Religion - actually provided us (humans) with the first formal set
of morals. In later philosophies this translated to Ethics.

We might not have the ethics of basic human rights that we have
today, it these morals had not been intrinsic to religion.

In fact when governments (even the early absolutist ones) began to
form laws they were most often aligned with the religions of thier
subjects.

While Christianity was not the first to incorporate morals they were
certainly the most influential to our modern world and our current
ethical standards and this was due to the close ties of governing
authority and the Church 'nobility'.

So I would say the most important and beneficial nature of religion
has been the development of a code of human ethics.

Unfortunately we often see only the conflict which arizes when
religion does not keep pace with the changing times. They may be
slow to evolve - but they HAVE evolved greatly and I suspect they
will continue to do so - it will just be at great expense.

Thanks, Redy! I was trying to touch on that in my last sentence, but you did a much better job of elaborating/explaining.

Good question. Christians should welcome questions & conduct open dialog about such topics, but unfortunately most do not. Either because they are woefully ignorant about what the bible teaches about what we should believe & how we conduct ourselves or, they're chicken. Bottom line, Christianity itself should not be considered a "religion". Religion is what Jesus encountered when confronting the Jewish leaders in His time on earth. It was all about appearances & doing as I say not as I do. Christianity is supposed to be considered a life style instead. I know that much harm has been done in the name of "Jesus". But the offenses committed being those organizations & individuals do/did not represent Christ, but were mostly self serving.

That being said just to scratch the surface, true Christianity alone has been responsible for the Underground Railroad, the ending of the slave trade & slavery in the States & in the British Commonwealth. Numerous orphanages & health clinics throughout the world (Mother Teresa's orphanage in India is just 1 example). Christian based clinics are at the forefront of battling AIDS in Africa & dealing with the resultant orphans created by the runaway death rate. The Red Cross, Salvation Army & prison out reach programs. Christians based relief teams are often counted among the number of organizations who respond after hurricane disasters. Just to name a few.

tf73