UNJUSTIFIED EXISTENCE OF RELIGIOUS ORGANISATIONS

Let us talk here not about a religion as a religion but a religion as an organisation.  People who are uncomfortable with claims that religions have no justified existence may be less disturbed when reminded that religion is just an organisation.

Does a religion being able to generate extreme good and extreme evil mean the existence of the religion is justifiable? No. It means the existence of the religion is unjustifiable. Some non-religion community should do for we need community but religion is not a must have.

If all religion is bad not all religion is equally bad. The religion that teaches good and leads to moderate good but no unusual violence is more bearable than one that turns the saints into jihadists.

Religion is bad so the extremely good works of the religion are irrelevant. It is overall good that counts not the few super-good deeds of a few. If a religion is not really doing anything for the world but a few in it are, it is simply not as good as a religion that shows no extravagant good works but overall enhances goodness. And goodness is never perfected but only enhanced. The imperfection means that there is still room for concern. It is a concern if a religion is good but not perfect. The imperfection means harm and badness - it is the dark side. There is still something wrong with the religion. The few saints in it could be put down to luck and some saints have been good fakes and actors. Hyper-good deeds are nothing in the bigger picture. How much good is spread and diffused in the bigger picture? That is what matters. And no matter if the works are good or heroically good, nobody really knows if the person as a religious person or a person as a human being is producing those works. The kindest position is that they are being good as people not as devotees of some God even if they think the God thing is making them good. It is easy to think your faith is behind your goodness when it is in fact just you and only you. Do not degrade your human nobility by saying your nobility is not naturally yours but is given to you by God and religion and its magic. Do not discourage the non-religious philanthropists by saying you need God in your heart and his grace to make you good.

Nobody should promote a religion that produces extreme good in some and extreme evil in others. The extreme good is no use if the extreme evil manages to drop a nuclear bomb on Mecca or Rome. There is still something flawed in a religion that produces extreme good when it can produce extreme evil. The extreme good is a matter of luck. It would be terrifying if Mother Teresa were in reality an example of extreme good if she could just as easily have become a mega-terrorist. It takes the shine off her halo and rouses disgust at those who adore her.

Extreme good could be based on fanaticism. It is not really good then. Extremely good mothers can take it too far and stop their children having a life. It can turn evil in the blink of an eye.

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