Indeed, I think that every religion began with noble aspirations, yet history has shown us that there are always those who exploit the weaknesses of others.
The question poses a problem. You said "good", which implies a moral view that we share without stating what that is. Altruism then gets inserted and off we go. Because you are swimming in the waters of a Judeo/Christian worldview from centuries of moral development under their influence you can assume a certain morality is shared. in the past it was the right of Kings to do as they pleased because it was believed that they were appointed by God. Christianity came along and inserted a virus into the system, it stated that all men are equal in the eyes of God.
We can also go back further to the Mosaic idea of "Eye for an Eye" which is interpreted as retribution, but instead it put limits on Justice. A rich man does not get to take the life of a poor man because the poor man harmed his donkey.
So to the question of "has religion done any good?"
Your idea of good came from religion.
I'm an atheist yet I think all religions provided something people needed in their specific contexts. Any structure of beliefs is better than no structure. The concept of a "superior direction" is what elevates the common men from its immediate needs and gives him the notion that it's not only possible but that he should look further, which derives in the idea of progress. Without that culture, initiative relies exclusively in a few leaders, whereas a culture that tells you that "you are part of god's plan" places the responsibility of initiative on everyone, allowing a society to harness the power of all individuals out of culture, instead of from a few out of instinct.
That is, the core concept I think is brilliant, that's why I have always appreciated religion in despite of embracing none. Of course all religions are plagued by vices which I unavoidably stem from all points where they deny reality, be it human nature or physics, by it's an unavoidable consequence of religions coming before science. It's the exact same phenomenon as alchemy predating chemistry. Thus I praise religion for being the first step.
I'm sure a lot of people will use anecdotes of "Christian-inspired scientist discovered X" or "Islamic-inspired scribes preserved Y knowledge". However, there's no way to measure whether or not there would have been an equivalent or better counterpart under an agnostic/atheist culture.
Ultimately, religion reinforces reliance on faith. Faith is the enemy of truth and the friend of manipulation. In Bitcoin, we "Don't trust - verify" which is the exact opposite of religion.
Yes but can Bitcoin be the basis of common belief for a cohesive competitive society?
Humans are weak and vulnerable as individuals and only as tribal groups have they gained control of resources and power to expand their narratives. Not sure Bitcoin is equivalent to a complete protocol for a society in the context of needing to unite that society to successfully compete with other societies. Maybe it is?
I think they all are "good" in the sense that we can learn from everything if we are willing to look. I don't subscribe to any religion, but I do enjoy learning from many to help me describe my own connection with my spirituality.
It is interesting that there are forms of supposed worship of God that are against what God Himself says.
Let's think for a second:
The Bible teaches: Freely you received, freely give. So why pay someone to teach me what God says in the Bible? Jesus Christ did not charge ANYTHING.
The Bible teaches: God will pronounce judgment among the nations, they will beat their swords into pruning hooks and their spears into plowshares, they will no longer learn war. But in a war, people who belong to the same church fight against each other and the leaders of those churches bless the soldiers of their country's army.
In the last book of the Bible (Revelation) there is talk of a HARLOT WHO IS DESTROYED AND THAT THE RULERS AND THE MERCHANTS CRY FOR HER.
They are competing protocols for societies and the best ones create the most competitive societies which come to dominate and disseminate their narratives.
Its not good or bad but the nature of life and evolution.
For perhaps the first time Bitcoin provides a societal/monetary protocol that enables human interaction without imposing any specific moral framework, except proof of work and resistance to censorship.
I believe that monotheistic religions have only evolved over time to dominate and manipulate sleeping believers.
To cultivate values in a human being, you do not need to follow the dictates of any "enlightened" person or any manipulated book.
One way to put it is studying what they did for mankind. I'm currently writing about the Popes, all my 20-pages of annotations, checks, comments and everything I learned of each of these leaders1. About if they did something good, they did but also, we have bad and ugly popes that used religion as an excuse.
So, my short answer will be, yes, they did good stuff.
Looking at history but also at the present, religions continue to create divisions between people. As long as religions do not evolve and continue to go beyond the personal and spiritual sphere, I do not find them of great use.
I believe a given religion, just like a political party or government or other organization, is just a collection of people with some shared beliefs. People act in ways that are good at times and in ways that are bad, and I believe there are some people who are fundamentally more 'good' (altruistic in nature) vs. others who are more 'bad'.
Organizations of large groups of people tend to attract people attracted to power to seek leadership positions within them. I believe there was a behavioral study on the CEOs of major companies and the number who were categorized as sociopaths was quite alarming. I don't doubt the same is true for political leaders or religious leaders. When you seek and attain life changing amounts of power where you quite literally are "above the law" the normal rules of right & wrong no longer apply to you and perhaps your true human animalistic nature is revealed.
To get to your actual question, sure religion has done some good things. I think when my local church feeds some homeless people, that is unequivocally good. However, on balance, I think "religion is the opiate of the masses" is a fair statement. It is a way to give hope to the otherwise hopeless and prevent them from demanding some form of fairness/justice/etc... in this life because there is a promise of something better after death if you follow some set of rules in this one.
This is a form of mass manipulation to prevent the non-wealthy from realizing their power in this lifetime and demanding/taking a better life now. There is no population of monkeys/lions/other animal, where one monkey has 250 billion bananas while 50% of the monkeys around him don't have enough bananas that they go to sleep hungry. It simply wouldn't be possible in natural animal rules world.
Religion, additionally, is responsible for brainwashing the masses to commit horrendous atrocities. Unfortunately, humans are quite susceptible to herd behavior as seen more recently by political diviciveness. When you are committed to your 'team' based on a 'belief', you can do no wrong and you see your 'opponent' as sub-human. You can then commit the most egregious crimes against them and justify it to yourself. Divide and conquer is a tactic well understood by the elites.
It has been said that more murder has been committed in the name of religion than any other cause. I don't know if that is true or not, but it wouldn't surprise me. Looking at the christian crusades, the muslims marauding through India, christians mass killing native americans and the native peoples of modern day mexico/south america, etc...
On balance, I think religion is more bad than good. I think that because it is a version of the Matrix. You can believe it to make yourself feel better, to justify why some things are the way they are. But the reality is, you are an animal just like a monkey or a lion or an ant, and you are living in a man eat man survival of the fittest world. There are some of us animals who realized that in order to hoard riches that even kings of old could not dream of, they need to continue to brainwash the masses into submission with fairytales.
Take the pill, understand the harsh but still amazingly beauty of this world and short life we are so lucky to experience. Life is better without the opiate of religion numbing you from reality.
Footnotes