Is religion good or bad for the world as a whole?

BAD for the world, it causes the most bloodshed, and countless other problems. Religion should be outlawed.

Umm, not sure about the blaming part, but I know that for some people, religion is something to believe in and lots of times, people just need something to believe it…just my opinion.

Hmmm, 2000 years of war and genocide over mythical icons ought to be proof enough. Of course, organized religion has some benefits, but I can’t see how it could possibly offset the horrors it’s caused and continues to.

I’d say good, despite the bloodshed tyrant mentions. Because I think most of the bloodshed would happen anyway (they just wouldn’t call themselves “Jews” and “Muslims”, they’d be called “Israelis” and “Palestinians”).

On the other hand, on an individual basis, the idea of a god waiting for you with a big stick on the other side makes you behave. Most religions have certain rules that say stuff like “don’t kill” and “don’t steal”. Though of course it is mainly “don’t have sex” or “have sex but only with the priest”.

Religions that were based on human sacrifices, torture etc, did not last long historically.

“religiously inspired genocide”

The Dark Ages was a period of religious struggle. Protestants and Catholics viewed the era from opposing perspectives. Protestants regarded this time as a period of Catholic corruption; they repudiated the ways of the Catholic Church with its papal doctrines and hierarchy. Protestants strove to recreate a pure Christianity, void of these “dark” Catholic ways. Catholics did not view this era as “dark.” Catholics viewed this period as a harmonious, productive religious era. The Dark Ages were also the years of vast Muslim conquests. Along with other nomads and horse and camel warriors, the Muslims rode through the fallen empire, wreaking havoc and seeding intellectual and social heresy in their wake. Muslim conquests prevailed until the time of the Crusades. This age old conflict between Christianity and Islam remains until this day.

also
http://gbgm-umc.org/umw/bible/crusades.stm
or
http://www.religioustolerance.org/wic_burn2.htm
and so on

I see it both as a source of unconditional love and conditioning to hate.

A personal spiritual path is meaningful and healthy to many individuals. I have a feeling that it gives them the same sense that I get when I paint/read for hours. A unique kind of inner peace and strength.

The institutionalized nature of religion (“do what he says because he’s holier than thou”) seems to be the cause of many of the problems. It turns something that is really quite beautiful in to an army; constantly recruiting people, feeling superior, and at war with everyone else.

Faith (in a god, in yourself, in humanity) can give you the power to do some truly spectacular things. It also has the power to do some incredibly blind and destructive things.

A feeling of being loved and at peace is a very human thing to want and enjoy and is really quite lovely. The unconditional worshiping of an icon (a god, or an emperor) and doing acts in their name/because a figurehead tells you to mutilates that inner peace in to an assurance that what you’re doing is okay.

If you’re in a war, is killing another soldier murder?

If religion were “outlawed” then the people that give it a bad name would just find a new method of causing devastation. Humans are to blame, not an abstract idea called “religion”.

Religion is the source of MOST of the World’s ills.

Bad. Very, very bad.

Asking this question is like asking if hammers are good or bad for the world. You can do lots of things with a hammer – you can use it to build a house for a homeless family, or you can use it to bludgeon someone to death. The hammer is neither good nor bad, but the purpose to which the hammer is put is more easily judged.

Religion, like the hammer, is just a thing. Some people gain strength in adversity, comfort through pain, and a moral compass through their religion. I think we can agree that these are good things. Religion has also been the cause of, or contributing factor to the Holocaust, the Inquisition, and other misery. Like the hammer, it’s what religion is used for that can be judged, but religion itself is neutral.

You have to first separate ‘belief in a supreme being’ from ‘organized religion’. Organized religion has been, on the whole, bad. Even some of the better examples are divisive at best, murderous at worst.