religion, negative-effectsWhich real religions (not parodies) do not have specific negative effects (beyond encouraging belief in things without rational evidence to do so), if any? For example, does Buddhism have specific negative effects?
Please be specific; making broad generalizations about religion in general, i.e. “All religions require [bad thing] or inspire [other bad thing],” is not as helpful as being specific about something that doesn’t rely on a debatable correlation.
All religions cause harm. All.
Even the most pacifistic religions cause untold harm. Take buddhism for example. It actively encourages its practitioners to suffer in the current world without seeking to overthrow the social order, and to seek enlightenment and freedom from the endless cycles of pain and death by losing all attachment to the material and social. That’s a completely poisonous way of looking at life and the world, and it perpetuates endless suffering.
The cost of religious nonsense is everywhere.
The effect you excluded (encouraging belief in things without rational evidence to do so) leads to all the negative effects of all religions. As Christopher Hitchens argues, only when a person thinks God is on his side would he even consider mutilating the genitalia of a child.
If what you’re asking is in affect “what religion poses the least harm on it’s believers and the society they compose,” then I would probably say Jainism. As Sam Harris says, “the crazier you are as a Jain, the less we have to worry about you.” These people are so non-violent they filter their water through a cheese cloth for fear of eating an insect. (Of course they’re actually consuming billions of micro-organisms anyway, but never mind that, it is a religion after all.)
Religion with structure is the same as all institutes of man. It can help or hinder. Take government as an example- one can go through countless examples of how it betters humanity, but one can also make a huge list grievances. The Catholic Church makes huge monetary donations to charity, but it obstructs justice in the case of deviant priests.
What I think is an illustrating example is religion without structure- what some would call “spirituality.” Some would argue that the delusion itself is harmful, even so harmful that it overcomes the positive effects. (Which in my view a very strong stance) But that does not mean that it doesn’t have any positive effects (just that they are overrun.) One could ask a spiritual person what the positive effects are and some that most likely be on that list are:
-A sense of belonging in a group
-A salve on the apprehension associated with mortality
-A foundation of morality
-A larger meaning to the universe
And etc. One gets a sense the benefit spiritual people would ascribe to their beliefs is psychological in nature. I believe that these feelings would be bolstered in structured setting. So it should apply to all religion.
The contention I can see with all this is that such benefits could arguably not be real and just part of a deluded sense that some attribute the religious. I would use the evidence of success in 12-step programs (Alcoholic Anonymous, etc) to support the idea that these psychological benefits, though not exclusive to religion, are real.
So the question is tricky. The risk of committing to a belief that is unsubstantiated can be in itself harmful. The humans who rise to ascendancy in the structures based on these beliefs have tremendous influence, and, as humans, sometimes tend to abuse power for personal gains. But the individuals who are components of these religions cannot have the right removed from them to say that it has bettered their lives.
One final point: it’s a form of loading to ask this question in an atheist’s forum. Anyone could predict the answers. For the best answer- ask someone you who think is intelligent and honest and who has been or is involved with religion. They’ll tell you the good, and if they are honest, the bad.
All religions - including atheism - make their followers believe into funny shiat, which results in closed minds and fights of whose imagination is best/the only right one/pick your idiocy here.
"...for people who do not believe that deities exist..."
Wake up. You don’t have proof of that. You’re as full of crap as other religions. Key word is right there: “BELIEVE”
Only by keeping a truly open mind, can you ever hope to find any kind of clue as to what existence, being human, world and the universe are about. But this far, it has remained an unanswered question.
Atheism is the worst religion because it has a position of active denial towards everything, whereas most religions have a little grain of truth or other value here and there. Atheism is NOT agnosticism.
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