Religion Is Not The Root Of All Evil...

Root of all evil?! Religion is obviously not the root of all evil. Such statement is ridiculous and as a matter of fact, close to nothing in this universe is the exclusive root of anything in particular. I’ve often come across this saying in my discussions about what religion does to people, why it bothers many of us who don’t believe any of it and most importantly, how we can accelerate its slow but steady demise (at least in the western world). So we know how diverse religions can be. They can't all possibly have been created with evil intentions. But organized religion makes evil (and quite a few times good too...) very easy to spread and cultivate since it tells people that truth does not need to be backed by concrete, logical facts to be true. It doesn't incite people to put themselves and their beliefs back into question. It's a lot of mostly unprovable statements presented as solid facts (sometimes fallaciously claimed to be proven) since your birthday. You're used to it because it's been artificially made part of your reality.

Doubt, in most successful religions, is considered a mere moment of weakness... when in reality, it has consistently shown to be the very basis of wisdom. Faith allows people who don't know all the answers to think that they do. It is usually not a choice you make, since you get labeled with it from the day you're born. As absurd as it can be when we stop to ponder over it, we’ve generally become accustomed to such words as “Christian child”, “Muslim child”, etc. This labeling allows wars to continue over centuries, simply because atheist babies were unknowingly assigned an opinion about existential bullshit they probably shouldn't have had to care about until 20.

Unless you're lucky enough to be confronted with many conflicting ideas as a teenager, and develop some critical thinking abilities by yourself, chances are you'll just spend the rest of your life, babbling logical fallacies one after another, unable to acknowledge even the most logically demonstrable arguments. You’ll prefer to dismiss facts when they make you uncomfortable. Greek philosophy probably wasn't your favorite subject in college. Aristotle is not your homeboy; Jesus (who says if you don't accept him you'll die and by the way he loves you) is.

Root of all evil? Not really... But it is often used on people as a tool for spreading it. I’m sure you can think of many examples from your own beliefs, whether they be religious beliefs or not, when you have acted irrationally, because of things you had learned but never thought about. Realizing this later, you came to the conclusion that your old point of view (most likely the one you were taught as a child) needed to be adjusted to the modern world you live in. That's called critical thinking. Congratulations if so. See? You can do it too!

You know what... Religion will not die tomorrow, it just doesn't need to die now. Just as much as China doesn't need to become a democracy tomorrow. Keep your religion if it makes you feel good, safe, comforted, but please do yourself a favor and think about how not questioning it can affect your reasoning capabilities. Hopefully, religion will improve rather than regress, and whatever it is called when it does improve, whether it still even is religion or has become raw philosophy, it will definitely be for the better.

Edit:

I'm not that much interested in discussing religion as I have done it a lot and there are other things I like to do too. I did compose this as the ideas came and thought I'd share it with FFXIAH as well (there are some smart people here). I think it reflects that I am able to change my mind and adapt my opinions by listening to people of different backgrounds. If you care to read, please do so. If you care to discuss it, please do so. Please do not hate me for only posting this and abandoning the discussion. I've made it a new thread mostly for visibility. And if that's not okay, please feel free to delete it.

If you genuinely want to discuss of it with me, feel free to PM me, I like interesting and polite debates.