Me - Look what people do in the name of religion. Mass murder, holocaust, organised crime, demolition of Masjid and Mandir. And in the name of God, they are either not convicted or softly convicted.
Theist - Well that is not what religion teaches. These people are bad. Not the religion.
Me - Hmmm.....
Theist - Look at all the good thing religious people do. Charity, missionary act, food for free, asharams, etc.
Me - Well that is not what religion teaches. These people are good. Not the religion. Check mate!
This happens when you argue with religious people. It apparently appears that they are enemies of logical thinking and have declared a war on it. Take a extract of debate with these people and you will encounter almost all logical fallacies, up and down!
I asked this question of a QA forum lately. "Religion is not bad, people are.." What are the best responses to this argument? I got some very amazing replies. You can follow the link to read the answers (You need a account, best things in life are not free). Anyways, here are the highlights of some of the best replies.
People are ultimately responsible for everything they do, there's no way around it. But something make doing the bad things a lot easier, and that makes these things dangerous.
When people aren't responsible for their actions, many are willing to do horrible things. The Milgram experiment proves that. Religion by itself is not bad, but it sure makes easier for people to do bad things.
Guns don't kill people, people do. But the guns sure help. Same logic.
Rape is not bad, rapists are bad. 2+2=5 is not wrong, the people that claims it, is wrong. Faith over a falsehood leads to ignorance, misery and, in most cases, war. All the religions claim falsehoods not only as truth, but as the "Word of God", which if you don't believe unreasonably, you will burn in hell.
Here is my take on this issue.
Anybody can be a criminal. The driving force for crime is not an ideology, but circumstances. What ideology does it make you carry forward your crime.
That said, I am convinced that an theist would be more comfortable getting away from his/her (henceforth, just his) crime in the name of religion or God. An atheist on the other hand, can be a criminal but has no ideology to back his crime and hence the chances he commits one is less
This is how it works. When people do bad thing, most of them feel sad about it. They feel guilty and sometime uncomfortable. They cry, yell, consult people. At this moment, religion tags alone. It tells you, "What you did was good. It was a noble deed. Suffering is inevitable. You are doing work of God. Maybe you are convicted this life, but next life, you be a happy man. You will have 72 virgins waiting for you. Your future generation would be happy for this deed you did. Etc/Etc"
Now this is what religion does. It makes you commit a crime without feeling the guilt about it. You are deluded and convinced that whatever you do, whatever happens, is happening for a great cause called God. You are working for God and hence anything you do is for a great cause. This is a self fulfilling prophecies. A logical error in thinking.
Nothing can make you fly airplane into the tower killing 2000+, hijack 5 star hotel in Mumbai killing 200+ people, holocaust 6 million Jews, rape minors and yet feel like Lord Krishna and yet convince you deep within, you are NOT DOING ANYTHING BAD.
I think Steven Weinberg put its succinctly
With or without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion."
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