Again, there are a certian few that our hypocrites and use religion as an excuse to do bad things. Now the priest sex offenders are doing something very wrong ( and thats an understatement). But it wasn't the religion that made them act like that. It was themselves. The Catholic Church should have came down hard on these priests much sooner , instead of covering it up. But there are plenty of sex offenders who are not religious. And there are pleny of priests that do live by the rules of the cloth and our good people. Many hate what there misguided peers have done, and our disgusted by it.

Religion is good for society. Most social scientists would vouch for that. It makes people less likely to do bad things . And I am not saying that everyone who is religious is perfect. And quite frankly some hide behind the religion and only use it when it suits them. Again these people are flawed. Not because of the religion, but because of themselves.

Lets say a someone is tempted to steal something at a store. Now if they truely live by their faith, they will be less likely to steal than someone who has no structure. The same goes for the temptation to commit any crime.

Most religions teach moral lessons. They teach us to love everyone no matter what. They teach us to respect our parents and to try to act fairly to everyone. To say religion has no value has no basis in fact. I am not saying its the only way. But it clearly is a very good path to follow. If that is the path you choose. I know of a few people in my own life that could greatly use religion to make their lives better.