To say “religion is good” or “religion is bad” are equally meaningless statements until we agree on what we each mean by the word “religion.”
To define the word “religion” only in terms of the good it has done, or only in terms of the evil, are equally dishonest approaches. If we treat religion as a topic area like philosophy or politics then we can have a more helpful conversation about what kinds of religion are helpful and what kinds are hurtful.
To some people the word “religion” refers primarily to the worst and most fundamentalist forms of the three Abrahamic faiths. As such, religion is defined as patriarchal, dogmatic and domineering. That is an understandable position, but it reflects an ignorance of those outside our own culture, and those within our culture who have transcended the popular definitions. If we consider all the religions of the world there are also non-patriarchal, non-hierarchal and non-domineering religions.
Do not some people use the word “religion” to refer to the rituals of life, such as when friends gather at a grave to ritualize their love for a parted friend? Are there not people who use the word “religion” to speak of their gratitude and wonderment before the mysteries of life and the cosmos?
If we consider all the people of earth who consider themselves religious, there are religions of domination AND religions of liberation. There are patriarchal religions AND religions that celebrate the entire spectrum of gender. There are religions that dwell on the supernatural AND religions that find the sacred in nature.
We must be very humble when we use the word “religion” lest we arrogantly and ignorantly speak of all the people of the world as if they were all one homogenous blob. What a shame it would be to throw away Rumi, Dorothy Day and Martin Luther King just because they have been filed under the same category as televangelists and inquisitors
To have a meaningful conversation about religion we have to LISTEN to other people and find out what they personally mean when they use that word. To assume everyone who identifies as religious should be using YOUR definition is a strange kind of open mindedness.