I think there's truth to both sides. However, if it's not religion, people will justify their beliefs another way. Look at politics. People are religiously conservative/liberal and use that to justify their talking head. I used to be Christian, and what made me become agnostic was the realization that almost all religions were/are created to address societal concerns. People made X brlief to justify Y. It cane from people both good and bad intentioned. So, I agree that religion is often a tool of abuse, but I think it's a people problem, not a religion problem.

I'm sorry, but you are wrong. The whole reason that religion can be corrupted is because there will always be people who will blindly follow "leaders", and there will always be "leaders" that are corrupt and use their influence to control people. Not to mention that even though the people doing wrong will use religion to justify their actions, there are plenty of "excuses" that they might use if you took away religion. Religion is just one of many ways that the powerful have controlled people. And another thing to understand is that it is the people themselves that will seek to be "lead" not everyone is an "independent thinker". Lots of people need some kind of belief in a system, and any such system can be controlled for good or bad purposes.

“If it went away, the dumb and gullible wouldn't be able to be brainwashed.” *cough* anti vaxxers

@Id row - That’s the thing though, you’re describing one type of Christian person and ignoring all the other Christians - heck, all the other religions on the planet. Christianity isn’t the only religion to exist, and many others have an emphasise on taking accountability etc.

Hitler also used the belief that German's were a superior race, and that the Jews were the cause of everything evil. Religion stems from the desire to make sense out of the world, in world that is not either completely knowable or fair, even though people have a great desire that it should be fair and are very afraid of the unknown. Even if you remove the "name" religion you will never remove the basic human reasons for it, and as such it will be there in one form or another no matter what you call it.

fiction or not the people who will feed the hungry etc are very real.

Belief in magic is willful gullible. With or without a middleman.

Everyone should read "Man and His Gods" by DSc. Homer W Smith. He was a renal physiologist and evolutionary biologist. It is a history of religion from prehistory to the end of the 19th century. All based upon primary scientific evidence, archaeology and documents. Forward written by Albert Einstein. Also read "The Future of An Illusion" by Sigmund Freud. He predicted in 1928 exactly what is happening to the RC Church and other "organized religions" today. People get educated (woke?) and see through the illusion of religious consolation used by churches to control peoples' lives.

A recent example is Hamas. Here's some info to back that up; The founding charter of Hamas mandates the killing of Jews, the destruction of the state of Israel, and advocates for the establishment of an Islamic state in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank. An Islamic state has a form of government based on sharia law. Sharia is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the Hadith.

"The problem is that religious people can vote". You're definitely not the first person to dehumanize an entire demographic of people and plead that their representation be stamped out. Looks like non-religious people are capable of that way of thinking as well. This line of reasoning leads to some really dark places. I would never wish that on any group of people, even people I strongly disagreed with.

I am a person of faith. I agree with everything you have said. I was once involved in a church that I would now call a cult. The control it can have over anyone is damaging to those around and also the person themselves. When I left my question was “What was I thinking?” I wasn’t, and that was the problem. I have now found a faith that I am comfortable with. I am very careful if rules start being brought in. Every faith has them. But, if I don’t agree, I don’t agree and not gonna do it. My community realizes this and does not ever push me. My faith is about investigating for yourself and not to be based on what other people tell you. That’s why I’m happy with it.

It harms not only the fooled person, but the society that fooled person acts in. People trained to accept unsupported assertions to be as valid and reliable as objective reality cannot be reasoned with, and unreasonable people fight to establish laws and norms which are not grounded in the real world. IOW, religion is dangerous because it cannot and does not mind its own business and leave other people alone.

When big groups of people get involved in anything, trouble usually starts.