All Religion is Inherently Evil

Thank you for accepting DailyScience. To answer your question, some of the most evil things someone could do to another person would be: murder, rape, theft, and unprovoked assault. Going any farther would be kind of redundant as an evil religion would teach these things to be okay. But, without any further ado, I will present a brief case outlining definitions and giving what each religion teaches. We cannot solely focus on western religions such as Catholicism or Judaism, we must also look at Eastern religions such as Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism. Since obviously my opponent would not have the space to make a case for all 4,200 religions, I will not ask them to do so for all. I also will not as my opponent to attack minor/dead/obscure religions such as Zalmoxis or Cheondoism (a Korean religion). You are welcome for that. But, I will ask my opponent to make their case for 6 religions (they can do more if they want). Three are western philosophies; the other three are eastern philosophies. Here they are: (western) Catholicism, Islam, Judaism, (eastern) Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism. Now onto definitions: All religions: this should be fairly obvious based upon the above paragraph. Evil: I would hope that we can agree on a standard of good and evil. A good action would be saving a life, or being peaceful, while an evil action would be murder or rape. Inherently: “Existing as an essential constituent or characteristic” (www.thefreedictionary.com/inherently) In other words, we will focus on the religion itself and not what people have taken it to mean. For Catholicism, this would mean what Jesus taught. Simply saying it is evil because people blatantly misinterpreted what he taught is not what is at stake here. I will present a brief introduction to 3 of the religions1. Jainism Jainism is a rather extreme religion. Ahisma (non-violence) is literally the central tenant of what Jains believe. The entire religion teaches peace towards all living things. Within Jainism, there are two main groups, the ordinary citizens who follow Jainism and the Jain ascentics (basically Jain monks). The five main Jain principles are translated as non-violence, truthfulness, non-stealing, celibacy, and non-possessiveness. Ahisma, out of all of these five principles, is the most important. The principle of non-violence teaches that one should minimize intentional and unintentional harm to other living creatures. It also teaches that someone should accept the views of others (non-absolutism). When it comes to truthfulness it is fairly obvious, someone should tell the truth at all times. But, it still yields to ahisma so if telling the truth would lead to violence, according to Jainism, it would be perfectly moral to stay silent. Non-stealing should be fairly obvious. Celibacy is different for ascetics when compared to ordinary people. For an ascetic, it would mean abstaining from all sexual activity. For an ordinary person, it would mean not having sensual relationships with anybody else but their spouse. When it comes to non-possessiveness, ordinary people may own a good but cannot be attached to that good. Ascetics simply cannot own any material goods the ascetics completely renounce all material property. In accordance with ahisma, all jains refuse to eat meat, and the ascetics go as far as to use a broom and sweep bugs out of their way so they do not step on them. The Jain philosophy is peace. 2. Buddhism Buddhism is one of the most progressive and peaceful religions. Buddhists hold that if scientific evidence contradicts one of their doctrines, that doctrine must be revised to meet changing circumstances. Furthermore, continuing with the scientific point, while some sects of Buddhism still contain superstition, generally, Buddhism is compatible with science. For example, the Kalama Sutta insists on the assessment of evidence rather than reliance on faith. In this way, it is extremely progressive and sets itself apart from all other religions. Buddhism is almost entirely peaceful, ahisma is a central tenant, but they do not take it to the extreme like the Jains do. Buddhists will defend themselves from immediate threats. While refraining from meat, a Buddhist will eat meat if it is necessary. 3. Catholicism In accordance with Catholic moral teachings, a moral person is one who lives as Jesus lived (according to Catholicism, they should live like god lived). In other words, people should be themselves. Catholicism holds that murder and rape are immoral and that we all should help and give back to others. In other words, we should follow the beatitudes. We should follow the Ten Commandments. And we should follow the Golden Rule.In sum, my opponent is going to be hard pressed to define at least two of these religions as evil. Now, back to you.