Agreed, mostly because they encourage "us vs them" sorts of thinking.
While it's true some (good) people use their religion to motivate them to do positive and compassionate things, you don't need a religion to make you want to help others; just compassion and empathy.
On the other hand, bad people use religion as their excuse for doing horrible things to other people. You don't need a religion to motivate you to do awful things either, but your religion will be the lie you tell yourself to make you think it's okay to do so.
In the grand scheme of things, I think the negatives outweigh the positives; I plan to raise my children agnostic.
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@Gabe
Agreed, mostly because they encourage "us vs them" sorts of thinking.
While it's true some (good) people use their religion to motivate them to do positive and compassionate things, you don't need a religion to make you want to help others; just compassion and empathy.
On the other hand, bad people use religion as their excuse for doing horrible things to other people. You don't need a religion to motivate you to do awful things either, but your religion will be the lie you tell yourself to make you think it's okay to do so.
In the grand scheme of things, I think the negatives outweigh the positives; I plan to raise my children agnostic.