# Religion is the single most dangerous thing ever conceived by man. **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [February 20, 2005, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religion-is-the-single-most-dangerous-thing-ever-conceived-by-man/291074 "2005-02-20T23:07:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2005, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religion-is-the-single-most-dangerous-thing-ever-conceived-by-man/291074/61 "2005-02-21T19:41:24Z")
> [@Epimetheus](#): > > A matter of dispute? By whom? Those that say Evolution is a matter of dispute? No, by the Straight Dope Advisory Board. Perhaps you’ve heard of them? [Here is a link to an old Straight Dope column](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mhitlerchristian.html), dissecting Hitler’s allegedly Christian beliefs. Suffice to say that there is great reason to doubt the sincerity of his alleged spiritual beliefs. ---
**Author:** ![Epimetheus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c4cdca/32.png) [@Epimetheus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Epimetheus)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2005, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religion-is-the-single-most-dangerous-thing-ever-conceived-by-man/291074/62 "2005-02-21T19:49:12Z")
Well, the argument isn’t whether he believes it or not, but USED it. One could wonder and argue all day whether the devout Catholic believes or just goes through the motions, but the argument isn’t about belief. Religion =/= belief. Hitler used religion as a lever in his agenda. Who cares if his spirituality was sincere, that isn’t the debate now is it? ---
**Author:** ![Apos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/838e76/32.png) [@Apos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apos)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2005, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religion-is-the-single-most-dangerous-thing-ever-conceived-by-man/291074/63 "2005-02-21T19:54:55Z")
But little reason to doubt that his mass appeal came from appealing to Christianity in public. He took Martin Luther, himself a horrid anti-Semite who actually wrote an article suggesting that Jews be rounded up and put in camps, as his inspiration. While Hitler was obviously of two minds about the church (it stood in his way, and as a meglomaniac, that was unacceptable), I would venture to say that his religious beliefs were just too unsophiscated enough to even recognize the seeming contradiction. He obviously believed in god: even claiming his as a “pagan” admits that. And it’s also clear that his religious beliefs changed over time, along with his increasingly nutty drug-induced paranoia. I don’t think religion is “the most dangerous thing” because it’s such a broad concept as to make such comparisons to other things (say, to socialism in specific) nonsensical. But I do think that unskeptical conviction (faith) is deeply dangerous. That doesn’t mean that it can’t also be productive and an impetus for progress (if only as a reaction against it), but if just “dangerous” is the qualification, I’ll argee to that. It also seems silly to add up dead bodies, especially when people seem prone to only remember a few, ignoring all sorts of other historical events and movements. Often overlooked, for instance, is the Taiping Revolution, which cost anywhere from 20-30 million people their lives as a bizarre Christian cult battled against statists in China ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2005, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religion-is-the-single-most-dangerous-thing-ever-conceived-by-man/291074/64 "2005-02-21T21:44:01Z")
> [@cricetus](#): > > My high school history teacher taught us that all wars are over power and money. Religion is just an excuse for war, never a cause. I think he was onto something. Well, given that the sole reason for existance of a religion is to accumulate wealth and gain power over its adherants, he wasn’t that far off base. ---
**Author:** ![Menocchio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@Menocchio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Menocchio)\ **Post date:** [February 21, 2005, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religion-is-the-single-most-dangerous-thing-ever-conceived-by-man/291074/65 "2005-02-21T23:28:47Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > Well, given that the sole reason for existance of a religion is to accumulate wealth and gain power over its adherants, he wasn’t that far off base. Sole reason? Bullshit. There’s also moral codes, community support, connection with a power greater than oneself, and giving answers to such questions as “where did we come from?”, “what happens after death?”, “why is the world as it is?”, and “how do I live a good life?” You may not accept those answers, but you cannot deny that religion\* is principally interested in adressing those issues If religion is a scam, then how come so many of its clerics, in incredibly diverse sects such as Buddhism and Catholicism\*\*, take vows of poverty and intentionally eschew worldly connections and polical power. - Yes. There are some “religions” that are nothing but scams, Scientology for one. I support that they are by far the minority. \*\* I’m speaking of monks here, moreso than priests, and I acknowledge that Catholicism, like every other ideology, has attracted its fair share of hypocrits and people who fall short of its ideals. ---
**Author:** ![newcrasher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b3f665/32.png) [@newcrasher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/newcrasher)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2005, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religion-is-the-single-most-dangerous-thing-ever-conceived-by-man/291074/66 "2005-02-22T02:45:41Z")
> [@InvidiousCourgette](#): > > Communism is not socialism, my man. The relationship between fascism and socialism is even more tenuous. Stalin was the leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Hitler was the leader of the National Socialists. From the mouth of Mao The **socialist** system will eventually replace the capitalist system; this is an objective law independent of man’s will. However much reactionaries try to hold back the wheel of history, sooner or later revolution will take place and will inevitably triumph. “Speech at the Meeting of the Supreme Soviet of the U.S.S.R in Celebration of the 40th Anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution” 6/11/1957 The 3 most heinous murderous regimes in the 20th century were socialist. If you do not want to go by body count, would you want to assert that these regimes were not inherantly oppressive in any number of ways? But as this pertains to the OP, I am still waiting for someone to come up with an example of religion coming close to being more dangerous than any of these regimes. Drop a random person in the middle of the Southern Baptist convention or in the middle of a Stalinist purge and I say he stands a greater chance of danger/harm/death with Uncle Josif. Anyone want to posit differently? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/religion-is-the-single-most-dangerous-thing-ever-conceived-by-man/291074.md?page=3)