Hooray, someone legitimately asking for debates in reddit! I myself feel that religion actually, in of itself, is incredibly harmful. Not just because of the vast deaths and wars linked to it, but too because of it's tolerance of in fact forcing itself on the younger generation via the parents. Growing up in a Christian community, family, church, youth group, friends, the whole deal, I was under the belief and basically trained every day to reinforce the same things, over and over. Upon that, Christian communities tend to be very closed off, preaching to separate yourself from the outside world, and have a sort of undertone to never question things and things that are questioned are answered with "god has a plan" or "only he knows". There were things that just weren't spoken of and when abuse or the sort went down nobody ever heard about it.

There is a difference here upon choosing and being inherently, I would argue, brainwashed into belief.

I do not argue however that every person or family is like this. However, the vast majority have a repetitive history in this area, just look at today in the US with how persecuted gays have been, even recently hate crimes and deaths keep pouring in, people booing openly at the DADT being revoked during the debates, just look through your average Christian's comments or facebook/tumblr on the subject and you'll see the incredible intolerance on the subject.

I also must disagree with religion not taking responsibility for its past, as it's a very bloody and lengthy one, and one that still exists everywhere you look to this day to a very large extent. Not everyone is going to bomb abortion clinics, but some people do. In politics for the last while now people have favored religion and even persecuted/passed laws on nothing but this, even when scientific or psychological data proved otherwise.

On a whole, I do in fact see religion, not just religious groups, as a very negative thing, at least when in charge. I do think honestly that it is incredibly cruel to try and force people who aren't hurting anyone for what they have faith in to lose it, but to deny any connection to some of these horrific acts in relation to religion on an actual scale, and the ignorance and hatred it's brought to others, isn't something I can in all conscience agree with.