Is Religion the Root of All Evil?

[Anonymous]

- I would just like to point out before you read this myTake, is that this is not discriminating any particular religion. I'm not asking you to quit your religion or fight over this. This is my own opinion.

Growing up I was forced into Christianity. I had to go to church every Sunday, read the Bible, and take religion class in school. I wasn't even given the chance to actually believe in this religion. I was forced into it.

After school I realised that I am a human. We are all humans. There is nothing more greater than humans. I don't believe in worshipping something other than humans. Morality is doing what is right regardless of what you are told. Religion is doing what you are told regardless of what is right.

Imagine a world without religion. where humans depend on humanity and mankind. imagine if humans didn't look up to one (or multiple) god who was greatest. imagine if all humans were equal, and looked at each other as gods, survivors, humans.

to me, human rights go hand in hand with atheism. atheists cannot hold some insane religious tradition responsible for their horrible deeds against mankind. we are fully responsible for everything we do. until this does not apply to all religions on a worldwide basis i feel that religion is indeed the root of all evil.

this is something i came across on the internet and in my opinion this here is a great example of evil: "there are almost 5,000 gods being worshipped by humanity. but don't worry, only yours is right".

historical leaders didn't kill people for money, they killed them because of their religion. i don't want to offend anybody by giving examples but there are plenty of them throughout history and still plenty of them going on today. over one hundred million people died at the hands of terrorist attacks from all religions. terrorism is the symptom. religion is the disease.

maybe we have created this evil. who created the government? we did. who created religion? we did. who created money and have it value? we did. maybe it's time we took some responsibility and acted like humans.

[hellionthesagereborn]

Atheism is equivalent to human rights? Your aware that Stalin and hitler and lennen and MAO all where atheist, all despised religion and all are the greatest mass murderers in all of history. Every one of them killed tens of thousands if not millions of people. Atheism is nothing more then one ideology among many. Meanwhile which group gives more to charities, sets up more charities? The religious.

Now what is the root of all evil? Humanity itself. That's why what you have said is so incredibly dangerous, you are like the righteous man, so blinded by your perceived moral superiority that you will inevitably prove the exact opposite. Because you do not understand yourself, you are not going to understand others, understand humanity and that means you will make the same mistake as so many have before you, religious and non religious alike. Humanity is the source of all our evil and its the source of all of our good too. Our closest relatives the chimpanzees practice war (they also seem to have behaviors that suggest a pseudo/endo religion), currently they just finished one of these wars (I forget the name of the territory) where they murdered rival tribes, beating them to death tearing them apart with brute force young and old alike. That is nature. One of these chimpanzees has also been taking care of the orphaned chimps, since their tribes where wiped out. That's also the nature of sapient creatures.

You don't become evil because you decide to, you don't become evil because you are told to through some doctrine or another, you become evil because you get hurt and you lash out, you become evil when you place yourself as more important then others, you become evil because you think that you above all others know best and then try to exert your will on others to force them to your supposedly better way. It starts slow but it grows until you end up becoming exactly what you despise. This is why they say the path to hell is paved with good intentions. Religion isn't what causes the darkness in humanity, darkness was always their just looking for an excuse to come out. That's why religion is always warning us about it, its trying to stop the darkness not create it.

[FadedGrenade]

Well, religion is not the root of all evil. But it is the root of many evils.
I agree with your statement: "Morality is doing what is right regardless of what you are told. Religion is doing what you are told regardless of what is right"
I think that sums it all up very well. I also do agree that w world without religion would be very different, but much better. People would be held responsible for what they do, everyone would be equal, and there would be no hatred for other religions.
Religion has been the cause of every war. Every single war, religion is the root. Why did people move to the colonies? Why were there tensions? War? Why did the Salem Witch Trials happen? Religion religion religion.
Though there are other roots to evils like greed and money and power and stupidity, I agree that religion is #1.

[Waffles731]

' Why did the Salem Witch Trials happen? '
Oh, this is something i learned this year, the salem witch trials was actually started by a land dispute.
(One of my ancestors was one of the accused, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abigail_Faulkner)
But basically the girl who started it first accused a lady who the girl's family thought had taken land that legally belonged to them. The convicted had their land confiscated, the whole thing was really a fight over land that used 'witchcraft' as the excuse.
Though i have to say there is at least one part of it that is eeriely convincing as a curse.

