After viewing numerous pro-atheist and anti-religion posts on reddit, I wondered if religion has, overall, negatively impacted humanity. 

When thinking of my own answer to this, I immediately thought of  events such as the Crusades and the Salem Witch Trials. The existence of religion has undoubtedly caused the loss of countless innocent lives, as well as being justification for  unethical practices, such as slavery. Despite all of this,I personally feel that religion has has an overall positive effect on humanity. Why? Well, lets face the fact that, currently, millions, if not billions of people take comfort in the idea of God. There are people in the world who honestly have nothing to look forward to in life, be they in first or third world countries. The belief that all of their hardships and suffering will be availed in due time gives all of those people one invaluable feeling: hope.
user
Has religion had a positive or negative effect on humanity? If
assistant
After viewing numerous pro-atheist and anti-religion posts on reddit, I wondered if religion has, overall, negatively impacted humanity. 

When thinking of my own answer to this, I immediately thought of  events such as the Crusades and the Salem Witch Trials. The existence of religion has undoubtedly caused the loss of countless innocent lives, as well as being justification for  unethical practices, such as slavery. Despite all of this,I personally feel that religion has has an overall positive effect on humanity. Why? Well, lets face the fact that, currently, millions, if not billions of people take comfort in the idea of God. There are people in the world who honestly have nothing to look forward to in life, be they in first or third world countries. The belief that all of their hardships and suffering will be availed in due time gives all of those people one invaluable feeling: hope.
user
The existence of religion has caused the loss of countless innocent
assistant