What good does religion offer the world today?

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It does look like an interesting book but it does not excuse religion for erasing vital parts of the past.

Religion has made certain there is no "whole picture" to look at, thus we are left with a slanted, distorted and incomplete view of our past.

We can only expect the same from religion if it were to gain enough ground to obliterate the present with their unfounded precepts and superstitious mockery of science and reason.

You've not made any points worthy of addressing. I've not disputed any of the criticisms of religion. I'm not trying to argue that religion is good. I'm not taking an opposing position, just pointing out that yours is overly simplistic, so simplistic that it can be reduced to a cheesy bumper sticker.

Then you hold up said cheesy sticker as a fact so profound we should all treat it like holy writ.

It's not a fact, it's just a guess. To say otherwise is to start your own belief system.

You think the Roman Catholics destroying the Mexican Aztec history is a trivial matter?

American Indian genocide etc... and you link me to a fictional book about futuristic monks and call my argument a trivial bumper sticker?

No. I said your entire take on the whole religion good or bad is so simplistic it can be reduced to a bumper sticker. And you did it, you posted the bumper sticker.

Stop throwing straw men about the place and recognise that you said something was a fact when it was clearly just an opinion.

The preponderance of evidence against religion and its intolerance is fact not theory.

If you think expecting justice for a pattern of past and present atrocities is a straw man then you need help.

Religion has used, intolerance to murder, enslave and rape humanity.

Put that on your bumper if you like.

Never said it wasn't. You however, can't see anything else.

I'll leave the bumper stickering to you, I've always found them rather vulgar.

Religion is an attempt to crystalize knowledge of that which underlies reality. It has very little to do with spirituality.

The creation of a religion is an attempt to organize knowledge of the unknowable; a bit of an oxymoron.

Religion, like government, is an exercise in crowd control.

And to control huge amounts money. The Mormon Church gets $10 billion/year. That's more than the GDP of many countries.

Religion treats it claim of unknowable knowledge as "infallible truth" and that is it greatest error in judgment and ethics.

I still think letting religion (any or all of them) define God for you is the biggest error anyone can make.

The sun god? The creationist god? The many gods in the world?

Exactly my point. Every man should find God for himself rather than take any man's or religion's word for it.

I have also called religion an accident of birth. Most follow the religion of their parents. I think the only change now is the slowing down of people who claim a religion and attend church.

Not taking any man's word for it includes your family.

It is like driving down the road with blindfolds on...