[Waffles731]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Good
She loudly proclaimed her innocence and told the Reverend who tried to get her to confess (He actually made a profit off all this by the way) That, "I am no more a witch than you are a wizard and if you take my life, god will give you blood to drink."
25 years later, and 9 days before his birthday, Reverend Noyes died of a hemorrhage and literally choked on his own blood.

[FadedGrenade]

@Waffles731 uhh i wasn't rlly asking why it happens lol i was making a rhetorical question because the answer is religion. by witchcraft they mean cursed by the devil because everyone followed the bible to an extreme literal extent back then. 'witches' would claim that the devil came to them.

[jennifer_bloom]

If you want to know - compare the sexual activity of 15 year old atheists to the sexual activity of 15 year old Sikhs, Hindus, Christians, Jews or Muslims

[myTake Owner]

when has sex with consent become evil?

[sawno]

There are a couple of points in this i disagree with because i think spirituality can serve a huge purpose in self discovery as working towards becoming yourself can be an extreme asset for everyone trying to grow. So i don't think no spirituality is the answer as many will then take that as an excuse that nothing in this life matters anyway and we can all just rape party and plunder because you die anyway.

But then the real question at hand, the one at the title 'Is religion the root of all evil?' the answer is no because if you analyse that logically you will see that evil doesn't tie back to religion but religion can tie back to other aspects of evil.

So lets examine some common trends in especially abrahamic religion. Typically they want worship, use fear mongering, control there followers and collect wealth. These all tie back into greed because there is always someone not satisfied with what he has trying to manipulate others into getting him more of what he perceives he is missing.

Then lets extend it to some other aspects :
- Rape, sexual greed at the expense of the victim
- Anger, this one could be quite standalone but is often a result of being treated unfairly by someone else which could mean greed was the original cause.
- Murder, typically lust for revenge which could also be tied back into greed as your willing to rob someone's life for your own gain.
- Revenge in general, typically feeling that you need to take something back because someone has harmed you but in reality this also ties back into greed as you could also have used forgiveness to heal yourself and move on as the better person.

While i might be missing something here and there might be something deeper as i genuinely find it difficult to follow the evil chain as i am not an evil person as far as i am able to follow it Greed is the root of all evil.

[Jenima]

You made so many wrong statements. First, you said "Religion is doing what you are told regardless of what is right." A religion is a system of beliefs and practices which someone joins because they suits them. If you were forced to go to church that doesn't mean that religion (at least christianism) is about forcing people.
Then "imagine if all humans were equal, and looked at each other as gods, survivors, humans." If every human were regarded as a god, then everyone would feel almighty. Everyone would feel the right to do whatever they want considering only their own will. The necessity to summon to a God is that it makes every human equal and they respect a system of value that guarantee everyone well-being.
Then you say "historical leaders didn't kill people for money, they killed them because of their religion". They also and mostly killed them because of wealth, power, lands and so on. Religion is not the problem. The problem is human mentality. And if you think of a particular religion just name it instead of slandering other religions because I know for sure that christianism does not codone terrorism. So no, religion is not the disease, the wicked human heart is.
Your take as no realistic point. Obviously, you have some hate against religions and you make up arguments to justify it.

[carncars]

If you are a Christian they kill you and hate you and if you are an Atheist everything is about sexuality and hypocritical.
Religion lately chanced and was different in the past. So if people have enough of something they seek an alternative and then it is ok to go to the other alternative and so the switch from religion or believe into Atheism and a new clique.
I think the old religion was better.
When I was yount it all started to happen that they blackened religion slowly each day more and you saw they clearly have a plan,. First nons left schools. "But they were better then the moderen social workers etc. So religion is more advanced and they thought about God and without God and just science live will not be good.
Live becomes boring without God. Now God has to go the government is becomming hypocrits who doing as they are pleasing and do not listen to the law. So why is the law all over a sudden not good enough for the people to just being noity.
Litteraly everything that happens is opposit from the bible and therefor are all ideas stolen from the bible and then twisted or reversed up side down litteraly and then they claim as atheists to be original while they are monkeys and parrets who steal their ideas from the bible and therefor from god. in other words we are decieved and it is all about power and money. People are forced to become Atheists or the society will treat them wrong and even rape them. and then the government say that they do the will of the people who all over a sudden have a majority of atheists so they can leave christianity. we never had really christianity or just before you know it already must go is gone and can leave. well we loved jesus so much that he all over a sudden just can go. My can you trust people in this world. never again I will. bey all hypocrits.

