05-01-2013, 05:30 AM
If I were to make an argument against religion, I would expand the conversation to include more than just Catholicism and Christianity. I took a Masterpieces of World Literature lecture one semester and during so, came across quite a variety of religious texts. It included the Qur'an, Old Testament, New Testament, Bhagavad Gita, and a couple of Eastern philosophies (e.g. Confucious). The point of this list is that I noticed many of the texts related what you said about control. Not necessarily war, but control.
For example, the Qur'an has a chapter titled Women which is directed at men on how to treat women. How to split your estate when you divorce your wife/wives, the power your mother-in-law has, the privileges and responsibilities the woman has along with the punishments of such. And for the chapter titled Men, it explains almost nothing but the rewards of heaven.
For the Bhagavad Gita, it's quite possibly one of the most exemplary texts that outlines duties and obligations of those who follow the religion. When it's really dissected, you find that those who would have profited most from the text would be Brahmans who were at the very top of the caste system. Of course reiterating that everyone should follow their born duties is going to make sense to those at the top.
Do I think that religion is the root of all evil? No, I don't.
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