Religion does more harm than good.

Thanks for the clarification. Please forget the forfeit. Refutations: \\\I will not do what most people would do in this kind of debate and focus merely on the worldly benefits of religions, but put forth the possibility that religions could lead people to an eternity in heaven. The vast majority of people in the world believe in a higher power of some kind and the majority of those believe in an afterlife (or reincarnation). These often *infinite* rewards, if true, would automatically outweigh any harms Pro puts forth./// First, salvation is a lie because it is impossible. If the human race goes on indefinitely, then there will be an infinite number of people in "heaven". Therefore heaven must be infinitely large. This also means that there will be infinite possibilities of people. Therefore there will be exact clones of people. Let me clarify. If there are infinite numbers of people- therefore there are infinite numbers of possibilities. To simplify, lets say there are 10 combination of DNA and RNA that make a human. 10 Different combination multiplied by infinity. Let I stand for infinity: 10XI=10I Therefore there would be an infinite amount of people that look the same. Every one out of 10 would be the same-out of a number of infinity. (Hard math but it makes sense if you look it over) \\\So, what reasons do we have to believe they are true? Well, a study here shows that 75% of youths believe in a higher power, and further that many of those beliefs were due to them having a transcendent experience. [1] To deny the veracity of these experiences is to claim to know the mental state of literally billions of people, which is absurd. These experiences clearly point towards a higher power./// The popular opinion is not always the correct one. If 75% of the youth believe in a higher power, could 75% of youths be incorrect? Yes! It's happened before and it's happening now. \\\The tomb was found empty by the women followers of Jesus three days after his crucifixion./// According to who? The apostles? The people who supported him? Of course, they probably moved his body. If there was a higher power, than only his soul would have risen, not his physical body, because even the high Christian leaders believe Heaven is a place where spirits live, not physical forms. If you ask me it sounds like a poorly constructed lie fabricated to inspire others to follow this religion. \\\The disciples of Jesus held that they saw the risen Jesus after his crucifixion./// Again- we trust the "eyewitness" accounts of people who lived centuries ago? Talk about stating a source. Your basically saying "According to a man who lived centuries ago that has no credentials to prove his honesty- Jesus rose after his crucifixion. \\\The original disciples help strongly to the belief that Jesus really did rise for the dead - so much so that they were willing to die for their faith./// Again- they died to prove a point. If Jesus's physical body rose, why dosn't everyone's body rise? Is it because Jesus was god's "son"? Is he getting special treatment from god? Did god love Jesus more than the common man? He let Jesus take his body with him, but we have to go with only our soul? Again, a poorly constructed LIE. \\\Jesus taught many principles which would be considered extremely benevolent by the majority of people today. Jesus taught that people should love both their neighbours and enemies. He taught people they should give to the poor and feed the hungry. He espoused what in popularly known as the 'golden rule' (do to others what you would like to be done to you)./// Yes, this is good, I cannot argue this. But how many of the people taught abide by them? How come many priests and/or high ranking religious leaders turn out to be pedophiles? Religion has good intentions, but does more harm than good. \\\The Ten Commandments provide a specific, clear and moral basis for people to live their lives, ordering people, for instance, not to murder others, not to steal or commit adultery and to respect your mother and father.[3] Pro may disagree with some of the ten commandments, but at the very least he cannot deny that it teaches many good precepts. It is clear then, that Christianity provides a good standard by which to lead ones life./// There are still wars- people steal- parents aren't respected sometimes and people murder. Are these commandments effective? Obviously not. Religion can be misinterpreted, maybe unconsciously, but misinterpreted none the less. Obviously religion is not working, therefore doing more harm than good. Points- 1. Christianity (and all religion for that matter) limits the human mind [We] Humans were given the gift of the large brain, we developed tools, we made fire, we have language. All this was limited once religion showed up for the party. Let's think- how many times has an innovator, great thinker, writer, etc. been punished, imprisoned, or persecuted because of what they wrote on a page, or thought, or sung, or invented? Too many. Let us think back to the good old 1600's, Gallileo Gallilei has just used his telescope to prove the theory of heliocentric solar system and disprove the theory of geocentric solar system. In February 1616, although he had been cleared of any offence, the Catholic Church nevertheless condemned heliocentrism as "false and contrary to Scripture",[10] and Galileo was warned to abandon his support for it—which he promised to do. When he later defended his views in his most famous work, Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, published in 1632, he was tried by the Inquisition, found "vehemently suspect of heresy," forced to recant, and spent the rest of his life under house arrest. Do you call this good? Let's think... the church supported the geocentric system which, the Earth was the center of the solar system, and there was a sphere of "fixed stars" and behind that, heaven. This was supported because the church wanted the people to think that they were the most important, and that god existed behind those stars. But with the heliocentric system, god has nowhere to live-therefore the Church doesn't like this. 2. Creates extremes Read the text on this page. http://www.jesuscampthemovie.com... Even Christianity has an extreme, same with EVERY religion. Is this good? Is blowing yourself up in the name of Allah good? Is brainwashing children to thinking they are in "God's Army" Good? Explain this Kinesis. The definition of allah boom: 1. allah boom These two words mark the end of a suicide bomber's life. He or she will scream anything related to their god and detonate their bomb which is attached to their body, sacrificing themselves for religious reasons. It is beloeved that doing so will reward the bomber with 72 virgins in Heaven. ( Or so it is said ) http://en.wikipedia.org... http://en.wikipedia.org... http://en.wikipedia.org... http://www.jesuscampthemovie.com... http://www.urbandictionary.com...