by Krullix

Created on: January 04, 2010   Last Updated: January 06, 2010

When I think of reasons not to believe in God a question always comes to my mind: Do religious beliefs do more harm than good? I have concluded that they do and the reasons why I believe this are the bedrock to this article.

In the present climate of Islamaphobia, it would be easy to cite recent terrorist atrocities committed by fundamentalist zealots as an argument to why religious beliefs do more harm than good. However, the idea that these acts are motivated solely by a religious creed is a fallacy, one which is being promoted by the west in its efforts to polarize global opinion and promulgate the myth of a ‘clash of civilizations’. Al Qaeda was founded on political objectives, not religious ones, and was a reaction to the inequality and brutality of the Saudi Arabian regime. Due to the fact that the west overlooks the human rights abuses of the undemocratic Saudi ruling powers and supports them through oil and arms trading, Bin Laden proclaims that we are a legitimate target. The capitalist policies that have been aggressively imposed on poorer nations by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have created a disenfranchised and disillusioned population, trapping them in poverty with little hope of escape. These desperate individuals are perfect recruitment fodder for the likes of Al Qaeda, who use religion as an indoctrination tool to instill some meaning into the lives of the profoundly hopeless. This is by no means an apology for Islamic fundamentalism, but a credible explanation as to why individuals may turn to religion and commit barbaric acts of inhumanity in its name.

Islam is an easy target, and quite rightly so, for arguing for the harm caused by religious beliefs, with its appalling disregard for women’s rights being a prime example, but it is quite easy to argue that all other major religions do more harm than good. The oppression of the Palestinians by the Jews would not be taking place if the Israelis didn’t believe they had a God-given right to occupy the ‘Holy Land’. The spread of AIDS in Africa has been exacerbated by the Catholic Church who were responsible for a campaign of lies claiming that HIV infection can be transferred through the rubber of condoms. The assassination of abortion clinic staff in America is another good example of the destructive nature of religious belief. In fact, with there being so many examples of brutality committed in God’s name, it seems that there is now

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