Organised Religion Debate

I found it a bit too easy to get overzealous in this debate; rather than delivering a clear train of thought it only ended up alluding to a bunch of facts... as interesting as they may be.

Shameful to look back on, but was quite the learning experience. Anywho, my prep:

Motion: This House Opposes Organised Religion

Affirmative Arguments

• The phrase 'organised religion' is a curious one, in that half of it appears quite redundant. Is it named for the sense in (or the extent to) which it is not disorganised?
  • Organised religion is that which holds a theistic, not a deistic position.
  • In this way, though it affects people's personal lives, it is practiced as part of a group.
  • Not only well-organised but also well-financed
    • Tax breaks in the US, State Funding in Britain
• Inter-religious, Intra-religious, and Religious-Irreligious/Antireligious
  • Inter-religious
    • Crusades (something for which the Catholic Church has only recently apologised)
    • Russian production of the Secret Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the anti-semitic text.
    • First Amendment, Virginia Statute on Religious Freedom
  • Intra-religious
    • Genital Mutilation
    • Suicide Bombing
    • Stephen Weinberg, physicist, “for good people to do bad things”
    • Man-made.
      • Eliminating poverty
      • (Many) Jewish men praise every day for not being made a woman
    • Quarter of the Waffen-SS were confessing Catholics. No members of the SS were excommunicated. Goebbels was.
    • Marjoe Gortner (1972)
    • “Commandments”
      • The idea that we need to be “commanded” to do good
      • Look at all the things they do not – and can not – cover.
  • Religious-Irreligious/Antireligious
    • Education
      • “Equal Time”
    • Censorship
    • Polio
    • Persecutions
      • Galileo
      • Witch-hunts
      • Taliban of Homosexuals, Women eating Ice-cream
    • Death Penalty
      • Martin Luther King “If it's an eye for an eye we'll all go blind”
        • Cherry-picking
    • God-of-the-gaps
    • Hezbollah's Flag
    • Joseph Kony's LRA
    • Analects of Confucius - “Do unto others”
• Polytheism, Monotheism... getting closer to the true number constantly
• Salman Rushdie said that the only thing wrong with the title of his friend Christopher Hitchens' book, “God is Not Great,” is that it is one word too long.

Negative Arguments

Religious-Irreligious/Antireligious

• We are coming to live in what political scientists call a 'multi-polar' world, one in which there is no single power center. Instead, it is one where there are a number of highly influential nations (India, China, the United States).
  • Religions have had practice at peaceful coexistence (ecumenicism) and people could learn from such experiences, and any continuing developments in that area
• Has the most developed, exercised showmanship craft of any field of human endeavour, serving as an exemplar for many other fields.
• Throughout history, religion has been the catalyst for many great (devotional) works: classical music, poetry, painting, sculpture
  • Has been extremely supportive towards artists

Intra-Religious

• Is the most globally accessible path toward reaching transcendent experiences.
  • Can provide people with a sense of belonging (and thus of identity)