Maclean's magazine (the Canadian Newsweek) asks the question "Is God Poison?" (link: Macleans.ca | Is God poison?). And the only real answer is "Basically."
In the problems of the world there is a lot of evidence that problems credited with religious origins would have been there without religion (Northern Ireland anyone?) but that the religious overtones exacerbated the whole deal.
On the other hand, there are Christians, Jews and Hindus in the Middle East subject to the same socio-economic pressures as the Arabs, yet they are not the terrorists. Religion seems to be the mystery ingredient.
Clearly it takes more than religion to make big problems in the world, but with religion it's easier to take a problem and grow it.
Face it, if religion just up and died tomorrow the problems of the world wouldn't go away. But they might be made a bit more manageable. It might be possible to open the door on actual solutions.
In the problems of the world there is a lot of evidence that problems credited with religious origins would have been there without religion (Northern Ireland anyone?) but that the religious overtones exacerbated the whole deal.
On the other hand, there are Christians, Jews and Hindus in the Middle East subject to the same socio-economic pressures as the Arabs, yet they are not the terrorists. Religion seems to be the mystery ingredient.
Clearly it takes more than religion to make big problems in the world, but with religion it's easier to take a problem and grow it.
Face it, if religion just up and died tomorrow the problems of the world wouldn't go away. But they might be made a bit more manageable. It might be possible to open the door on actual solutions.
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