Now, I will try to organize the benefits and pitfalls of both a religious and an atheist viewpoint, into categories of “to self, to others, to the community/world.” I would appreciate everyone’s feedback as to whether I’ve categorized correctly, and this would be a good opportunity to add some more thoughts and ideas, as they occur to you when reading through the lists.

(In some cases, I have included an item more than once, if I think that it can have a benefit equally good for the self and for others, or for self and society, etc.)

This would also be a good time to comment on whether any of the benefits or pitfalls is not really either, or even relevant. We can prune a little bit if we are of a mind to. But resist the tendency to problem-solve for a little while longer, if possible.

The next steps, which we should not begin just yet, will be to try and assess what sort of philosophy or belief system might help us to retain all the benefits that we come up with, while simultaneously avoiding all the pitfalls.

Remember, the grouping is just my opinion, and may not reflect the views of others. That’s okay; just give me your feedback. This is an exercise in the first phase of analysis.

I have not changed the original wordings, but I have corrected some spelling and grammar, and I left out some of the arguments that were posted on the threads (since we were not supposed to be arguing, just generating ideas.)

It sounds, I know, like we’re inventing a new religion, and in a kind of way, we are. But think about it – we won’t be the first, nor will we be the last, to attempt such a thing. But who knows, maybe we’ll do a better job than some of the others!

Benefits of religion

To the self

• Less emphasis on the body, its trials and tribulations.
• The ability to let go of the thoughts of the world/ego, and transcend the world (peak experience, cosmic consciousness).
• Increasing inner peace regardless of outer circumstances.
• Knowing that no matter what happens to us, we're never alone.
• Increasing moments of serendipity and meaningful coincidences, seeing the connection between our thoughts and the outer world.
• For many people who had no direction or purpose in life, were gang members, druggies, alcoholics, violent, materialistic, alone, and/or was selfish, it gave them a new life from the former.
• Being able to identify and gather with like minded people (organized religion)
• A place to organized humanitarian efforts, like the ones we saw after Katrina. Especially when a person doesn't know how to donate on their own.
• Knowing that death is not the end of life.
• Knowing that there is a purpose/order to everything and that we are an integral part of that purpose.
• We don't have to think we're crazy when we have spiritual or "other-worldly" experiences.
• Through myth, metaphor, and poetry we have the opportunity to get it touch with our deeper self.
• Religion gives us the opportunity to look are ourselves and forgive and or be forgiven.
• Religion can help us be in touch with our shadow and incorporate it into our being.
• Religion can help us to stop accusing others of our own unseen faults.
• Religion gives our unconscious mind the opportunity to be alive and recognized.
• Religion can help us be of higher consciousness.
• Religion can give us hope of finding our higher being.
• Religion allows us the opportunity to identify with the journey of others and those who came before us.
• Religion can remind us that the ancients had the same struggles and goals that we have.
• Religion can help us through sad and difficult times.
• Religion can give us hope.
• Religion gives us the opportunity to separate fact from fantasy. This is done by not stopping at a certain point but by continuing to search.
• Religion can assist us in finding and developing our own talents.
• Religion allows us the opportunity to contemplate.
• Religion can be a springboard into universal thought.
• Religion gives a good picture of our "inner" world. Religion recognizes that the "inner" world is just as important as the "outer" world.
• Religion gives us the opportunity to balance these two worlds and aids them in working together.
• Religion takes us out of “our, I, me, mine” mode if we let it.
• The Avatars have always stressed God's love for all creation and suggested that because He loves all, we should also do this. (All revealed religion has a golden rule about how to treat others.) I don't think we'd come to that conclusion on our own because we live each in his own skin. Religion teaches us that it's really all the same skin.
• Another benefit would be religion and god will provide you with strength and happiness that a person wouldn't get from anyone else.
• It makes a person feel a sense of belonging .
• It gives us a better knowledge of ourselves.
• Religion can help us;
  • When there is no one to love and respect us.
  • Feel close to the creator you believe in.
  • Feel Him/her inside your being
  • And give you courage.

To Others

• Ability to see all people as children of God and forgiving our enemies.
• A place to organized humanitarian efforts, like the ones we saw after Katrina. Especially when a person doesn't know how to donate on their own.
• Religion can help us to stop accusing others of our own unseen faults.
• Religion can remind us to love and respect others.
• The Avatars have always stressed God's love for all creation and suggested that because He loves all, we should also do this. (All revealed religion has a golden rule about how to treat others.) I don't think we'd come to that conclusion on our own because we live each in his own skin. Religion teaches us that it's really all the same skin.

To the Community/World

• If it were only that easy to forgive our enemies then there would be no reason for war etc... wouldn't ya just like to wave a wand and say let there be peace in the world like god always wanted
• For many people who had no direction or purpose in life, were gang members, druggies, alcoholics, violent, materialistic, alone, and/or was selfish, it gave them a new life from the former.
• Being able to identify and gather with like minded people (organized religion)
• A place to organized humanitarian efforts, like the ones we saw after Katrina. Especially when a person doesn't know how to donate on their own.
• The Avatars have always stressed God's love for all creation and suggested that because He loves all, we should also do this. (All revealed religion has a golden rule about how to treat others.) I don't think we'd come to that conclusion on our own because we live each in his own skin. Religion teaches us that it's really all the same skin.
• So, I think the chief benefit is the concept of unity that imbues every revelation. The very word religion means to "bind together or unite."

