Religion is a bad thing

1. I already pointed out that most Christians do not take the Bible literally, and therefore would not expect a miracle to save their child from sickness instead of buying medicine. God does not promote idiocy; the best help is self help. There are very few theists who would do something so stupid, and they are probably the people who are generally uneducated, anyways. 2. I did NOT say that religion is the sole cause of morality and happiness in theists. I'm sure that most theists have plenty of other sources of pleasure and would probably not go around killing people if they didn't have a religion. However, religion does undoubtedly encourage morality, and most theists say that religion is an important part of their personal lives. 3. I would like to bring us back to the topic at hand of whether or not God's existence contradicts science. You did not prove that his existence contradicts science. You did, however, provide several faulty arguments on why he can't exist: -It is actually widely accepted among theists that God created the universe with its laws of nature -You said "everything your saying [gravity, mass, energy], there are scientific explanations for,". No. There aren't. The ones that are out there are completely theoretical, so it is equally valid to believe that God is responsible for them instead -You said "...we all grow in different ways, mutations cannot be determined,". Science has not explained how mutations just "randomly" occur at the molecular level. The presence of God explains how that happens. -You said "God did not create everything around us,". Yes he did. He created all the atoms in the universe though the process of fusion. "Wait," says the atheist, "gravity is what causes fusion in the first place!" Well, what causes gravity? Atheists don't have an any more valid answer than the theists. Theists believe that gravity is the sign of a divine force. -You seem to think that the universe is too complicated for God to have created. That is total nonsense because 1) God is all-knowing and all-pervading and 2) It is just as unlikely, if not more, for such a complex universe to have assembled itself purely by chance. -You said "[God has only been] proven by a couple of books wrote hundreds of years ago,". Who says that is what all theists base their faith in God solely on such books? I specifically stated that most theists DO NOT take the Bible or Koran literally. While those books may have served as inspiration to believe, the main reason for theists to believe in God is because they have personally felt God's grace and love. They have had their own "magnificent experiences"; they aren't just going off of others' accounts. -You concluded by saying "the topic being is religion a bad thing? Yes." How did any of that fallacy you spouted prove that religion is a bad thing? You failed to prove that the existence of God contradicts science. The divisions between various religions do not cause conflict. As I stated before, all "religious conflicts" actually had underlying political, economic, or social causes. I will now proceed to reveal the underlying cause behind each of the examples of "religious conflict" that you gave: 1) The Irish Civil War (1922-23): it had barely anything to do with religion. It was a fight between 2 Irish nationalist parties over the terms of the Anglo-Irish Treaty. One side accepted the treaty, while the other side didn't. While certain religious groups did tend to side with either side of the war, it was all mainly fueled by nationalism. 2) The degradation of women: I am assuming that you are mainly talking about the kind of stuff that we hear about in the news from Afghanistan. The reason is simple: the Taliban rules Afghanistan through terrorism, both against men and women; 80% of all deaths in Afghanistan during the year 2012 were either directly or indirectly inflicted by the Taliban. The Taliban justifies its actions with a couple of obscure lines from the horribly misinterpreted Koran, but in reality, they are nothing more than a cruel, corrupt, greedy militaristic regime with purely materialistic goals that Allah would most definitely disapprove of. Religion is a great thing for people to believe in; it gives them a sense of happiness and fulfillment, and encourages morality. Some groups try using religion to justify their horrendous causes and stupid wars, but in reality, they all have completely materialistic goals in mind, and the actual tenants of religion directly contradict their actions. Back to you, Pro.