Does Christianity tend to make people worse rather than better? [Spirituality & Religion]

@anotherclone What makes you think I'm pessimistic? And why are you making sweeping generalizations about a group of people? Most of my friends are atheist and save a couple, I would never describe them as pessimistic. I actually consider myself to be an optimist. I believe that humanity has the potential to reach any goal, given enough time. We don't need a God. We're pretty awesome, but we're made less awesome when we refuse to educate ourselves or help ourselves because we insist Santa is going to fix everything for us. So yes, people do stupid shit, but all too often they are doing stupid shit because of their religion. Atheists do stupid shit too, no one is arguing that, but to intentionally ignore the faults in religion doesn't make them go away.

If you think that having no faith makes you miserable, I honestly feel bad for you. Atheism doesn't mean you don't believe in anything, it just means you don't believe in magic. I believe in humanity. I believe in science and education.

Of course, live and let live, until it becomes harmful, and religion has been actively harmful for thousands of years. The crusades, the dark ages, current discrimination against homosexuals, etc. The worst of it, the part I cannot forgive, is churches actively telling people to avoid education or searching for truth if it goes against the bible.

I'm not saying you're a bad person, I'm not saying Christians are bad people, I'm saying that Christianity is undeniably bad. Perhaps created with good intentions, but certainly not good in practice.

It gives some people confidence and discipline, they feel supported by a tradition and a community, and some Christians are nice, they will try to be helpful towards others since there's this idea of brotherhood in their creed (something secular humanists have kept), but it also makes them think in dualistic ways; every religion creates borders, it defines what is sacred (and ultimately it is often your world, your people, your culture) and what is profane, impure, evil. There lies one major problem. This creates wars , bigotry, sexism. Another thing is I doubt it helps people come to terms with psychological or mental issues, although to start with, it gives them hope and peace. But it's just a placebo, and the roots of the problems remain.

I believe you can see a drastic difference in society overall if there were no Christians...for example, it was Quakers who promoted and got fixed prices in markets, before that different people were charged different prices, basically getting as much from people as they thought they could pay before the laws were changed. I've seen this same thing done in Morocco, everything from taxi rides, spices, craft items, and various services do not have fixed prices and they will take advantage of people who are not fluent in their language. We have a lot of charities here that are funded by church organizations and they are a safety net for people who are having a really hard time and may fall through the cracks as far as getting help from the govt. or whatever. However, there are people who have no real faith, they join a church to get more business or to get church members to help them with things or just to feed their ego if they are arrogant. That's the type of people that many who are anti-religion will use for an example when they are putting down Christians...meanwhile there are people who are in the background quietly working to help others any way that they can, volunteering for disaster help, donating things, running programs that help others etc.

No, generally not. But, it depends on the person in question. The teachings of Christianity are good and teach that you should show mercy,kindness and forgiveness to all. If you misanderstand and take it to extremes, you can become worse. But that isn't the Church's fault because it wasn't their intention.

There's no way to definitively say. Some people do bad things and hide behind the religion without actually knowing anything about the faith they've claimed. Equally, I listened to a true crime podcast, and a guy who'd raped his two daughters was asked if he was in any way remorseful. His response was 'I wanted it, they didn't, big fucking deal. I don't answer to nobody, police are pigs, there ain't no God, there ain't no repercussions'. In other words, bad people will be bad, believers in God or not

Individually, not too often. There's a certain threshold that gets crossed where it becomes harmful and luckily most people don't cross that line. Now, get a lot of them together and well... suddenly normal, rational people can get as bad as the worst of them.

@anotherclone People aren't inherently shit. They are taught to be shit. No one said atheists are saints, most wouldn't claim to be, and have no desire to be. The question was specifically about Christianity and there is no doubt that Christianity (more so in the past than in the modern day) promotes bigotry, violence, and is historically very anti-education. It preys on the scared and superstitious, encouraging them to ask an imagined deity to solve their problems instead of encouraging them to solve their own problems.

OF COURSE! because all the cool intelligent atheists are fucking saints...having a fucking faith is worse ?

humans are piece of shit BUT! you can blame it on religion and other stuff and hide in corner with your precious ignorance and self righteous perception

True Christianity makes people better not worse. Application of God's Word in one's life and a close relationship with God makes you a much better person.

@anotherclone I do too. Like I said in an earlier post right here, the majority of Christians are good people. Christianity, however, is objectively harmful to global society. Again, the question didn't ask about the people, it asked about the religion. And yes, when you pray for God to do something for you, you are asking a deity to solve a problem instead of solving the problem yourself. If I had a dollar for every time I heard "I'll pray for you" instead of "I'll be over with a hammer to help you rebuild your house" I'd be a very wealthy man.

Neither.. People are whatever they are whatever else they call themselves..

madhatter you know what when it comes to religion you become a pessimist and forget that it's fucking US...who do all the stupid shit

but idk..maybe atheists want everyone to be miserable like them without a faith...and believing in NOTHING :)

I say live and let live....but if they shit on your porch then do something about it

@Madhatter are you really talking about now ??fuck....it's useless, I know lot of people who are Christians and they aren't like that....deity to solve their problems???wow! everybody's so stupid :) THANKS GOD or(hadron collider) that you are here

@clone ...... of course he is talking about now , and that's precisely how they are. Why else would they have any need for all that nonsense ?

EarthlingWise, I think that's pretty well said.

Worst fo Muslims

Just stupider.