I want to bring something up from a long time ago, when Catbus…
Yep, it was me.
Well, I hope you can look at this discussion and realize that if you’re one of the people that the religion deems an abomination, then religion is far from a net positive.
You’re a real glass-is-half-enpty kinda guy, aren’t you? No, I get what you’re saying.
Let’s say Religion X unambiguously deems Group Y an abomination. That means Religion X is pretty unlikely to be a net positive, as you say. That’s a very different thing than saying religion in general is not a net positive. But don’t all religions have defined outcast groups? Depends on how you define the religion. Just using our existing example of the LGBTQ community and Christianity, which Christian church do you mean? There are plenty of Christian churches that are very accepting of the LGBTQ community, and see no conflict with their faith.
IMO these outcast groups, hateful actions, Crusades, and whatnot, have more to say about the biases of that religion’s practitioners than the biases of the religion itself. Long story short, you can lead a bigot to Jesus, but he’s still a bigot*.
Certainly you can look to the Soviet Union for some pretty unflattering examples of what happens when people with inherent biases act on them in the name of atheism.
So maybe you’d partially agree with me here: I may think religion is a net positive, but I’m far less convinced about humanity itself.
* Bumper stickers on sale now.