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"There is no god and so religion is inherently bad" - this is an argument that I hear or read quite often (in various variations), but it is a classical logical non-sequitur.

That something is a fiction, that it does not exist in the scientific sense, does not make it bad. In fact we are all the time surrounded by all kinds of fictions, not only surrounded but they are in our minds, we could not even live without them, they constitute our cultures : Stories, myths, nations, countries, money, laws, moral norms, human rights, conceptual abstractions like "freedom" or "goodness"... all of them do not exist 'out there' in the world that can be studied by science - but that does not make them bad or even detrimental to our wellbeing.

You have to take a close look at each of them and decide if it is - so to speak - white, black, or (in most cases) checkered or grey. A lot of people like to see their world only black and white, and that certainly is not a good thing!

Matias 8 June 20
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Straw-man fallacy. You claim to have read something ridiculous without (yet again) giving your source, then proceed to attack it. Why do you do this? There are plenty of interesting questions you could ask if you want a real philosophical discussion. I suspect you of being a points chaser.

@Matias By all means block me if you prefer that to answering my points. I don't block anyone. I prefer to discuss things. The straw-man argument is your first sentence. You give us an invalid argument which you claim to have come across on frequent occasions without specifying any of them, then proceed to attack it. Secondly, you claim that you often give references for your quotes. Could you point me to your posts in which you have done this? I seem to have missed them. It was very difficult to see what point your original post was making - I think that is why few people have responded. I know the German tradition of philosophy is more densely and circuitously argued than the English analytic tradition but since we are largely English speakers on this site it might be helpful to present your argument more simply. If you want to present abstruse points, there are lots of other philosophy discussion sites on the internet.

To revert to references, giving references for your quotes would not in itself convince me of anything, but it would enable me to look at the context and the wider argument being presented.

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I suppose this stems from the assumption that lies are inherently bad.

Assume that lies are inherently bad, and there is no real god.
Religion says god is real
Therfore religion is lying
Therfore religion is inherently bad

The problem with this logic is the assumption that lies are inherently bad, which if true would also apply to Santa Claus and superman.

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