List of Harms of Religion

The crusades.  http://www.middle-ages.org.uk/crusades-timeline.htm For example: Sack of al-andalus and expulsion of culturally significant pacifist moors? It was the pinnacle of society, that part of spain 800-1200ce http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moors#History

Religous organizations that discriminate against gays and atheists like Salvation Army and Boy Scouts of America

The Christian destruction of the library at Alexandria in 391 CE, resulting in the loss of centuries of knowledge of science, history, literature, art, and poetry.

Catholic priest pedophilia and cover up

Overpopulation due to religion encouraging reproduction and discouraging birth control

Encouraging the poor to reproduce themselves to keep them hopelessly impoverished.

Condoning of slavery

Violation of women’s right to chose whether to complete a pregnancy

Forcing children to live in an environment of frequent yelling, name calling, and other abuse due to religion’s opposition to divorce.

Inculcating a constant guilt/fear redemption cycle in children over perfectly natural acts such as masturbation. This guilt/fear redemption cycle continues to haunt into adulthood and can prevent normal sexual relation

Imposing restrictive sexual rules/laws that have no bearing on whether consenting adults breaking said rules/laws causes harm to anyone. Rules about who you can have sex with (no same sex)  and how to have sex (e.g. no sodomy) do nothing to prevent harm to others and therefore are irrelevant to morality.

India’s caste system

Waste of taxpayer money by allowing churches to have privileged tax free status without evidence of  providing services to the needy other than proselytizing. Other non-profit organizations must prove they are providing a service such as education, but churches get a free pass without audits. They are trusted, but they have been proven to be untrustworthy.

Human sacrifice

Suicide bombings

Burning witches

Fatwas http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatwā

Female genital mutilation

Male genital mutilation (circumcision)

Honor rape

Ethnic cleansing

Suppression of woman

Suppression of homosexuals in general

Hampering the rights of gays to marry or adopt children

The blowing up of girls’ schools

The arranged marriage of minors

9/11

Holding back science by teaching creationism

The Gunpowder Plot http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gunpowder_Plot

Partition of India http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_Partition

The Inquisiton*

Serb/Croatian massacres http://www.historyplace.com/worldhistory/genocide/bosnia.htm

Killing abortion doctors

Pope telling AIDS ravaged Africa or any country not to use condoms

Most wars https://rudyruddell.wordpress.com/2010/07/28/list-of-wars-due-to-religion/

Not taking care of Earth because Jesus is coming soon any way

Preventing stem cell research

Preventing women from being priests thereby making pedophile men who want to be priests more indispensable to the church.

Preventing priest from marrying or having any sexual outlet thus bringing out the perversions of the priests.

Abstinence only education leading to unwanted pregnancy

Few atheists in politics. Only 45% of U.S. would vote for an atheist.

Parents take advantage of children’s hardwired acceptance of adults’ teachings to teach that they are sinners and will burn in hell if they do not believe that Jesus, for whom there is no verification existed, died for their sins.

Boys and girls are taught to be ashamed of their bodies and sexuality and orientation.

The U.S. Army forces soldiers to go to Christian events and prevent atheists from meeting.

Priests, pastors, or preachers are allowed to give counseling services without any training in psychology.

“When I hear from people that religion doesn’t hurt anything, I say, really? Well besides wars, the Crusades, the Inquisitions, 9-11, ethnic cleansing, the suppression of women, the suppression of homosexuals, fatwas, honor killings, suicide bombings, arranged marriages to minors, human sacrifice, burning witches, and systematic sex with children, I have a few little quibbles. And I forgot blowing up girl schools in Afghanistan.” -Bill Maher

Social IQ’s Lady’s list

Because of religion, science has been stalled in our schools.  We have to fight constantly to have evolution, a fact of science, taught to our children.  This is because religious people don’t want anything taught that contradicts their beliefs.  They insist on having Creationism (or the now more euphemistic Creation Science or Intelligent Design) taught instead.

