Is Christianity Useful? Dinesh/Shermer Debate P-9 of 14

[seathanaich]

This is a red herring. Whether a religion is useful or not depends on "useful for what"? Princes and popes have certainly found it useful for controlling people and taking their money.

But how does that have any bearing upon whether or not it's true? People are given medical placebos all the time, and those placebos can even have a positive effect.

Religion is a placebo.

[quatrocoqui]

What is missing here is to consider that Buddhism, actually considered a transcendental morality without gods even before christianity came to the scene. Buddha's teachings, 500 years before christianity, presented a higher moral standard of behaviour than the old testament and the new testament combined, without god/s. Ivan