Name three good things about religion.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Hitchens
Dennett
Dawkins

[maiforpeace]

Dom Perignon
Chartreuse
Bénédictine

[Seth]

Happiness
Solace
Comfort

[John_fi_Skye]

Dom Perignon
Chartreuse
Bénédictine

You forgot Buckfast.

[tattuchu]

Belgian abbey ale!

I'll drink three in order to make it three things

[maiforpeace]

Dom Perignon
Chartreuse
Bénédictine

You forgot Buckfast.

That's one of the bad things about religion.

[Svartalf]

Well, the modern version is not the original abbey made beverage, so maybe counting it as a bad thing is blaming the wrong agency.

[Hermit]

Did anyone mention temple prostitutes yet?

Noooo....do go on...

Tyrannical is referring to altar boys.

[Durro]

1. Charitable works (e.g the Salvation army)
2. Hospitals (e.g The Mater Hospital here in Brizvegas)
3. Historical artworks e.g. Michaelangelo, Da Vinci, etc.

[apophenia]

1. You get to travel the world, meet interesting people, and kill them. Oh wait, my bad. That was the OLD church.


1. It's not till death do you part.
2. Great accessories for home and wardrobe.
3. And oh the stories you can tell.

(4. Taoism, Taoism, Taoism... )

[Drewish]

Happiness
Solace
Comfort

Wait... are you a believer Seth?

[statichaos]

That's like being asked to name three good things about music. I could do so, but then there would be other musical works that don't apply. Ask me to name three good things about my religion, and I could probably do so. Ask me to name three good things about Buddhism, and I could do so again. Ask me to name three good things about Scientology or Fundamentalist Christianity, and I'd probably come up short.

[John_fi_Skye]

1. Charitable works (e.g the Salvation army)
2. Hospitals (e.g The Mater Hospital here in Brizvegas)
3. Historical artworks e.g. Michaelangelo, Da Vinci, etc.

A friend of mine, a social worker, used to work with the dossers in the Grassmarket in Edinburgh. A Salvation Army group was involved there, too. And according to my friend the (male) Sally Army workers were only interested in trying to get the trousers off the better-looking and younger male dossers.

Just a scurrilous rumour, I'm sure.

[Seth]

Happiness
Solace
Comfort

Wait... are you a believer Seth?

Nope. But I observe that religion very frequently, if not the vast majority of the time, offers solace, comfort and happiness to it's adherents. This is true of virtually all religions, and it's the reason that religion continues to exist and is adhered to to one degree or another by some 80 percent of the population of the planet.

If religion were as universally evil and useless as Atheists like Dawkins like to claim it is, it wouldn't exist. And yet it does exist, and it persists, century after century, for as many thousands of years as the written records of mankind exist, including 34,000 year old cave paintings in France.

Religion has great social utility. It's a glue that binds groups together in common belief and purpose. It offers members support and comfort, community and solace, and both physical and spiritual relief and pleasure. It's the predecessor to every system of government that exists today because it was in fact the very first form of government, going right back to tribal shamans who exercised power and control over their tribes using religion...for the betterment and survival of the tribe.

Religion is not a bad thing for society, it's a good thing, and most of the bad things that have occurred in society worldwide, especially in the last century, are the direct result of atheism and the lack of religion. A hundred million people have been murdered by atheist tyrants and despots who were determined to stamp out religion, and they universally failed to do so, no matter how many millions they sent to the gulags or the killing fields, and as soon as they were defeated, religion came back stronger than ever, as in Russia today, which upon the dissolution of the Soviet Union had a renaissance in religious belief of huge proportions.

And given the evidence of what happens when a society rejects religion, I strongly support religion in society because it generally advances peace and stability. There are exceptions of course, but the exceptions don't disprove the rule.

[Seabass]

Happiness
Solace
Comfort

Wait... are you a believer Seth?

Nope. But I observe that religion very frequently, if not the vast majority of the time, offers solace, comfort and happiness to it's adherents. This is true of virtually all religions, and it's the reason that religion continues to exist and is adhered to to one degree or another by some 80 percent of the population of the planet.

If religion were as universally evil and useless as Atheists like Dawkins like to claim it is, it wouldn't exist. And yet it does exist, and it persists, century after century, for as many thousands of years as the written records of mankind exist, including 34,000 year old cave paintings in France.

Religion has great social utility. It's a glue that binds groups together in common belief and purpose. It offers members support and comfort, community and solace, and both physical and spiritual relief and pleasure. It's the predecessor to every system of government that exists today because it was in fact the very first form of government, going right back to tribal shamans who exercised power and control over their tribes using religion...for the betterment and survival of the tribe.

Religion is not a bad thing for society, it's a good thing, and most of the bad things that have occurred in society worldwide, especially in the last century, are the direct result of atheism and the lack of religion. A hundred million people have been murdered by atheist tyrants and despots who were determined to stamp out religion, and they universally failed to do so, no matter how many millions they sent to the gulags or the killing fields, and as soon as they were defeated, religion came back stronger than ever, as in Russia today, which upon the dissolution of the Soviet Union had a renaissance in religious belief of huge proportions.

And given the evidence of what happens when a society rejects religion, I strongly support religion in society because it generally advances peace and stability. There are exceptions of course, but the exceptions don't disprove the rule.

I suspect the twentieth century death toll had more to with technological advances in warfare and the industrial population boom, than atheism and lack of religion. I'm sure Richard the Lionheart and Saladin could have racked up some impressive casualty statistics with twentieth century hardware and million-man armies.