Organised religion is a force for evil and the world would be much better off without it.

I would like to thank con for taking the time to define the debate and I wish to state that I completely agree with his definition. I don't wish to make this debate about the legitimacy of religion and the ideas it preaches as it does not much bother me wether someone believes in a god, a goblin or a flying spaghetti monster. In other words this debate isn't about wether the claims of religion are true, but about wether these claims have a negative impact on the world. However, it occurs to me that it's next to impossible to have a decent conversation about religion without first taking some time to talk about why it's claims are false. As I wish to make this part of my writing quick I will limit it to one small, but very persuading, argument. Religion offers no evidence to support the extraordinary claims it makes. This is enough to dismiss the claims made by religion because, as Christopher Hitchens so rightly put it, "'That which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence." Well, now that I've got that out of the way I shall put forward my first argument as to why I think religion does a great disservice to humanity. Organised religion stunts progress. By this I do not mean to say it stunts scientific progress, though it most certainly does, but I mean to say it stunts our moral progress. Religion declares a certain moral code to be infallible, unalterable and divinely written. This code is normally one jotted into parchment by brutal sexually-repressed desert dwellers living in the most archaic and medieval periods of human history. By declaring these holy books to be infallible, organised religion makes philosophy and questioning impossible and, by extension, religious people and the societies they hold hostage are forced to live under the static tyranny of a morality they cannot question. As I am limited to how many words I can use I am only able to give you a three examples of this, but believe me there are many many more. My first example is homophobia. How is it that in the 21st century homosexuals are still treated like second class citizens? Religion has made it impossible for people to question their own bigotry and is creating a very intolerant world. There is still a struggle going on in politics to give gay people complete equality before the law and allow them to get married. People, merely because their love is deemed to be the wrong kind of love by ancient holy books, are not aloud to marry the love of their life. In America suicide rates are four times higher amongst homosexual children than they are amongst 'straight' children. These rates rise even higher again, to a disturbing eight times the usual rate, if the gay child has homophobic parents. I'm sure you'll agree with me these are grotesque figures and it is the first of many examples of how religion literally murders people. From the obscene bullying in high schools to the denial for gay couples to adopt children and raise a loving family, religion has trapped the imagination of believers into the mindset of the Middle-eastern desert five and a half thousand years ago. My second example of the static-morality is sexism. Churches everywhere are still screaming for "traditional family values" (a grotesque euphemism for the thuggish system of hierarchy where women are reduced to sex slaves and baby-machines, while men are told to be macho and "manly" and never show any sign of emotion.) The devout are still, in the modern day of science and enlightenment, attempting to deny women the right to chose what happens to their own bodies. How many women have had to die from unsanitary and dangerous abortions because of the preaching of these archaic and fanatical religions? I'm glad, as I'm sure I'd find the number far to distressing, that I don't have the means of counting how many young Muslim women have had their lives stolen from them in honour killings, because of the filthily patriarchal culture of slut-shaming and victim-blaming that is promoted by the Qur'an. I'm equally glad I don't know how many women have had their genitals carved off by sharp shards of dirty glass because of the perceived purity of virginity promoted by Islam, or the amount of women who are being beaten and raped everyday by their Muslim husbands. How can we ever hope to crawl out of the primeval-swamps of patriarchy when billions of people are dedicated to the supposed infallibility of a book which says, sexism is divine law? My third example is sexuality in general. As Voltaire said "It is an infantile superstition of the human spirit that virginity would be thought a virtue and not the barrier that separates ignorance from knowledge." Religion, specifically the Abrahamic religions, have freeze-framed the ridiculous idea, held by the Jews in 3500 BCE that sex is in some way a shameful act. This belief has cause literally billions of people to feel guilty and ashamed merely for having an innate, and completely natural, urge to reproduce. How many teenagers have had to feel demonised and immoral because of the sinister Catholic prohibition of masturbation? The stigma of sex is bad in itself as it demonises a victimless crime. To prohibit something which is victimless is to be tyrannical and for that reason the religious view of sex is one we should not tolerate. People should be allowed to have as much or as little sex as they want without feeling judged and guilty. The stigma of sex is making it impossible, in the modern world, to get comprehensive sex education into our public schools. Studies show time and time again, kids who get a good sex education are less likely to end up with an unwanted pregnancy of an STI. Sexual repression also leads, as Sigmund Freud pointed out, to cases of catastrophic violence and perversion. Why is it that so many priests have ended up raping young alter-boys? Is it possible the tiring restraints of celibacy made them crack? Could a big reason for the mounting conflicts in the middle east be the sexual repression which is mandated by Islam? If we wish to create a better society we must remove the stigmatisation of the sexual act. This cannot happen unless we first remove the mental-shackles of religion. Well, they are three examples of how claims of infallibility are tearing our society apart. Compared to my next example these are only small and minor things. In many countries in the middle east the infallibility of religious dogma is taken so seriously it leads to civilisations that are forbidden from any kind of questioning what so ever. This has created one of the most tyrannical totalitarian legal systems plaguing the world today; Sharia Law. Under sharia law homosexuals are buried alive as a means of execution. Adulterers are stoned to death in the street and fornicators are whipped (women are given more whips than men for the same crime.) The testimony of a woman is worth half that of a man, and the Burqa, or at least Hijab, are mandated by law. Alcohol is prohibited and witch craft (yes, you read that right) is punishable by death. Non-Muslims are subject to an extra tax and apostates have to face the death penalty. Sharia law is the legal system in many countries all through the Middle-East and this kind of theocracy will continue to go on unless people begin to question their views on morality rather than taking their opinions straight from some bronze aged book.