Benefits of Atheism
To Self

• Atheists who are truly humanitarians do good for goodness sake and not because religion tells them to do so, or because they’re looking to be rewarded in the afterlife.
• It may be, as it is often claimed, that there is a greater degree of freedom to think, and to disagree with accepted wisdom, without fear of offending a deity or risking punishment.
• Sleep in late on Sunday Morning and with the money one saves on tithing you can treat yourself and a loved one to a nice relaxing evening restaurant.
• I am impressed by the idea that you can be a good person, on your own, and without God...
• I am impressed by the way an atheist can do whatever they want and live the way they want without be scared that you will go to hell...
• Not feeling the need to follow a certain dogma.
• As a non-theist, I have found a certain amount of satisfaction in realizing that there are some questions that I'll probably never know the answer to, such as is/are there a deity/deities? What would be so wrong about saying "I don't know" if I really don't know?
• Atheism best fits the evidence of the world as why see it, and for why there is so much evil in the world, and how it has come to pass that there are so incredibly many divergent beliefs about gods or the lack of them.
• Sex is always more fun when you're not always worried about sinning (is wearing a condom bad? Should I be enjoying it THIS much?)
• Atheism is a better explanation of why the sex drive is as strong as it is, too. (At least, better than imagining that God made it so strong just to test us.)

To Others

• Atheism is a better explanation of why the sex drive is as strong as it is, too. (At least, better than imagining that God made it so strong just to test us.)

To the Community/World

• Atheists who are truly humanitarians do good for goodness sake and not because religion tells them to do so, or because they’re looking to be rewarded in the afterlife.
• Atheism is a better explanation of why the sex drive is as strong as it is, too. (At least, better than imagining that God made it so strong just to test us.)

Pitfalls of Atheism
To the Self

• The atheist is very likely to be strongly resented, rejected in a world that is very largely made up of people of varying degrees of faith.

To Others

• They put down peoples religions as ignorant, causing people to be put off by them, instead of causing people to want to listen and understand them.
• I think Atheists are easily angered by anyone of religion and they fall to ranting and name calling or being offended too often.

To the Community/World

• They put down peoples religions as ignorant, causing people to be put off by them, instead of causing people to want to listen and understand them.
• I think Atheists are easily angered by anyone of religion and they fall to ranting and name calling or being offended too often.

Pitfalls of Religion
To the Self

• Belief in prayer is often a sick joke. It is supposed to work, but rarely does (the prayed-for missing kids turn up raped and dead, the dying die, the floods come anyway). People are taught to hope for what is excessively likely to occur, and to believe in what will not occur seems cruel at times.
• One of the biggest, smugness... that sense of undeserved and unjustified self-congratulation. It's worse in some religions and sects than others; in my experience it is worst amongst Pentecostal Christians, but that is only an opinion.
• Possibly a tendency to stop questioning once a dogmatic truth is declared.
• Determining whether a revelation is actually from God, or is the construct of a well-meaning or malevolent human must be impossible.
• When confronted with multiple, seemingly contradictory revelations of truth, making them agree takes endless work of the apologists, and even then doesn't usually suffice, which results in schism (the breaking apart of a religious community).
• Seven Signs of Spiritual Slavery
  1. You must believe that the source of the teachings is not a mere human being. Therefore you will believe that your thoughts, and those of other humans, are inferior and ultimately illusory.
  2. You are given the threat of spiritual or physical punishment should you cease to follow the teachings. Therefore you will fear to look in places that may reveal other truths.
  3. You are led to believe that human suffering is necessary for the eventual betterment of mankind. Therefore you can never dedicate the wholeness of your being to squelching human turmoil.
  4. You are taught that your very nature is a transgression against "right". Therefore you will resist that which would bring you joy by authority of your nature.
  5. You are led to believe that your salvation extends solely from the will of a particular supernatural force or entity. Therefore you will fear to resist its will and place yourself in subservience to it.
  6. You are given the promise of immortality. Therefore in dreading death you will fear to question the teachings.
  7. You must have unquestioning faith in the teachings. Therefore you will never know the truth of any other.
• I think the pitfalls of any path is the fault of the individual and not the religion. It is each persons responsibility to think for themselves and take responsibility for his/her life.
• Acting more self-righteous than others.
• Not showing the desired traits the religion calls for.
• Not living in the way your faith dictates that you should live.
• People who think they have reached their Holy limit and do not need to work on becoming better person anymore.

To Others

• Religion frequently offers (tacit) approval for that which merits the most extreme disapproval. Terrorism springs to mind, as do shunning/excommunication for holding different views , sometimes with deep negative impacts on the lives of the shunned and their families.
• One of the biggest, smugness... that sense of undeserved and unjustified self-congratulation. It's worse in some religions and sects than others; in my experience it is worst amongst Pentecostal Christians, but that is only an opinion.
• Another big one is the tendency to rush to judgment...which often reveals an awful lot of bad judgment, if you ask me.
• Being closed-minded to others beliefs because they differ from one's own. this can lead to prejudice and arrogance. This also encompasses people of the same religion who are closed-minded towards other's religious/scriptural interpretation.
• The assumption that one religion possesses the only truth can (and has, and still does) lead to efforts to strip away the religious beliefs of others in order to convert them.
• Are judging others.
• Acting like your religion is the only right path.
• Thinking and believing that someone else is doomed because of their unbelief.

To the Community/World

• Another big one is the tendency to rush to judgment...which often reveals an awful lot of bad judgment, if you ask me.
• The assumption that one religion possesses the only truth can (and has, and still does) lead to efforts to strip away the religious beliefs of others in order to convert them.
• Acting like your religion is the only right path.

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evangelicalhumanist: Greek "eu"=good and "angelos"=messenger. Spreading the good news of Humanism.