Religion's track record

Overview

This page is for documenting how well religion has performed as a means of making decisions, as opposed to non-religiously based methods such as science or personal intuition not based on any religious argument.

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Notes

Bad decisions

Religious arguments were used to support slavery (and, later, discrimination, when slavery was outlawed in the United States) long after public sentiment had turned against it.

Areas of study suppressed for religious reasons

More specifics are needed on the following:

• electricity -- I seem to recall that Benjamin Franklin's study of lightening was condemned as being tampering with God or some such
• medicine?
• anatomy?

To balance the picture, there should be a catalog of valid areas of study which religion has been alone in supporting – any candidates?