So which do you think it will be?

Religious sects everywhere declare that they will save us. Is this true?

Or will thier actions outwiegh thier good intentions?

I for one think that religious thought interferes with logical and scientific deduction. It causes an extreme bias which distorts fact.

in my opinion, the problem lays with organized religions, those that are set down by people who really didn't know much more than anyone else does, but have the charisma and vision to set it out there for those who lack the imagination to understand, not every experience with the divine is the same, even interpreting them and their desires for their creations are as varied as human ideals

once we remove the context of organized religion(which i believe is the root of all evil)in which context are you using religion?

personal religion or established religion?

it's easy enough to say that it impedes scientific thought, but for some, science can become no different than any other religion, they're gods are just the pioneers of their particular field...what happens if you tell a nuclear scientist that einstein was a quack?

the paradigm shift from uneducated cave dwellers/camael jokeys to enlightened free thinkers isnt over yet.

iam not a nuclear scientist, he was a quack, but he was brilliant. By the by he believed that god created order in the universe and couldnt accept the random natuare of quantum mechanichs, "god does not play dice" Albert Einstein

facts do not exist Dyshade, they are all biased, perception, race, religion, topogrophy on and on and on ::::::::::.............

They have saved us, they united us with a common goal and understanding of the world when nothing else stepped in to fill that void, like all other things that have outlived there usefulness we are moving on, it just takes time.

my answer is both which is not on the list

My answer is nothing of both.

Religion is only a tool to create hope and fear in its followers.

People can damn other people in the name of religion.
People can save other people in the name of religion.
Religion itself can do nothing.

True, but are more people damning others using religion or saving others using religion?

Hmmmm...

I think more people (want to) save others using religion.

But the other group damns more people than the first one saves.
Or is it just easier for me to see the damned than the saved? I don't know...

Yeah. True. They do believe that what they are doing is good and right.

Even if they are wanting to save people their intentions are kind of questionable. Lots (not all) only want to help people using religion because they think they'll get rewarded by a God.

Most people do everything they do because they want to be rewarded.

Fanatism in every form blinds the mind and makes people do things far from human.

1. not most all

2. seems kind of negative as much "good" as "evil" has come from fanatism, religion at the moment in western societies has a bad rap which is why the negative is emphasised

I would bet the instant gratification of successful convertying has more to do with it then any reward from god

there is nothing like having more friends

looks more like a tool to unite people with a common ideal, which is why we have nations instead of small wandering tribes

Agreed. That's all religion is about. Power. Religion always develops in rising civilizations, as a way to explain the world around you, and to unite the people under a common goal and ideology. It also gives an easy way to creat laws, and a system of right and wrong. Mostly, it's about controlling the people. Which is why most rising civilizations become theocracies at some point.

"As I understand it, laws, commands, rules and edicts are for those who have not the light which makes plain the pathway."
~Anne Hutchinson~

anyone looking at the world will see we still need "laws, commands, rules and edicts". until man ascends the point to be able to decipher right and wrong at a personal level, we'll always need a form of religion to "save" us from us; unfortunately organized religion is the only source of salvation most know and understand, and those who wield it, use it to maintain their status of representing a personalized god as the god of all humanity.

that's why organized religion will destroy humanity, not because it offers an easy way to guidelines and rules about how to be a good person, but people use the sense of God that humans were created to need and twist it with their personal perceptions of his words to pass judgement on others for lifestyles they don't agree with, justifying their hatred stemming from fear or prejudice.

i can agree with your assessment of organized religion, but personal religion can assist a person in ascending the herd mentality and becoming more than the offensive bible basher down the road; it can help them find peace with themselves, the universe and God, no matter who He or She is, resulting in a better human.

if more people work on themselves, there'd be no need for external rules to tell us who is going to be saved and who's going to be damned...we'll be able to figure it out for ourselves, listening to god and not men with the same hopes and fears as anyone else...but until that point in time, we're stuck with organized religion and the cultures that spring up around it to save us, from each other.

so religion is not the doom of humanity, humanity wielding and organizing religion will be the doom of humanity.

Fact-- If you jump off of a 80 story building you will die!! That is a fact regardless of bias, perception, race, religion, or any other thing. A chinese man will die from the jump just as will a white man

There are cold hard facts. Things we know to be true irregardless of all the factors you put forth

The downfall of man is not religion, rather it is closemindedness, ignorance, and selfishness. Three things that, unfortunately, most religions tend to promote.

if i jump off an 80 story building without a hang glider or such (you need to be precise when talking facts) there is a chance I will die it is not guarnteed (agreed it is a very high likley hood but not a fact). I would also ask, how do you know that the end of my earthly body does not represent the birth of something new, in other words i didnt die i was born.

The fact remains that if you jump off the building that high up your corporeal existence will end. Everything else you brought up merely misdirects the contention at hand-- yours-- that facts do not exist. They do. Stick your hand in a fire. Your flesh will cook. FACT. Therefore fire is hot--- also a fact.

not really iam simply pointing out that facts dont exist based on the idea that both our perception and understanding of a situation is diffrent. If I stick my hand in a fire created at the end of a lighter for a second it will not cook so your statement is not a fact you need to add addtional descriptive terms in order to properly narrow the statement into something approaching a fact, if i stick my find in into a coal furnace for an hour it will cook

i do need to modify that some what though to: if you significantly narrow a statement enough it, will be for all intents and purposes, a fact. As long as we are discussing things that are represented in this physical plain.