[winterfox10]

I do not believe that religion is the root of all evil, no. I think that your analysis of religion as doing what you are told, regardless of what is right, is true in the more ritualistic religions, but that's just people missing the point of what they are doing. Did you grow up Catholic, by chance? You sound like someone who never had the chance to learn what religious doctrine actually says. I don't blame you for resenting it. Think of a belief system as the same big bad guy role as government. Government gives us order.

The problem with seeing people as only accountable to themselves is that everything becomes subjective, and death essentially becomes a release of responsibility. If I decided to rape you; the damage is still done, regardless of my intention, or what I do next.

Here's the part where you say "but you KNOW rape is immoral. " You're right, but there's nothing physically stopping me from doing it. Why then, do I not rape people, if I can just kill myself and not suffer consequences? Because, in addition to not being one to needlessly cause suffering, I believe that if I did something like that, something far scarier then a doughnut munching police officer will come after me.

[Anonymous]

Is the law evil for making us acknowledge things as evil? If we didn't have laws saying that murder or rape were evil things would they go away? Likewise religion as a whole isn't the issue, in fact I'd go so far as to say it is the prime source of objective morals within this world. It prevents chaos. Whether called religion or not, every system of belief can be thought of as a religion. A religion essentially defines the way you perceive and think about reality. Whether your religion is "love people." Or "science provides truth," or "God is real." Whatever it may be, everyone adheres to some form of religion or other, but most don't like to call their beliefs a religion. Not all religions have names but they are religions none the less. For some football is their religion, for others, what they want is their religion. For some it''s fame, for others fortune. Religion is everywhere, and yet some systems of belief seem very clearly good, and others very clearly bad. So in a sense. Yes all evil comes from religions... but not all religions are evil.

[Anonymous]

Hinduism suits me why?
No prophecies
No prophet
No middlemen (like pope)

There's no specific prayer
MONOTHEISTIC

It supports Atheism like Buddhism does

No, a temple was never created to worship God​. Hindus created temple to store spritual energy through activities like ofering fire sacrifices and YOGA
Temple used to be storage of energy. fte the bhakti moment, this science was reduced to worship.

Awesome mythology giving equal respect to women.

Women are not made to feel ashamed of their sexual desires in Hinduism

Homosexuality​, bisexual are not condemned

Vegetarianism is promoted but eating meat is accepted if anyone is in need of food.

No eternal hell.

Promotes idea to seek the truth ather than simply believing anything.

I can & I have debated the existence of God in a temple in front of the pujari or the priest and he joined us on the debate.

People ask me to do an article sometimes which is just a form of worship we have to do for 15 minutes maximum.

There's no specific ritual for worship. Using Idol​ for worship has just been adopted by the society , otherwise there's no ritual for worship.

Many many festivals.

Indu moksha and​ buddhist Nirvana is not different.

Complete freedom. I will remain a Hindu even if I am atheist on religious grounds.

I can be a part time hindu. If I believe that i am a hindu​ then I am a hindu. If. I stop believing that I am a hindu, I m not. There's no ritual for conversion to Hinduism.

Hinduism does​ not support intolerance exclusivity evangelism but promotes multiculturalism

Nothing about my religion could make me doubtful or sad or confused.
Because there are mythological stories and teachings like karma and Dharma

There's no single book or single belief. Soz I think it depends on religion to religion.

[Opinion Owner]

Lord​ Krishna treating his poor friend sudama with respect.

One God iin many forms but Krishna is complete form of God. It's our choice if we choose to worship multiple gods or one God

[curiousnorway]

I doubt religion is the root of the evil. Both religion and a car is tools. They can be used for something good and for something bad. A religion can give hope, but it can also be used to control people. A car can be used to come to a place faster, but it can also be used to kill people.

