Religion has had a positive effect on society on balance.

Rebuttals: "Your first argument is that many events have been caused by religion." ->How is that in any beneficial towards your argument? Yes, these things have been caused by religion therefore, they are not beneficial towards the society. "Like I have already said, religion is rarely the cause of the action. " -> http://www.truthbeknown.com...... My opponent's first paragraph gives NO evidence whatsoever. He makes a blind assumption that I have clearly proven otherwise. (Just look at the link for more info based on christian based atrocities alone. Note that this is NOT supposed to offend anyone!) "So the holocaust was not religious in the slightest" ->"Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord." -Mien Kampf, page 65 (1) "No historian considers religion a cause of the war and the actual causes are known and not really disputed, sorry but this claim is false." Yet my opponent's claim is coming from?. . .If you look at Mien Kampf page 65, upon investigation it appears to be the sole reason for hitlers atrocities of the jewish people was inspired from the "almighty creator" "Hitler rejected his faith as a boy and was an Atheist." ->Hitler himself was reluctant of public attacks on the Church for political reasons, despite the urgings of Nazis like Bormann. Although he was skeptical of religion, he did not present himself to the public as an atheist, and spoke of belief in an "almighty creator" (2) " This was a war between a society and another society. Both had different religions. This war was about military conquest. Do you really think, in the real world, people car about what someone believes" -> I would highly encourage my opponent to provide evidence to his claims. Apparently, in the real world, other people did "car" what other peopled believed. During the Saxon Wars, the Saxons rebelled against Charlemagne's invasion and subsequent attempts to christianize them from their native Germanic paganism. (3) In regards to my opponent's dictator argument, I highly encourage him to go deeper into the specific events, rather than make a blind generalization based an an assumption. "Work was so hard that if you where not allowed to be forced to work, then brilliant" ->I enjoy my opponent's informal way of writing as it is quite enjoyable to read towards. Rather than a serious formal argument, I favor his "laid back" language that stimulates a more realistic conversation. Moving on, it states in the Bible to be put to death if you work on sundays! Is that not stripping our right to work? "Secondly, rights don't exist." ->I thought my opponent just stated "My friend, it gives us our rights", I believe that that implies rights do exist? Please correct me. "Such rights, even though they have been present in the bible for a thousand years, only became actual law in the last 100 years" ->Please do state such law? How was it beneficial towards the society? "You say there is no evidence for the claim that without religion there would only be the ruled and the rulers. How could they be evidence?" ->Pro has misunderstood me. I meant that please cite the information, showing evidence. Pro then talks about political discourse has no platform without religious institution? Recall that religion has nothing to do with our founding of government, and was found upon the enlightenment ideas. (Source listed on previous round) "Social revolutions began in, and with, religion. There is no social mobility in medieval society's, apart from the church." ->If revolution begins with religion, how is that beneficial towards society? When did revolution begin with religion? Perhaps we will hear it in the following rounds. R 1-"The church offered a platform for opinions to be made, philosophy to be explored, and resistance and communication to be made with the ruling class. Peasants had no chance of putting an idea to their lords. So the church actually facilitated the social conditions that allowed for the world we see today, that doesn't just have the ruled and the rulers." ->Well, the age of enlightenment was is the era from the 1650s or earlier to 1776 in which cultural and intellectual forces in Western Europe emphasized reason, analysis and individualism rather than traditional lines of authority. It was promoted by "philosophes" and local thinkers in urban coffeehouses, salons and masonic lodges. It challenged the authority of institutions that were deeply rooted in society, such as the Catholic Church; there was much talk of ways to reform society with toleration, science and skepticism. It was not a religious movement, and it shared philosophical and scientific ideas. (4) R 2. "There was actually only three main institutions in the medieval world-peasants, church and state. So without the church, there would only be rulers and ruled. Remember, the church answer to the religion, not the state. So they are neither rulers or ruled. They can question authority. ->The church is not a place where ideas can be interacted between different powers. It is a place to be forced to pray. I believe you are referring of a salon-held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine the taste and increase the knowledge of the participants through conversation (5) R 3. (Paragraph too long to quote, Therefore I will only perform rebuttal) ->America's founders were religious, and America has no religious domination? Yes, so I believe that means that religion is not beneficial towards the American society. American government rebuttals: R 1. "As I have said, the American society is a recent society that was formed by religious men already influenced by society. It's therefore not an accurate model for representing the social psychology of mankind, in how our social values develop." ->Just because it was founded by religious men, and our society is progressing without religion does not mean the secular progression is the cause of religion. R 2. "It's only one society, the rest of mankind has very slowly developed their social value and this I argue is facilitated by religion." ->Please do correct me, but are you implying that only America was founded under people who were religious? Also, the founders being religious or not are irrelevant to this debate. R 3. "America was actually formed by members of a society indoctrinated with Christian values." ->Actually, it was found under the influences of the age of enlightenment, a SECULAR movement. R 4. "he rights of this, man made, system didn't even extend to women or other races. Slavery was allowed. Jesus, 2000 years before said 'turn the other cheek' and all men are equal. So the followers of Christianity where arguably more socially evolved than the Founding Fathers, 2000 years before the American constitution." ->I encourage my opponent to cite the evidence when Jesus said that all men were created equal. Even if he did, that is not a religious statement, and Jesus' theological aspect have no relevance if that statement was religious or not. Also, it is arguable that all certain humans rights came to play due to the sole cause of Jesus. Sources. 1.http://en.wikipedia.org... 2.http://en.wikiquote.org... 3.http://en.wikipedia.org... 4.http://en.wikipedia.org... 5.http://en.wikipedia.org...(gathering)