Has religion interfered with the advancement of humankind?

7 Comments

Has religion interfered with the advancement of humankind more than it has contributed to it?

If it wasn't for the Catholic Church we wouldn't even have science today. It would have been eradicated during the dark ages. Much of science comes from religion, the Islamic religion created basic understanding of light and they created the astrolabe. They had amazing architecture. Most early arts were due to the church. Though it may be true that clergy members often did not create technology during the ancient times the power they had over the stupid people allowed order to take place. This allowed intellectuals not to be killed by stupid idiots calling black magic. Religion kept mankind in check there is not a single case where a civilization existed without religion. The only times when religion interfered with the advancement of mankind is during the early modern period but all sorts of weird and crazy powerful people existed in this time. Albert Einstein says, "Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind."

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Comments ( 7 )
  • VinnyB
    8 years ago

    Um, I don't know what planet your living on, but the Catholic church completely stifled science for centuries. If you made any claim that was in contradiction to the teachings of the church you were subject to execution. This resulted in men of science being executed, or being forced to publicly disavow their findings. It is also reasonable to assume that in such a world, many would hide their findings rather than risk sharing them with the world, and many would be too scared to even bother in the first place.

    How much scientific advancement do you really think comes out of a society where someone is arrested, Galileo, for claiming the Earth revolves around the sun?

    Regarding Einstein, he was a self described agnostic. Though he may have said the quote above publicly, here is what he said privately in a letter to a friend...

    "The word God is for me nothing more than the expression and product of human weaknesses, the Bible a collection of honourable, but still primitive legends. No interpretation no matter how subtle can (for me) change this."

    So that might not be the guy you want to quote when defending religion.

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    • Angelmikeal0
      8 years ago

      word.

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  • thegypsysailor
    8 years ago

    Religion is responsible for much more harm than good to human advancement.
    So many more brilliant minds were ended as heretics and evil doers, than ever contributed to man kind.
    How many advances never came to be, because some brilliant thinker was afraid of persecution, torture or death at the hands of one church or another.
    Even today, many muslim religious sects do not believe women should be educated. How many advances in medicine and the sciences have women contributed to?
    No, religion loses massively on any scale of good versus evil.

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    • ______________
      8 years ago

      Looks like somebody was raped by religion as a child :D
      Or was Religion a past ex of yours that you're still bitter about?

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      • thegypsysailor
        8 years ago

        Not even close on either count. A class A fail at amateur psychology.

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  • Goomats
    8 years ago

    It's a give and take. Religion did give A LOT to science, and then again, it also hindered other scientific discoveries. Overall, I think many religions and many religious people made tons of scientific discoveries, so it is definitely worth it.

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  • NeofelisNebulosa
    8 years ago

    I think religion can do both, and has done both. One thing it rarely seems to do is contribute to individual rights. Everyone tries to impose their own religion on everyone else.

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