Both Stalin, Mao etc. who were "communistic" dictators were not religious. In addition people who ruled the communist parties thought the world would be better without religion and even considered banning it. The leaders still ordered executions of political opponents, participated in wars or other conflicts and got many people killed under their rule. They also had concentration camps similar to the nazis. So if none-religious are capable to do things which is considered evil, then religion isn't the cause of evil and then maybe there's something else that cause it. Maybe the human's nature? Humans have both selfish and none-selfish tendencies.

[NineBreaker]

Religion is not the root of all evil. Humanity is the root of evil. Evil attributed to religion is merely a manifestation of that evil. The reality is that the primary motivation of notorious religious influencers is rather greed and pride, and is only masked by religion because it is a source of identity. Using identity as a rallying cry for conflict and violence is not unique to religion. The Soviet Union for example was strictly atheistic, but the rallying cry was socialism as a social and economical construct. Nazism used race, the Rwanda Genocide was a result of ethnic division (not relating to religion), and the Somali Civil war is an example of rabid tribalism among a population that is ~100% Somali and Sunni Muslim through-and-through.

Religion is only one of many motivations to rally people to do good or bad. It's like a blade: a surgeon uses it to treat illness, but a criminal can use the same blade to threaten or murder. The blade is not evil; its wielder can be.

[Adam_INTJ]

Show me a religious chimpanzee, and I might consider your thoughts, but until then, you get no consideration.

himpanzees go to war and kill each other in gruesome ways: this is evil not rooted in religion; Your idea is not absolute.

Ancient Greece was very secular and still city states tried to kill each other; coup d'état's occurred, and slavery was commonplace.

Maoist China and the USSR were based on atheistic worldviews (Karl Marx, the founder of communism, stated that "religion is the opioid of the people." These communist states sought to snuff out religion wherever possible. These same states committed the worst abuses of human rights known to history; no religion, but people remains. Riddle me that.

The explanation is that humans are evil, religious or not; hence, there will be a measure of evil in every system that involves humans. You just made an elaborate non sequitur fallacy.

[Hispanic-Cool-Guy]

I read how you destroyed that other guy Ladsin on his Mytake about morality and did the same here. You're a bright young dude. 🖒

[taleswapper]

you have linked unrelated things. Religion is the excuse, not the cause. Take it away, and they'll just use a different excuse. Nationalism. Racial pride. Economics. There's always an excuse. Religion is not the problem. Greed, and envy, and bitterness, and entitlement are the problems. And getting rid of religion won't solve that.

Religion also does a great deal of good. It gives people a moral compass, when they can't find their own. It brings them together into communities. It provides sanctuary is a crazy, violent world.

Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater. Especially when neither the baby nor the bathwater is the problem.

[Mi2mi2a]

It couldn't be said any better. People are just using the excuse of religion to do evil.

[taleswapper]

@Mi2mi2a Thank you. I do try. In fact, some people find me VERY trying... ;)

[ksoma]

No.
Even if we accept the basic notion that all religion is false, and there is no supernatural anything, this is still blatantly false.

If religion is nothing but superstitious nonsense, then one has to still ask "why was this nonsense generated?"
Two reasons are:
1) explain things (which would include explaining acts of evil)
and
2) to control people (which is, in and of itself, evil)

So, whether it came to be to explain why things were what they were, or whether it came to be as a means to control and manipulate, there was still underlying evils, that were very real, before religion existed, that religion creators either tried to explain, or exploit.

In either even, that means that religion is not, and could not be, the root of evil.

[EllezBellez98]

No but it's an excellent weapon for being able to manipulate people. Hitler is a good example, most historians believe that despite what he said Hitler was an atheist. I can see why that's true, the way he described race and the german 'superman' showed some understanding of evolution. The German population at the time was religious, so when he uses arguments like being Jewish goes against the ten commandments, it's very powerful. So that's one of his many methods of manipulation. Obviously this was one of many tools he used to rise to power.

