Christianity is a force for good in the world.

Thank you, Roy, for accepting my challenge. It has been a while since we've debated, and I've certainly looked forward to this exchange. With formalities out of the way, lets dive right in. But before I begin, I have one question? What generalizations have I made that you think are invalid? I didn't make really make any generalizations in my last round apart from my commentary on the Bible. ::Case Con: Rebuttals:: Contention 1: Religion misrepresents reality. "Moreover, the minority of Young Earth Creationists does very little harm. They might like to control science education, but in modern times they very rarely succeed." Oh really… Creationists may not succeed in promoting pseudoscience in public schools, but they most certainty do succeed in brainwashing their children to reject science. For example, among the developed nations the U.S. ranks 33rd in its acceptance of evolution, just above Turkey. [1] These data are unequivocal: we are building a nation of ignorance. Of course, these results very much have something to do with what parents tell their kids about God, Religion, and science. Creationism is thus not inconsequential, as you would have us believe. Christians aren't burning witches, but the Catholic Church is inadvertently causing the deaths of millions of people with its position on condom use in Aids ridden Africa. Moreover, Christians are still some of leading proponents of homophobia, among a litany of other prejudices. Far from being purged, many of harsh doctrines have only been tempered. Therefore, it is safe to conclude that they still do more harm than good. Contention 2: The dogmas of Christianity are harmful to society. "Christians do believe in an afterlife, but there is no evidence that this causes Christians to ignore present problems." If every Christian in the world spent the time that they spend praying actually trying to learn about science, then there would almost certainly be a cure for cancer and a solution to numerous other worldly problems. Prayer and evangelical missions designed to save people in the afterlife are nothing more than a sinkhole for human time. Consequently, my point remains unscathed. "If Christianity causes crime, disease, and turmoil, then the Vatican City… should be the worst place on earth for those things." I only bothered to point out correlations between religion and societal dysfunction. Of course, there are bound to be anomalies. At no point did I say that Christianity causes disease or social turmoil. My main assertion, which you haven't responded to, remains standing. The most advanced nations with the highest levels of life expectancy, adult literacy, per-capita income, educational attainment, gender equality, homicide rate, and infant mortality are undeniably the some of the most secular. This proves that religion is fundamentally unnecessary, and can therefore be discarded. Contention 3: Christianity promotes intolerance and supports oppression. "Con is mistaken that Christianity is per se the only opposition to a radical makeover of society according to Con's concept of what is right." I never argued that. Roy, you did a good job in demonstrating that many forms of dogmatism can thrive in a plethora of different settings, but what is it you are attempting to show by doing this? Some form of irrationality or another probably affects every place on Earth. This doesn't prove that dogmatism is good for the world or that the Bible's proclamations on Gays, women, and Jews are desirable in the modern day. It's ironic and silly that you cite the Mormon Church. By many accounts, they were the group most responsible for ensuring that proposition 8 would pass in California. [2] I'm not arguing that most Christians have misogynistic or homophobic tendencies, although many of them clearly do. My point was to show that the actual scriptures themselves could be used to justify these prejudices. Even if only 10% of Christians hated gay people or sought to restrict other's social freedoms (in all likelihood the real number is considerably higher), we would still be talking about 200,000,000 people! And that is a problem worth discussing. Moreover, certain Christian dogmas can be devastating when applied to real world scenarios. Consider for a moment stem cell research. By far, it is one of the most promising lines in biology to generate medical therapies to treat a whole host of different ailments. [3] And yet politicians in Washington (acting out of deference to Christian dogmas no doubt) often try to impede its funding based on the medieval notion that blastocysts, literally undifferentiated clumps of cells, have souls. Its not as if Christian dogmas thrive in a benign way like astrology, they create tangible real world problems that have geo-political consequences. A1. Christianity provides a reasonable moral compass Christianity most certainly does not provide a "reasonable moral compass". Consider some of the teachings of Christianity, as though for the first time. Jesus told us that we are to abandon our families and he even suggested that we must hate them in order to follow him more fully. He also says that we should take no succor and give no thought for tomorrow. In (Luke 19:27) Jesus unmistakably says the following, "But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me." [4] What then is the benefit of Christian theology? It is obviously a mixed bag of good advice coupled with life destroying gibberish. At best, Christianity simply maintains the status quo with many of its preachments. However, the totality of its preachments provides for an irrational and backwards system of morality that is needlessly subversive to the basic project of creating humans beings with lives worth living. A2. Christianity provides a stable community Secular people operate charities, and highly secular countries are often times more generous than religious nations like the United States in the aid they give out to foreign nations. Don't be naï¿½ve; if there weren't Christian organizations to feed the poor, other secular organizations like UNICEF, Doctors Without Borders, and the UN world food program would step in to do the work. We know that this is probably true, because extremely secular countries like Sweden and the Netherlands have charities that do the same things as Christian operations. ::Conclusion:: Throughout my opponent's last round he has given no compelling reasons why Christianity can be considered to be a force for good in the world. Among other things, Christianity helps foster a society of ignorance that is eroding our (The United States) prestige in the world and is putting us behind many other nations as a world leader. Globally, it can be seen to produce many of the same results. Moreover, everything of value that Christianity provides to the world can be, and have been, attained through more honest means that do not entail self-deception. Consider the alternatives to the bigotry and ignorance of faith-based religion. We could have a rational system of morality and social order that doesn't foment hatred against gays or women and that is as unbound by dogmatism as science is. The civilized world is moving towards this direction, as demonstrated by Western Europe. If anything, traditional religions are only an impediment to the realization of this state of affairs. Therefore, Christianity, by impeding human enlightenment, most certainly does more harm than good in the modern world. ---References--- 1. http://rankingamerica.wordpress.com... 2. http://www.nytimes.com... 3. http://stemcells.nih.gov... 4. http://www.reasonproject.org...