is wrong...and will show you with our army of Missionaries...It's a missionary war.
It's crept into politics and has divided the country, used as a tool...

Of course there's the bloody history of the Inquisitions and the crusades...It's like McDonald's...It's everywhere.

Originally posted by xmarksthespot
I like knowledge too, however I'm of the view that all knowledge should be dynamic and mutable as new information arises. Organised religion tends to indoctrinate an inflexible "knowledge".

That I agree too. That is the problem of religions like Christianity, they try to explain the universe in a scientifically way, they want to do the science job, and they forget that god is a metaphysical concept. But there is religions who remain in the philosophical nature of religion. And I do not mean to indoctrinate philosophically the people, but they should be like philosophy is... a perpective.

Truth is always the enemy of power. And power the enemy of truth....So it is with religion.

Originally posted by Evil Dead
yes Atlantis........but.....

if you had a magic genie who could grant you any wish you wanted. If that genie specificly asked you, "do you want me to make it so religion would never have existed?"............what would be your answer? There's always going to be some throwing out of the good with the bad.......but is it a fair price, would it be worth it?

the good men of religion throughout history would lose nothing, they would still be good men. All the bad things that have happend which has been attributed to religion would however be gone. Millions upon millions of innocent lives would be redeemed.

I hate to say this, but I disagree. There will alway be wrong and great evil acts. Religion is not the cause of these evil acts nor is Satan. I admit, religion has done it's share of evil acts, but the responsibility falls on the shoulders of us, all of us over all of history.
The good news is, sense the cause is us, we are the only thing that can fix the problem. To cast the responsibility onto religion is to misdirect responsibility and remove any chance for change.

Originally posted by debbiejo
Truth is always the enemy of power. And power the enemy of truth....So it is with religion.

Originally posted by Shakyamunison
I hate to say this, but I disagree. There will alway be wrong and great evil acts. Religion is not the cause of these evil acts nor is Satan. I admit, religion has done it's share of evil acts, but the responsibility falls on the shoulders of us, all of us over all of history.
The good news is, sense the cause is us, we are the only thing that can fix the problem. To cast the responsibility onto religion is to misdirect responsibility and remove any chance for change.

Originally posted by xmarksthespot
I agree. Freedom of thought and alternative interpretation seem all too often frowned upon and rebuked in many institutionalised religions, most probably out of fear that knowledge and thought will lead to the diminution of the power they wield over their masses.

To an extent this is true, however if we cast niceties and platitudes aside we should realise some of the organised religions have prejudices and violent measures inbuilt into their texts. Also if one argues it is not so much religion but the people that sustain it causing problems, that begs the question: Is the tendency for organised religion to be problematic due to the head or the body - the clergy or the congregation?

It's human nature to protect one self when you are in power. Religion is a human endeavor and alway will be. Buddhism teaches to take responsibility for your life, this is the only way you will have the power to change your life. If you project this onto the society level, then we (society) must take responsibility if we are to be able to fix society.

Originally posted by Shakyamunison
It's human nature to protect one self when you are in power. Religion is a human endeavor and alway will be. Buddhism teaches to take responsibility for your life, this is the only way you will have the power to change your life. If you project this onto the society level, then we (society) must take responsibility if we are to be able to fix society.

Religion tends to encourage obedience and conformity, as opposed to intellectual development, free thought and the use of reason.
Religious communities can socialize people to question and doubt or they can socialize people to rely upon blind and even fanatical faith in the legitimacy of religious leaders, whatever orders they might issue. The presumption of obedience makes it easy for authority to be abused.
When a person is perceived as possessing legitimate authority, they may be able to order people to do things they would not otherwise consider doing on their own. This is especially true of religious authority figures because they claim knowledge of or power over people’ s eternal fates, not simply their fate here in this life.

Religion tends to encourage obedience and conformity, as opposed to intellectual development free thought and the use of reason.

Sort of like the Milgram Experiment, if you've heard of it? Some people will act differently and can be made to believe anything out of obedience if they are reassured by someone they consider an authority figure that they will not be held accountable.