[themetalhead]

I'm no atheist, I'm pagan, but I used to be atheist. so I totally see and respect your viewpoint. I mean as for myself I don't see religion as being the root of all evil, however it can have some evils to it. especially when someone is forced into it instead of being allowed to be open minded. religion simply isn't for everyone.

[levantine99]

pagan in the modern day and age? its funny how people cannot empty themselves of all spirituality and at least look for one that justifies their passions and lifestyle.

[themetalhead]

@levantine99 to be honest I am much happier being this way. my beliefs aren't really that strict unlike some other religions. I know the way I go isn't for everyone and that doesn't bother me at all.

[levantine99]

yes dear, that was my point exactly. that you chose your dogma not according to your conscience or a revelation, but because it fits your current lifestyle and is an im-personal religion. your gods have no strict requests from you to provide you with spirit. if anything, pagan gods were always a relfection of human passions and intrigues... .

[themetalhead]

@levantine99 yeah exactly. its kinda a shame how other religion has put down pagans for so many years. it kinda sucks when you're stuck in something that's so strict that for some it feels like you have no life or that you can't be individual. I'm one that's usually like "hell yea!" to individualism lol

[Guanfei]

The "Root of All Evil" is human intelligence and instinct mixed.

Intelligence makes us vain, arrogant, greedy.
Instinct makes us territorial, competitive.
Mix them and you have a human.
Religion is nothing more than a new excuse to get what we want. We want something, but intelligence gives us conscience, while instinct doesn't care about that conscience. So, in order to agree with both, we have religion. With religion, you can follow your instinct which tells you to take what you want, and intelligence which tells you that your religion justify it.

[Shengning]

Good question. You might want to sweep away all the evil things, that's a reasonable thought. I don't have any religion nor do I want to believe one, you see, human always tending to devide things to good and bad, always trying to eliminate evil but truth is they never die out.

I regard them as one of the laws of universe, just like living and dying. Evil will grow in anywhere anytime, and then we will try to stop them natrually, like you want a burger if you are hungry.

Take my country as an example, Chinese most don't have religion, and still there exists evil.

[monkeynutts]

Very valid points, one of the reasons why there are so many different denominations is because humans argue, they will make up any reason to have a fight. Underlying and hidden is the real reason, competition, greed, politics.

If you pay attention to all the crap that divides humanity from one correct and Nobel eternal goal, which is the success and survival of all human civilizations on the planet, it is non Christian values and politics that causes the problems in the first place. Some of these politicians have ironically actually been Christian.
Not very good ones, I won't throw any stones because I'm not perfect either. But as a valid argument against yours is that loving thy neighbours, is not bad, Not throwing stones at one another is good. Charity and community are very important. and the true practice of any faith based religion might actually help humanity solve the problems of the world.

[levantine99]

religion is a natural tendency of the human being. even today, for the secular masses celebrities, politicians, and scientists have taken that role.
so no, not religion, its human narcissism that is the source of all evil. that creates the illusion of seperation of one's self and interests from others. that cultivates greed, envy, lust, power hunger, rage and all other vices.

[levantine99]

and what you said about killing for religion shows a very shallow understanding of national matters. countries kill for resourses, energy and territory/geostrategic purposes. everything else is an excuse dressing the true cause.

[Anonymous]

Death by atheism =
Mao Ze-Dong (China, 1958-61 and 1966-69, Tibet 1949-50) 49-78,000,00 people murdered

Jozef Stalin (USSR 1932-39 only) 15,000,000 people murdered

Pol Pot (Cambodia, 1975-79) 1,700,000 people murdered

Kim II Sung (North Korea 1948-94) 1.6 million people murdered

Tito (Yugoslavia 1945-1987) 570,000 people murdered

Suharto (Communists 1967-66) 500,000 people murdered

Ante Pavelic (Croatia 1941-45) 359,000 people murdered

Ho Chi Min (Vietnam 1953-56) 200,000 people murdered

Vladimir Ilich Lenin (USSR, 1917-20) 30,000 people murdered

[Anonymous]

I think that religion has had a good and bad impact on history. It has guided people to do great things, but also has guided people to do horrible things. Even horrible things got us to where we are today.
I'm a believer, but I don't think it's doing much at all today other than stunting freedom and being used as an excuse for ignorance.