What good does religion offer the world today?

Nothing to do with 'worshipping toys.'

Not only religion, but cultures that recruit children into their army and supply them with guns.

Yes Fil, seriously I was just pulling cobbler's leg. I just got bored and thought I'd throw out a line and sinker, see if I'd get any bites, hahaha!
No, I wouldn't trust Benny Hinn as far as I could throw him. He's just as strange to me as he is to you.
I am indeed a Christian, and I consider myself a realist also. When I see people like Benny Hinn I just think he is a freak running a freak circus...

God is a taught, or socially pressured belief. I envy my children. They are not burdened with thoughts of God. I do not teach them about God. I believe children should make discoveries on their own. My parents were not religious, but they did not discourage my interest in the church when I made church friends. Now, years later, in my heart, I am an atheist, but because of my upbringing, influence by the church, I carry a fear, so maybe I have become agnostic. Maybe there is something out there, I just havent been touched by it.
I do know this much. I dont trust people that evoke God's name. I find them more appaling then most atheists. They "god bless you" in one breath, then steal every penny from you at the same time. Then they depend on God to forgive them on their deathbed while they left ones behind in complete ruin in their wake. I dont distrust God, I distrust the people that twist, what was supposed to teach people a moral way of living, into an authoritarian, ruthless intolerance for the differnces of others.

An attitude God would no doubt approve of.

What he would not approve of is people attributing the failures of religion to him or what he intended.

Funny how that is. Even though I am an "atheist", I always think, "How would God feel about......?" I dont live by the corruption of the bible, which man wrote btw, not God. But one rule I do live by there and I think of it as flawless. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. The pope calls the "Golden Rule." That should not need to be passed down by a "God". It should be a common human condition without exceptions like, "unless your gay, or muslim, or whatever I dont understand". There are NO conditions, no amendments on that!

Yes, that rule is written into your 'soul', DNA, or however you wish to picture it. Deny it and you deny reality, which is the only 'sin' there is.

Amen!

There are two "golden rules" in the New Testament and they conflict with each other.

One rule states:
Do unto others as you would have done unto you. (eye for an eye)

The other rule states (allegedly also spoken by Jesus):
Love others as I have loved you (unconditional love)

I tend to think the second rule is the greater of the two.

I dont see the first rule as eye for an eye...it implies vengence, i see nothing in that statement. Do unto others ...meaning do first....as they would do unto you.....meaning expect the same respect of others. To assume that statement is a call to vengence is to misunderstand the statement altogether.
Do unto others as they would do unto you. To treat your family and neighbors and friends with respect in the expectation they will do the same. To not treat your family or neighbors with disrespect as you would not want disrespect perpetrated on you. Its not that hard to conceive.

Yes, love thy neighbor as thyself, Same thing. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Some people hate themselves and treat their neighbors likewise.

A higher love is required than self love.

I was speaking of the rule written in your soul or heart, not the bible, but the way you have twisted these two helps explains your later example of how people twist the one in their hearts when they hate themselves.

To equate the first rule with 'eye for an eye' implies that other's first impulse is harm rather than good. Is that true of you?

The second one you mentioned, love others as I have loved you, you distorted into a contradiction. His default position is to love us as we should also do. But if your final decision in life is to hate and do evil, his love for you will end with your death. His love for us is not unconditional nor should it be, for what would be the purpose in loving that which ends up unworthy of love?

Setting unconditional love as your ideal and standard means you will fail. You will end up hating yourself for your failure.

1 Corinthians 13:8
Charity [love] never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away.

Comment:
Give unselfish love some credit.

Oh I certainly do. Unselfish love (which is the only real love there is) asks nor needs anything in return. Love would have you follow only one inviolate rule -

Love that which is lovable.

To withhold love from that which is or to give it to that which is not is to adulterate love with something else.

If the god really made the sun stand still, I would be inclined to interpret that as yet another instance where the god interfered with the free will of humans.

Hey, so he allowed daylight saving time 2000 years ago! LOL