During the debate "does mean God exist?" Frank Turek vs. Christopher Hitchens, Hitchens made much ated about how "religion poisons everything". It is the subtitle of one of his books, in fact. Turek countered in his closing statement by remarking, "religion poisons not everything... everything poisons it the religion."
At the time, I thought "woaaaa, good!" It was a rhetorical punch to it.
However, thinking about it, I can see that the value of the instruction is limited.
Of course the statement by Hitchens goes too far, and notion of religion Turek is poisoned from abroad brings some balance. However, some religions are actually poisonous themselves. Some religions really teaches hatred and violence. I am thinking mainly Islam here. There is no doubt that some followers of Islam are peaceful people, but the Qur'an really inciting violence and backwardness. A study of the Koran or a cursory look at a culture where reigns Islam will tell you.
I know that some verses in the Qur'an prescribed peace, however, these verses tend to come from the moment when Muhammad lacked political and military power. The surahs "revealed" when Muhammad was to tell a very different story, however.
There are other examples. One need not stretch to see the venom of a religion which prescribes sacrificing children to Molech, for example.
Some religions ** are ** poisoned from the outside. Take Christianity, for example. Jesus is sublime. Its so seguidores-no (not that I'm biased...: I think I have good reason to be partial, however!)
But others are poisoning themselves, and fans that are peaceful and moral are such, not because of their religion, but in spite of this.
In addition, similar to "cure" cancer with a medication that obscures the pain, all religions but one only cure the symptoms of the human problem, not the disease. Only Christianity, with Jesus the real doctor, cure our illness of sin. Therefore, all others are impostors and therefore aren't intrinsically good.
Rich Bordner authors "Pugnacious Irish", a blog about the intersection of spirituality, ethics and politics in the public square of ideas. He has a b.a. in English and philosophy from the State University of Ohio (van Bucks!) and is in the process of winning a M.A in philosophy of Biola University. Remove the blog in http://pugnaciousirishman.wordpress.com