Religion is overall not beneficial to the well being of society and humanity

The case for why religion is positively harmful. Secular society’s > high religiosity While correlation doesn’t necessarily imply causation correlation is evidence of a casual link being illustrated by correlation and here we see undeniable amounts of correlation. USA being the most religious first world country[1] and has a massive rate of gun crime, murder, and imprisonment compared to less religious western nations. Let’s examine the evidence. The safest state to live in the USA is Vermont.[2] It is also the least religious state.[3] Mississippi being the most religious state[3] is also the 10th most violent state.[4] As of 2010 Mississippi had the second-worst gun-murder rate in the nation. Furthermore secular nations donate the most money and supportive aid, per capita, to poorer nations. Percent of GDP given to poor these overall secular countries give the most aid to others. 1. Sweden – 1.45% 2. Norway – 1.06% 19. United States – 0.21% 83% non-religious 78% non-religious 13.9 % non-religious The Global Peace Index Moreover Demonstrates That Least Religious Countries among Most Peaceful, Highly Religious Countries among the Least Peaceful[5] Most peaceful and more secular least peaceful and most religious New Zealand (1 in 2009) Iraq (1) Iceland (4) Somalia (3) Japan (7) Afghanistan (2) Austria (5) Sudan (5) Norway(3) Pakistan (8) Ireland Iraq the most religious country , Iraq is also the least peaceful. The major religion in Iraq is Islam, followed by about 97% of Iraqis(12) This society effectively demonstrates the dangers of religion. Islam being a violent and misogynistic religion has put this society at great peril. Oliner (1988) and Varese and Yaish (2000), in their studies of heroic altruism during the Holocaust, have found that the more secular people were, the more they rescued and helped persecuted Jews. This is highly indicative that people do not need religion as a prerequisite to perform moral acts. And indeed evidence shows that a lack of religious beliefs leads to higher altruistic acts of kindness. Numerous studies, show that atheists, when compared to religious people, are actually less likely to be, racist, anti-Semitic, dogmatic, ethnocentric, and authoritarian. Furthermore secularism also correlates to higher education levels. 63 studies in 2013 found that atheists are on average more intelligent than believers. [9] Educated and intelligent citizens will undoubtedly be more successful and contribute more to a society. Religious countries are the most corrupt(15) Not only are religious countries the most corrupt but religion PROMOTES it. “Considering the variety of corruption measures, the reliability of data, and the large number of included countries, we have to conclude that religiosity not only does not impede corruption but tends to promote it… Based on the above-mentioned arguments, we may conclude that while religiosity provides guidance on morality, some of its characteristics practically promote corrupt business behavior.”(15) Humanity hatred ,wars, oppression, discrimination,violence, “Arguably the main source of hatred and of violence in this world is religion and organized religion.” – Chrsitopher Hitchens Every religion at its core truly believes that it’s the one and only true religion. Christians believe that only they have the right true religion vice versa Muslims believe their religion is true. The result of such nonsense is that religions constantly come into conflict with other religions ending up with the slaughter and murder of countless delusional people. Wars over who has the better imaginary friend have been going on since the dawn of civilization. Here solely the wars that the Christian religion has caused. Take merely the crusades as one example the religious wereguaranteed a spot in heaven if they perished while in combat by Pope Urban II in 1095 he said it was “the will of God!”.[11] What happened? Aside from losing the crusades even though with “The will of God” The total number of deaths due to the crusades is at least nine million, at least half of which were Christians. Many of these were simply innocent civilians caught in the carnage.[13] In 1000s A.D this was over 3.9% of the world population solely in this war alone. Ponder for a moment all the potential that humanity was robbed of because of this event alone. Throughout history, religious fanatics have waged holy wars and crusades, plundered, tortured and murdered 'heretics' and 'infidels' simply because they had different beliefs or no beliefs at all . Even today it is still in many countries illegal to be an atheist. A direct cuase of religion. Atheists Face Death Penalty In 13 Countries! This is today.The farther back the worse discrimination.