Religion

trotsky

(49,533 posts) Wed Apr 6, 2016, 02:31 PM Apr 2016

When religion makes people worse

http://www.religionnews.com/2016/04/06/183627/

...experience has me rethinking these claims more than I did at the beginning of my journey.

Now I see that religion can sometimes do a poor job helping believers discern right from wrong or relate kindly and justly to others. And religion can easily persuade people that the rejection they experience for their hurtful or ill-considered convictions is martyrdom for “God’s truth,“ leaving them even more entrenched in their destructive beliefs.

...

But now as a wizened old veteran of the fight, I struggle with discouragement sometimes. It is not just that many Christians fail to live up to the clear demands of Christian discipleship. It’s that we can’t even agree on what those demands are. We all say we believe in Jesus, but what we make of that belief is so irreconcilably different that I am not sure that we are in any meaningful way members of the same religious community.

...

Worst of all has been my discovery in recent years of versions of Christianity that actually make people worse human beings than they might otherwise have been.

Sounds like one of those horrid New Atheists blaming religion when everyone knows that religion is only used for good, right?

Nope.

Rev. Dr. David Gushee is Distinguished University Professor of Christian Ethics and Director of the Center for Theology and Public Life at Mercer University.

2 replies

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Highlight:

When religion makes people worse (Original Post) trotsky Apr 2016 OP

Of course it can. "Religion" is an... TreasonousBastard Apr 2016 #1

Yes, this seems obvious. trotsky Apr 2016 #2

TreasonousBastard

(43,049 posts)

1. Of course it can. "Religion" is an...

Reply to trotsky (Original post)

Wed Apr 6, 2016, 02:40 PM

Apr 2016

all-encompassing area that has no universally agreed upon ethical code.

But, so what?

Religions can be seen as organized methods to extend ethics and morals to their members who don't have the time or ability to work up their own systems or codes. Whether those ethics and morals are a good thing, or whether the members understand and live by them is something else entirely.

trotsky

(49,533 posts)

2. Yes, this seems obvious.

Reply to TreasonousBastard (Reply #1)

Wed Apr 6, 2016, 03:19 PM

Apr 2016

But yet there are many who think that "religion" can only inspire people to do good things, and that when they do bad things, they are simply "using" religion to justify it. I've seen it routinely right here on DU. Thankfully not as much, due to the Ignore feature.

It is good to see a Christian ethics professor write on the topic and agree with many who have been branded anti-theist bigots for suggesting that yes indeed, bad ideas can be present in religion, and people can be motivated by them. Religion can, as he puts it, "make people worse human beings than they might otherwise have been."

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