Can religion actually hinder human progress and development?

[Sweetdreams1950]

[BCRanger10]

Can? Like anything else, yes, or at least some forms of it. Whether or not it actually does in general though is another matter entirely.

I can only speak for Christianity, as I am a Christian myself. Any claim that Christianity is somehow opposed to science or "human progress and development" (whatever that means) is hilariously ignorant at best. Literally the only example that those who so claim can provide is Galileo, and most probably don't know or care about the Church's side of the story.

Say what you will, but the Catholic Church has done a ton of good work for the world, beyond continuing Jesus Christ's work of our redemption from sin. For example, the first known hospital in the world was established by a Christian noblewoman in Rome named Fabiola, who is a canonized Saint in the Church. The oldest continuously-running hospital in Paris is the Hôtel-Dieu, established by Saint Landry in the 7th Century.

On the educational front, the Catholic Church is credited with establishing the university system that we know today. Some of the oldest and most prestigious universities in the world were either established by, supported and sponsored by, or heavily involved with the Church or clergymen, like Bologna, Oxford, and Cambridge. There are entire religious orders whose main focus is education, most notably the Society of Jesus, otherwise known as the Jesuits and the Ursuline Sisters, who are dedicated to educating women and girls.

Likewise, there are many Catholic Saints who have made great contributions to chemistry, biology, geology, mathematics, and of course, philosophy, and other scientific fields. These include Saint Albert the Great and his greatest student, Saint Thomas Aquinas. There are also Saints Giuseppe Moscati, Hildegard of Bingen, Isidore of Seville, and Blesseds Herman of Reichenau and Niels Steno.

And of course, army and naval forces of Christendom and the Holy League helped to stop Islam from spreading all over the world, namely at the Bay of Lepanto in 1571, Vienna in 1683, Montgisard in 1177, Malta in 1565, Tours in 732, and many others for which I'm sure a quick Google search would prove helpful (which is where a lot of my other references here came from).

So to answer your question directly? Not in the Catholic Church's case at least.

[Brandi555]

Yes I think so. But I won’t discuss religious beliefs on here.

[OneViewpoint]

Yes, hindering human progress and development is the main goal of religion. At least that's true of the three Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Christianity. Religion starts with pretending to have all the answers delivered by their God and written down by men.

Once it is presented as the word of an all knowing all powerful deity, they can't back away from a word of their lies and ignorance without admitting their God is bullshit. They must fight against anything that challenges their beliefs in complete bullshit.

Religion has been a boat anchor hanging around the neck of human civilization since the dawn of time. It's time we put aside this childish superstition and start making decisions based on reality instead of bullshit.

[OneViewpoint]

Second sentence should read...

At least that's true of the three Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

[ChicoFromThe305]

It can but religiousness is even mentioned in the Bible I believe in as bad, people form religiousness and it's bad because it's a twisted and controlling version of whatever they believe in, it causes more separation than anything, but how mentally strong a person is also depends because it's not just religion that can cause these effects but groups that participate in the same type of separation, like politics, the same people that see the damages of religiousness are involved in stuff like politics, which points more to a mental weakness than anything else, only people with weak minds fall into separation groups, as a Christian I don't consider myself better than anyone, everyone can choose to make good decisions same as they can with bad and usually the damage of human progression starts when people start to believe them or their group is better than the other.

[whosnumber_1]

I think it's a double edged sword. On one hand it provides hope and stability for people and a sense of purpose. But on the other hand it blinds them from being open to other perspectives. They make unquestionable sacrifices for themselves and others.

[DryGermanGuy]

Absolutely. Case in point: Galileo Galilei.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_affair

[capriVib]

Yes, in the simplest terms, Arabs and Jews share the same roots, yet they are killing each other over religion.

[FunkyMonkee]

Absolutely! Its brainwashing and conditioning can keep you from doing or trying things you might, otherwise, have had no problem with doing.

[Dargil]

Islam always has. Early Catholicism and Calvinism did as well.

[jshm2]

No. Hence why every civilisation in history has always had a religion at it's core.

[Ariesman81Nshiiit]

No. Religion is nothing more than people searching for universal truth. At least should be. Fundamentally, it is the passing down of wisdom.

[AngryCarl3]

Yes, because it offers simple answers to complex problems. And why look for true answers when you have easy ones?

[slatyb]

Can it? It has, over and over again.

[Jen_oic]

Definitely 💯

[Agape93]

Absolutely and has

[Mastergirl]

Yes a lot

[jahaims]

Duh.

[In_Trance]

Sure it could

[Anonymous]

Yes, it can.