Because of religion, many people must fear for their very lives.  Apostates are murdered because Muslims believe according to Islam that death is their penalty.  Witches, or those who practice witchcraft, are still burned to death in many countries because their religion requires it.  Cartoonists are murdered because they dared to ridicule Islam.  Women are stoned to death over adultery because the “scriptures” demand “justice”.

Because of religion, villages that are decimated by AIDS are refused condoms by Catholics who believe birth control to be against god’s guiding principles.

Because of religion, homosexuals are ostracized or worse, killed.

Because of religion, we have a more difficult time solving world problems.  Most religious people believe that the “end is coming”.  They believe that this world is temporary and there’s another world or heaven waiting for them.  Because of this belief, it’s hard to get people motivated to solve global warming and other environmental concerns.

Because of religion, more wars are fought than need be, if not all of them.  It’s nearly impossible to create long-term political policies beneficial for all when each country believes the other to be heretics, blasphemers, or worse.

Because of religion, many terribly sick people refuse medical treatment believing that either their god will save them or that it is their god’s will that they are sick.  They refuse to seek therapy or counsel when needed believing that prayer is the answer to their troubles.

Because of religion, people are not always free to seek their personal spirituality or deviate from the beliefs of the majority.  Christians are killed by Muslims, Jews and Gentiles continue to fight, and superstition drives masses to murder.

Above all, religion is the fertilizer of deception.  Once the virus enters the mind, it grows and begins to permeate all thought processes.  It destroys the ability to reason effectively, make decisions rationally and to develop a clear understanding of the universe. http://blog.socialiqlady.com/2011/01/07/why-religion-is-dangerous.aspx

*Example of the Inquisition: “A sacrifice to hate and hell . . . ”— Algernon Swinburne, poem dedicated to Bruno, 1889On February 17, 1600, Giordano Bruno (né Filippo Bruno) was executed for heresy. The Italian philosopher was burned alive at the stake at age 52 for refusing to recant heretical ideas. Born Filippo Bruno in 1548, he entered the Dominican Order at Naples at age 15, adopting the name of Giordano. After being accused of heresy, he fled his Italian convent and traveled throughout Europe (1576 to 1592). During two years in England, Bruno wrote and published six dialogs, including “On the Infinite, the Universe, and Worlds” and “The Ash Wednesday Supper.” A Copernican, he rejected Aristotelian dogma and challenged entrenched religious teachings, declaring pantheist views. Some academics today regard him as a path-blazing intellectual, others as a victim of his nonconformity. When Bruno returned to Italy in 1592, he was arrested by the Inquisition. Bruno was
imprisoned for seven years in the dungeons of Rome, where he was tortured and isolated before being executed.Bruno was just one of the more visible martyrs and victims of church persecution. Anonymous are the tens of thousands, if not millions, of women put to death as “witches.” Known to us are such martyrs as Vanini, a monk burned as an atheist in 1619; Servetus, a Spanish physician executed under Calvin’s orders in 1553 for rejecting the trinity; Scottish student Thomas Aikenhead, hanged in 1697 for saying Christ was merely human; and those persecuted in the New World. Roger Williams andAnne Hutchinson were banished for advocating religious tolerance. Quaker Mary Dyer was executed for heresy in Boston. A statue to Bruno was erected at the site of his execution, Campo dei Fiori near the Vatican, on June 9, 1889, by “Freethinkers of the World.” On that date, Algernon Swinburne dedicated a poem to Bruno. D. 1600.Compiled by Annie Laurie
Gaylor

Greta Christina’s list: http://gretachristina.typepad.com/greta_christinas_weblog/2007/10/atheists-and-an.html 

Christian Crimes http://www.666christiancrimes.com/100%20-%20299.html

What’s the harm? http://whatstheharm.net/

Italian Anonymous hacks Vatican website and leaves list of complaints going back a thousand years. http://www.examiner.com/anonymous-in-national/anonymous-disables-vatican-website-protests-catholic-church