lol, how can religion make someone better before, and worse today, you know its not religion fault, if you say it made them better before
sorry but your logic is really flawed
At that time humans were not as civilized as they are today. Even the best of civilizations like Romans were barbarians when compared to the humans of today. The justice system as well as the authority of state wasn't this strong and logical. Religions gave them better ideas. Based on justice and logic (according to those times). Why did it take Muhammad (P.B.U.H.) years to fully ban alcohol? Because he wanted to remove something bad but he wanted do it naturally and slowly all the while making Muslims of the time learn so they could accept it. And humans have been learning since then as well. So we need to change accordingly. In their own ways all the major religions tried to make their world a better place. However, there is a flaw which most of the major religions share. The belief in the finality of their scriptures. That there is nothing better than what their religion say because there is. Here is an excerpt from a book I was reading recently:
The Tale of the Scientific Alchemists and Religious Newtonians
About three hundred years ago, when alchemists were still vainly trying to turn lead into gold, Sir Isaac Newton discovered some fundamental equations that accurately describe the physical world. In our tale, let's give Newton's discoveries to people who regard them religiously. We'll call these people "religious Newtonians." The religious Newtonians are religious because they follow the revelational method of knowing truth. They're Newtonians because they accept Newton's theories. And let's give Alchemy to people who regard it scientifically. We'll call these people "scientific Alchemists." The scientific Alchemists are scientific because they follow the scientific way of knowing truth; they are Alchemists because they accept the theories of Alchemy.
So "religious" or "scientific" indicates the way of knowing, the way of finding new knowledge. And "Newtonian" or "Alchemist" indicates the theories currently accepted as true. Our tale will illustrate that the method used to find and test beliefs may be more important than the initial beliefs themselves.
Our tale opens in the seventeenth century. The religious Newtonians believe in calculus and the basic laws of Newtonian physics. They worship Newton as a god and venerate his writings as divinely inspired and perfectly true. Following the ideas and theories in his writings, in "holy scriptures," the religious Newtonians are beginning to understand the natural world. New discoveries in mathematics, mechanics, astronomy, and navigation are being made almost daily. The beliefs of the religious Newtonians are substantially correct and many centuries of progress await them.
Our other group, the scientific Alchemists, follow not Newton but Aristotle, particularly his theory of the four basic elements: earth, water, fire, and air. According to Aristotle's ideas, it's possible to turn lead into gold. And that's what the scientific Alchemists are trying to do. Into their crucibles, flasks, mortars, and pots, they put eggs, toads, snakes, herbs, urine, entrails, lead, mercury, sulfur, and saltpeter. They grind, mix, filter, hammer, and heat them. They describe their experiments with bizarre symbols suchas toads, dragons, birds, stars, crowns, keys, and planets. The beliefs of the scientific Alchemists are wrong and their quest is doomed to failure.
Notice that we've given the religious Newtonians a lot of correct physical knowledge. We've given them an kind of head start in the race toward more and more truth about the physical world. But we've given them a poor way of knowing, a way that binds them to a "divine and unchanging" truth. In contrast, we've given the scientific Alchemists a serious handicap in the form of erroneous physical theories. But we've given them a better way of knowing, a way that allows revision and progress. Which will prove more important in the long run, the knowledge currently accepted as true, or the method of testing current knowledge and discovering more knowledge?
Let's return to our tale. As time passes, the scientific Alchemists slowly and independently discover some laws of nature that the religious Newtonians believe to be divine and unchangeable truth.
"You've found," say the religious Newtonians, "but a tiny portion of our divine Dogma. Surely, your mortal, imperfect minds will never uncover all of our complete and perfect truth. God gave us our revelation. It's far beyond what we fallible humans can find, alone and unaided. Why then do you not give up your slow, painful search for truth and embrace our Truth?"
"Never," reply the scientific Alchemists. "Truth is to be earned, to be understood. You are satisfied to follow blindly, without understanding. We are not. Even though some of our truths now match your faith, one day we may find other truths of which you are ignorant."
