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

My opening argument is Religon overall is not beneficial to humanity or society. First let’s point out what is logically not beneficial to society and humanity. To start off and name a few Religous motivated violence,the Quashing of science and impediment of education and the teaching of creationism in public schools , political oppressiont he discrimination of same sex couples . Such things are not beneficial being of society and humanity and any of us are nearly entirely becuse of religious ideas and teachings. P1 Religious inspired violence. Devout religious followers have done horrendous acts of violence entirely for their faith and religious reasons. Religion has procured and cultivated Religious extremists such as the Taliban in the Islamic world or even the Christians here in the USA who don't care about separation of church and state ,democracy or respecting other people's right to live differently from them. This is irrelevant to them. because in their mind the only thing that matters to them is making God's will happen. In their mind, God created everything that exists. .. and therefore, God's will trumps everything so with religion producing and cultivating such deas starting in young intellectually defenseless children who are told before they have critical thinking & can think for themselves they are forced to believe that the world around them is, quite literally, irrelevant since their religion has imprinted upon them that the next world is what truly matters. Suicide bombing, "honor" killing such as the attack on the world trade center was a direct cause of Religion Islamic extremism. USA one is also one of the most religious first world countries in the world with a huge rate of gun crime, murder, imprisonment compared to less religious western nations. P2 Oppression. The unverifiability of religion leads to many forms of oppression. It makes religious leaders and organizations extremely powerful because according to them they have God on their side. Their followers as young children are told to implicitly believe whatever their religious teachings and leaders tell them. They are taught that their religious leaders have superior virtue, with a connection to God they've that they should trust their religious leaders and if questioned since childhood they are filled with vivid, traumatizing stories of eternal burning and torture. And for these reasons such things happen. 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. A pew survey of 198 countries found that the share of countries with high or very high restrictions on religion rose from 37 percent in mid-2010 to 40 percent by the end of 2011. Equal rights. In the United States, when same-sex marriage has been up for popular vote, it has been shot down by followers of religious groups . It has been consistently defeated largely because the force of several organized religions, especially the Catholic and Mormon churches, have marshaled against it. How could this be helping our society by aiding discrimination and suffering of others? Think about the trouble and pain that same sex couples have had to endure just because a holy book . Is this benefical to their well being and to live a better life? I dare say no. Quashing science and education. religion our undercuts science and education Forcing abstinence-only sex education on kids? Teaching creationism in public schools? School boards all across this country are still spending time and money debating whether or not to have the theory of evolution taught in the schools. while they could be using these resources to actually teach they're spending debating this incredible thus denying our children the future leaders of society the ability to learn and think rationally this is in no way helping them become productive and intelligent citizens of society . The impediment of scientific advancement from Galileo ( took the church until 1992 to apologize) to current Stem cell research bans coming from a direct cause of religious ethics,morals and organizations that are a massive roadblock to the advancement of science. So when religion teaches that believing in the invisible is more important than understanding the perceivable. .. that personal faith is more important than critical thinking. .. that that what God supposedly says about the world is more real what's in the world itself . .. such things are the root of much evil.