[12] This is merely one example of religious persecution and violence. Here shown are some of the delusional indivuials who murdered others in the name of an imaginery being. These are merely the indivuals who killed in the name of Jesus. Suppression of scientific progress Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people. - Karl Marx (1844) Religion says it has a complete set of answers it often discourages exploration by suppressing curiosity, denying its followers a broader perspective, and prevents social, moral and scientific progress. Religion has and continues to oppress science and curiosity. From the time of St. Augustine until the Renaissance, Christianity, deliberately arrested the development of science and scientific thinking, limiting investigation of the natural world to theological investigation. As a result, scientific knowledge progressed hardly at all during the so-called Dark Ages, and the populace was mired in the deepest squalor and ignorance. Until the 16th Century Christianity did it’s best to suppress science and discovery the cases of Nicolas Copernicus, Galileo Galilei and Giordano Bruno are few examples of it’s spite for science. The Church also opposed the the printing press, concerned that the scriptures and other knowledge would become easily available to the masses, thus by-passing the traditional vetting and interpretation of the clergy. The conflict between religion and science continues today as Christian fundamentalists demand that their creation myth be taught in place of, or alongside, the theory of evolution in the public schools. Religion also desires to suppress free speech with the Catholic Church’s Index of Prohibited Books the Muslim fatwa against author Salman Rushdie for his 1989 book “The Satanic Verses”, and violent Muslim demonstrations against the Danish cartoons depicting Mohammed in 2005 are only but a few examples. Religious superstition causes untold suffering. Martyrdom and sucide bombers happen for entirely religious reasons. 911 exemplified this.Stress Religions require there captives to go to church, obey holy edicts, and even to pray and worship up to 7 times a day . Failure to accomplish any of the above would make the believer feel as they have betrayed some celestial dictator and will suffer eternal tourment in hell. These requisites cause perpetual stress. Followers, since childhood, are filled with vivid traumatizing stories of eternal burning and/or torture. They are made to be believe that if they don't adhere to these requisites they are to experience the horror in these aforementioned stories. Most religions condem the LGBT community. What about the countless people who are born gay ? What about the stresses and tourment they go through if there parents or themselves are devoutly religious? They are made to think of themselves as evil and worthless. Misogeny & Saudi Arabian women are required to wear the abaya, a black loose outfit that is reserved for Arab women so as to prevent men from viewing them as sex symbols. In Iraq all women are forced to conform to the Islamic religon and thus half of the population lives in cloth bags.If the resist they are beaten ,murderd and raped. In India Hindu law gives women limited rights to inheritance the oppression of females in India, is due to Hinduism as well as Islam, which are religions that confine, restrict and oppress women. Religion is ultimately dependent on irrational belief in imaginery beings, inaudible voices, intangible entities, undetectable forces, and promises and judgements that wont happen in this reality. It therefore has no reality check. (1) http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com... (2) http://www.dailyfinance.com... (3) http://www.newsmax.com... (4) http://xfinity.comcast.net... (5) http://canterburyatheists.blogspot.com... (6) http://en.wikipedia.org... : First woman to run for President in the USA. (7) http://www.hartfordinstitute.org... : Brief history on women attaining status within various denominations of the Catholic Church and its offspring. ( 8 ) See religious texts; aka: Bible, Koran/Quran, etc. (9) http://arstechnica.com... (10) http://evolution.berkeley.edu... : Evolution and medicine connections. (11) http://www.bbc.co.uk... http://www.google.ca...= : Example of people who do not believe dinosaurs and other fossils are real. (12) http://www.huffingtonpost.com... (13) Robertson, History of Christianity: p168 (15)Hamid Yeganeh, & Daniel Sauers (2013). A Cross-National Investigation into the Effects of Religiosity on the Pervasiveness of Corruption Journal of East-West Business, 19(3), 155-180 DOI: 10.1080/10669868.2012.760027