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On the issue that religion does harm I do not hear this angle:
When a person accepts premeses on faith instead of evidence they by definition have a poorer understanding of what is real. By not having an accurate portrayal of reality they make choices based on faulty logic. We do have some minor control over the world and events, but outcomes will be statistically worse the worse the internal mental model reflects reality. In short - if these people only knew how to think properly they would likely never make as many stupid decisions and the quality of thier lives would be higher. Thus, if people tend toward doing good religion distorts thier efforts and reduces the quality of the outcomes effectively doing harm.
Permalink Fri, 22 Jul 2011 14:06:26 UTC | #852615