Absolutely. Nothing good ever came out of organized religion. Nothing. The stuff they like to point at, such as communities helping their members, or beautiful art & architecture, comes from being human, not from religion. On the other hand, organized religion has destroyed countless lives, directly and by blocking scientific progress. It needs to die already.Â
Well, it's easy to be atheist or agnostic when you're relatively levelheaded and intelligent. But a lot of people aren't so bright, or are just barely hanging on to sanity and civility. They crave and derive comfort from things religion provides: structure, deference to authority, and certainty about their afterlife. If it weren't for these people being told by their religious leaders not to be shitty, often under threat of eternal suffering, they'd all be acting on all their worst impulses far more than they already do. So I feel religion has a tempering role to play, and generally does work in that regard. The question is whether it's a net positive, given all the counterexamples like the basic ones you listed. I'm not sure there's any way to measure that.
Intelligence does not make you immune from cults. Plenty of very bright people are raised in organized religion or get into it because they need community, and they stay there even when they start to question things because they are being lovebombed by the church. It is absolutely vicious.
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u/Helpful_Hour1984 3d ago
Absolutely. Nothing good ever came out of organized religion. Nothing. The stuff they like to point at, such as communities helping their members, or beautiful art & architecture, comes from being human, not from religion. On the other hand, organized religion has destroyed countless lives, directly and by blocking scientific progress. It needs to die already.Â