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About Organized Religion Causing Harm

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Posted by Paul R. Martin on August 4, 2002 03:50:42 UTC

Hi Aaron,

I forgot to address your point:

***I don't think that all organized religion has cuased harm. That part is streching it. ***

I do. I don't think it is stretching it at all.

If you think of the major religions, all you have to do is read history and see that once a body of believers is established, the people at the top of the hierarchy of control have enormous wealth and power at their disposal, and, historically many of them carry out atrocious acts that have caused untold misery. Even in cases where no harm might have been intended, for example in the missionary work of the Christian churches from, say the sixteenth century to the eighteenth or even the nineteenth centuries, native cultures were devastated by many unintentional means.

If you think of the minor religions, such as those founded by Jim Jones, the Heaven's Gate guy, etc., it is easy to see how the power corrupted any good intentions they might have started out with.

All those examples are obvious and well known. You said that you didn't "think that all organized religion has cuased harm", so you would be right if you could produce just one counter example.

Can you?

Warm regards,

Paul

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