"..... the aqueduct ?"


What has religion done for us? From a non-religious perspective?

Setting aside things like 'saving peoples souls' or 'bringing people closer to God', what are some of the ways that 'religion' has benefited humanity?

'Religion' could be a global religion, a local religious organizations, and individual church. The benefit can be of any kind which might be recognized as having secular value; could be a benefit for all of humanity (say, preserving knowledge) or to one person.

Please - lets not turn this into an argument about whether these 'benefits' 'justify' negative aspects of religion, nor an argument as to whether these 'benefits' would have accrued anyway, from other sources - nor an argument about whether or not religion is 'a good thing'. Lets just brainstorm.

I'm somewhat anti-religious myself, but I can think of dozens of ways religion has benefited humanity. I'll save my ideas for later, as I don't want to influence the direction of the thread.

Religion has given us a great deal of what we now call "western literature" and "western music" to name a few.

In my LDS community, the church does many good things as far as helping others. Although I am not a mormon I have been involved with their efforts.
I have helped assemble hygiene kits, newborn baby kits, and survival kits that are shipped by the thousands to areas after natural disasters.

FWIW, St. Cyrill invented the cyrillic alphabet, allowing millions of poor Russians and slavs to read and write.

For Sparta!!!!!

inspiration


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwWL8Y-qsJg

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnmt1kZxBDI

amazing breath taking monumental architecture


Notre Dame Cathedral




Reims Cathedral


Saint Basil's Cathedral



The Hagia Sophia



The Pantheon

Brunelleschi's Dome in the Vatican

Most of the above art came much later than the Roman empire, but I always liked it myself.

but the question was "what has religion done for us?"

and you can't just restrict it to the Church in Rome. The Church in Ethiopia and Syria is just as old as the Church in Rome

and you can't even restrict it to Christianity. The Hagia Sophia is a Mosque

and religion has destroyed much also


remember the Buddhas of Bamiyan?

destroyed by the Taliban

It's not religion that helps people it is the individuals, they might take the glory of their followers who do the deeds but it's a personal choice to help other and it has nothing to do with your religion, you do it to help others not because your religion tells you to.

Yes Religion as given us many cultural wonders (churches ect) but how much innocent blood did those come to be created.

As for "Western Literature" who can say that if religion had not been there if that same literature and maybe more would have come from humans, we all know how much religion in those days as kill the artistic and creativity of humans that were not what they consider to be worthy or was immoral to the teaching of these religions.

Religion might have done some good over time but to my eyes it has done so many horrors that nothing will ever compensate for the atrocities that came from religion.

Honor your fellow humans it his them that help you not religion.

P.S. I include all religions in there.

yea...

just think how many people starved and died being naively misled into giving up their earnings for "god" so the ruling classes can live in such opulence.

the main good thing about religion is that it allows people to be kept on a tight rein. it controls the mind and behaviour of the masses. this was the objective.

don't get me wrong...you could get people to do the good stuff like love your neighbour etc... but you could also get people to do stuff like the spanish inquisition. surrendering control of how to discern what is right and what is wrong or how to behave could have positive or negative outcomes.

if i were a queen back in the day i'd probably see the good in that too.

in fact, if i ever fall on hard times i know a surefire way of making a quick buck would be to play off the naivete of the religious by becoming a "religious leader"

religion: for us or for the individual/ I dare not speak or utter for the body on the whole as to the beneficial influence to us. But to the one as in my self as an individual i dare spek with a certaintainty ,not with utterance that would protray traits that thread to arguments but with understanding and experience i will say that religion for myself i have at one time entertained and discarded as i have seen it as just anothers method of control and dictation to produce an ordered society whoses fear in a spritual goverment to pleases a deity do lead to a conformation to the laws of man whom in their eyes dictate to us what is right and wrong.
I am me .. iam free and not bounded nor alienated by such things but on the whole i respect all who entertain beliefs and conviction in that wherein they were raised , not being free. my own truth i shall seek out.

there looks like theres a face in the fire in the third frame of that.

To clarify: I didn't mean to limit this the Roman empire in any way - I was just quoting a great prophet for the title of this topic. The topic isn't about the Romans - sorry for any confusion!

As Quietman pointed out - I'm curious about any and all positive influences of religion through the whole history of humanity that can be recognized from a secular viewpoint.


Quietman, LadyLid:

Architecture and 'service to others' were on my list, too! Thanks for all those inspiring photographs, QM.

Heavenlyboy - Even better, I didn't know that about the Cyrillic alphabet! On a slightly related note, I did have some vague impression that monks have done a great deal of 'preservation of knowledge' in the days before the printing press; I imagine scores of them sitting around all day copying scrolls by hand and sending them off to other monasteries - in a time where very few were literate.

wow maybe its the spirit of the budha being released

or maybe its the face of the devil mocking the Taliban

We have so far:

western literature
western music
encouragement and facilitation of service to others, esp. those in need
an alphabet
inspiration
amazing breath taking monumental architecture
social stability/order (thank you jasmine!)

-----

shared mythology
recording keeping
counseling/coaching
community leadership

IMO, the single most important thing that I believe religion has done/attempted is the spread of certain values and the systemized promotion of those values.