Religion is overall beneficial on the human race.

Thank you for the debate. ~ "You are basing your argument off an assertion, you have no evidence that religion is not related to crime. The areas where high levels of religion are are also high crime levels. Think, the middle east, bad parts of big cities?" = Do you have any evidence that states that religion is related to crime, or that areas where high levels of religion are become a place for crime? All cities have their bad parts; you have no proof that these acts were done due to religion. And although what I have just stated is a very weak refutation to your point, I shall enforce that now. According to the same Princeton Survey, a perfectly trustworthy source which my opponent has been constantly pushing away with weak reasoning, 85% of adults in the United States practice religion. Of course there will be more people going to prison who are religious than atheist! With statistics like this, how can you possibly deny that the proportional difference between atheists and religious outside of prison would not affect those who are jailed? ~ "Name one? Ok, Geroge Bush. And if you haven't noticed, a lot of people in the world still believe this, 18% in fact according to a NPR poll." = Opponent, judges, and friends, 18% is a MINISCULE fraction of the world! Rockylightning says, "If you haven't noticed, a lot of people in the world still believe [that science does not exist]." Obviously, Rockylightning has not put time and thought into this debate, and rather copied and pasted something onto his speech that actually sides with my case. There is no proof listed by Con that George Bush is so religious that he believes the Earth is in the center of the Solar System. ~ "Why didn't god create us and put us in armchairs on beaches with our favorite foods? Why did he make us deal with all the oil spills, wars, crime etc." = Although this is clear proof that my opponent is not following this debate along the lines of the motion he has set up himself, I shall refute this anyways. We are not arguing whether God exists or not! We are arguing whether or not religion is overall benefitial for the human race. Where in the material that you have stated above does your point tie into the motion? If you really want the answer, talk to me on your free time, please. ~ "Your reasoning is faulty. It's Killing yourself for your religion that makes you go to paradise, not just committing suicide in general." = My point exactly. If people killed themselves for their religion, the people who practice that religion would all be dead due to suicide, and the religion would have long since died out. It's not faulty reasoning, but reasonable reason. ~ "Again, your reasoning is faulty, and you are putting words in my mouth. The cause of the renaissance was the uncovering of all texts, not just religious, but also scientific etc. They were uncovering the texts the church hid from them. This point was not refuted." = Then allow me to address this point now. I have stated that even though the Church may have hidden these texts, it wasn't all text that started the Renaissance. Most to all religious Renaissance creations are in the form of art based upon the Greek and Roman architecture and states which still remained around them. Some forms if art included pictures related to Church teachings, ones which the Church clearly would not hide away from the people. ~ "You do not get this point. Religion creates another thing to tease people about. Enough Said. You have not refuted this point." = Sure, religion creates another thing to tease about, but differences are what make the world so rich – imagine a world where everyone looked the same, dressed the same, acted the same, and so on. What kind of diverse world would that be? You have stated that people have minds to innovate, think, and invent. A world with no diversity provides nothing for this and nothing for your case. ~ "... It has been long since proved that the people who hijacked the planes were Islamic extremists. You cannot deny this fact." = Yes, they were Islamic. Yes, they were extremists. However, is there any proof that what they committed has any tie in with teachings of their religion? If you had simply stated a quote out of the Qu'ran stating this, then we could debate your point. Though you do have a point in that they were extremists, there are always exceptions of extremes committed by people of other religions. The man who recently killed an abortion doctor was religious and went to Church. It's the same idea. I also still do not appreciate your messy cover-up of trying to jam videos in to scare people into thinking that everything horrible in the world is caused by religion with absolutely no evidence to back it up. ~ "The natural right of life will tip the scale much farther than any of your arguments" = As you have stated earlier, there is no written or oral constitution for the human race. Some countries may not support the natural right of life, sadly enough. Religion is not a main factor within the violations to this right – you have given no evidence stating that shoot-outs and murders are due to religious teachings. They could have well been out of anger or vengeance. ~ "The effects are still echoing on our Earth. It's like saying ‘The Holocaust happened years ago, therefore it doesn't matter'" = Of course the Holocaust happened. Some schools teach it along with the Spanish Inquisition. Knowing about these things teaches youth and young adults to learn to respect people for who they are. ~ "Why do you bring up the constitution? First, some countries have no constitution. Second the US was not mentioned in the motion. Third, the human race has no constitution." = That is a great point and I am glad that you brought it up for clarification. I am just using the United States as an example (we are part of the human race, are we not?) in how religion is beneficial – our country was born from religion. The first to arrive in the Americas to start the colonies before any other immigrants were British who wanted religious freedom. Religion shaped our country, and using the United States as an example and fraction of the human race, this proves that religion is beneficial. ~ "Then why do you state that religion gives you a healthier body? Do you know what your points are?" = Yes, I'm sorry for such late clarification. When I said that it is soothing and comforting to those in pain such as medieval Asians or slaves, which is what I meant by a healthier body – psychologically. I'm sorry if you thought that it meant physical; I should have clarified that earlier for you to debate. Now, to summarize. Let's look at this debate on a whole. The first round, Rockylightning challenged me with the motion "Religion is overall beneficial on the human race." His first round points and arguments were backed up with one source: urbandictionary.com and a very inappropriate and derogatory phrase which I have never heard of, the "Allah Boom," against a certain religion. This proved nothing. His other arguments were about how God does not exist. That does not follow up the motion which he himself has set up for this debate. The second round, he provided no factual evidence that any of these horrible acts of violence were due to religious teachings. It doesn't matter if these people are religious or not – his points do not and will not have any relevance to the debate unless he ties it in. He also put in all of these mini horror-movie clips from youtube.com to show that religion causes harm, again, with no tied-in relevance to this debate. His source: urbandictionary.com He has stated all his points within the first round, all of which I have just proven irrelevant to this debate's motion. Please, judges, judge on who won the debate, not on biased beliefs. this is not a survey. Sources: Dictionary.com, Princeton, Sikhphilosophy.net