Christianity: socially useful or destructive?

Originally posted by Iron Monkey
Disclaimer: I am not a Christian

There are a lot of threads debating whether the metaphysics of Christianity is true / plausible etc. But let's leave those questions aside here and discuss whether a widespread belief in Christianity enhances a society, or has the opposite effect, or no effect at all.

The first thing to get out of the way is that we ...[text shortened]... ion of whether they have a reason to so act, but that's a question for another time.

Religion unites large groups of people, provides emotional support for them, and provides a moral framework for people who need to feel like they have the "special answers from on high" to morality.

These are it's social functions off the top of my head.

Originally posted by whodey
Either Christ is our only hope or he is not. Either statement, however, that is for or against this idea is an absolutist statement. What makes one better than the other? Really it only has to do with the whether the statement is true or false. For me is true.

The trouble with that argument is that it applies just as well to any religious mandate, no matter how harmful or antisocial. Suppose I were to say "Either God wants me to destroy the infidel, or he does not. Either statement, however, that is for or against this idea is an absolutist statement. What makes one better than the other? Really it only has to do with the whether the statement is true or false. For me is true." See the problem? If we decide that belief itself trumps the social effects of the practice, then we have no basis to condemn religious terrorists, or people who practice human sacrifice, or anything at all. If it's true that God wants me to, say, kill left-handed people, all other concerns - questions of human rights, dangers of social collapse, etc. - are moot. So if I believe that's what God wants, I can use your argument to defend my belief just as you do.

I'm not suggesting that anything in Christianity amounts to a mandate to kill, or anything like that. I think there's a lot of good things to be said about Christianity. But I am saying that in this thread - which is about the SOCIAL good or ill that arises from Christianity, right now, in this world - saying "Well, it's what I believe, so there" is not a reasonable defense. And I think this one element of Christianity - the claim that it amounts to the only path to truth or salvation - renders its followers largely incapable of respecting other faiths and cultures, and leads to a kind of social narrow-mindedness that's harmful in the world. If there was an eleventh commandment that said "As long as they're not obviously evil, let people of other worldviews be, you morons" we'd all be better off. We'd have less divisive culture-war politics, and fewer retards hanging out at rock concerts telling me I'm going to hell, and nobody trying to pass laws controlling my body or stopping me from marrying my partner, or stuff like that. The good that Christians have the power to do in our culture - the charity, the humanity - is being corrupted and politicized through the mandate provided to Christians by their belief that the only choices on the table are Christ, or hell.

And that's too bad.