In the case of literature it’s probably 50/50. It is, however, obvious that religion has impeded science throughout the centuries. In the past centuries, it denied the more logical scientific model of the solar system, in the past decade it raised moral out cry over the use of otherwise meaningless stem cells. One of the major flaws of most religions is it bases morality of a strict unchanging set of rules, such as “Thou shalt not kill.” A much smarter morality is simply the broader guideline that I justify things with “Do that which is best for society without giving yourself too little.” In this logical morality system the use of stem cells, which are incapable of any form of pain or loss or any other negative effect and could lead to vast medical advancements, is not just not immoral, but a moral necessity.
one might argue that Religion has furthered civilization enough to counter these negative effects on science, however that is not true. A common argument for religion is that it has provided information important to the growth of civilization. The Bible is said to have encouraged proper sanitation in the world’s earliest large cities (such as the importance of burying corpses), which helped prevent rampant spread of disease. However, The Bible was written entirely by men and as a result contains no information not already known by man. Therefor the guidelines for proper sanition found in it were already very well known and if they had not been enforced by religion they would have been enforced by culture. I forget what religion it is, but there is one that forbid eating pork. This was because in the past pork contained a deadly disease. People credit religions for saving these people from the deadly disease, however if that religion had never existed not eating pork would simply have become a cultural aspect rather than a religious aspect. An example of this is that Indian food contains so many spices not only because spices are abundant in India, but also because they discovered spices made food last longer. Spicing food became a cultural aspect that aided Indian civilization by making food last longer.