As the decades pass, the scientific Alchemists independently uncover, test, and accept more and more of the truths held by the religious Newtonians.
"For many decades now," say the religious Newtonians, "our sacred scriptures have held the full and complete truth. Ignoring these writings, you have been winning, bit by bit, through much labor and suffering, what was already fully given to the fathers of the fathers of our fathers. Our way to truth, the way of divine revelation, the way of our fathers, is ancient and sure. Why then do you not cease your needless searching and accept out divine revelation?"
"Never," reply the scientific Alchemists. "No book can hold the full and perfect truth. Our way of knowing is a never-ending process of observation, hypothesis, theory, and experiment. Even as knowledge is limitless, the search for knowledge must be unending. This is our way of knowing. One day our knowledge shall surpass yours."
By the end of the nineteenth century, the scientific Alchemists have independently found and verifiedall the beliefs of the religious Newtonians.
"For centuries now," say the religious Newtonians, "you have groped in the dark while we, following the divine knowledge given in our holy scriptures by our god, have lived in the light. Now, after much error and effort, you have finally reached the Truth. Will you not now admit the inspired nature of our religion and join us in our worship?"
"Never," respond the scientific Alchemists. "Your way of blind acceptance is not our way. We are pledged to follow the truth; you to follow your holy books and god. We are free to go wherever the truth leads; you are bound to a fixed, limited knowledge now hundreds of years old. One day we shall go beyond your knowledge."
So for centuries, the religious Newtonians have gone nowhere, they've stayed bound to their "holy and eternal" truth. But the scientific Alchemists have outgrown their initial "knowledge" and have acquired - earned - a truer,more accurate knowledge. One way of knowing has led nowhere, the other has discovered more and more knowledge.
In the early twentieth century, a thinker named Einstein claims the theories now accepted by both religious Newtonians and scientific Alchemists are not actually true, but only a near approximation of the truth. He proposes radically different theories, superior only in that they explain the orbit of the planet Mercury a bit better. The new theories demand, however, a drastic, new view of space and time.
"Blasphemy!" shout the religious Newtonians. "Heretical, perverse, mind-twisting ideas of aniconoclastic rebel. Surely our Holy Faith, the faith of our fathers,will prevail against such diseased drivel!"
"It seems to be the truth!" reply the scientific Alchemists. "We shall test it and, if true, we shall accept it. We are long accustomed to molding ourselves to the truth, not molding the truth to ourselves."
Twenty years later, the two camps welcome the theory of Quantum Mechanics in much the same manner. The religious Newtonians reject Quantum Mechanics as heretical nonsense; the scientific Alchemists test and then accept it. Using the Theory of Relativity and, more significantly, Quantum Mechanics, the scientific Alchemists begin to surpass the religious Newtonians in their understanding and control of the physical world. Using Quantum Mechanics they discover atomic energy, semiconductors, lasers, and computers. The religious Newtonians, bound as they are to a way of knowing that limits what they can know, refuse to accept or use the new discoveries. The world beyond their holy scriptures, the world of computers, lasers, nuclear energy, and space-time, is a world which they, as believers, can never enter.
Our tale attempts to dramatize that a way of knowing can be more important than initial beliefs. The scientific Alchemists were given a lot of erroneous beliefs based on Alchemy. But they were given the scientific way of knowing. Since their method of acquiring and testing knowledge was sound, they eventually corrected their initial misconceptions. The religious Newtonians, on the other hand, were given a lot of accurate physical knowledge based on Newtonian physics. But they were given a religious way of knowing. Since their method of acquiring and testing knowledge was faulty, eventually their beliefs became outmoded, a hindrance to finding more truth.
So even if scripture is eternal and inerrant truth (and this is debatable), the religious way of knowing hinders the search for more truth. And even if science's ideas are all wrong (this, too, is debatable), its way of knowing leads to more and more truth.