U nfortunately, I believe that this good is far outweighed by the harm that can also be caused by such beliefs. A s an example, there are many extremely racist people who call themselves Christians. Most people would say that to persecute someone because of the amount of pigment in their skin is not quite in line with Jesus' message. The racists would reply that they believe it is, and would produce a long list of scripture interpretations to support their views. If they had no religion, these people would probably still do the same thing but would have to find a different way to justify their actions.
Religions usually encourage parents to raise their children as followers of that religion.
R eligion is not necessarily directly responsible for racism. It is hard to imagine anyone reading the Bible and suddenly concluding that whites are superior to blacks. If a person is a bigot already they will use their religion as one more excuse to oppress people. The problem is that this same religion will also encourage them to impose those beliefs on their children, raising them as bigots and making them think that God is on their side and that scripture supports this view. T hey would very likely impose these views on their children anyway, simply by raising them in a racist environment.