Hello! I think it will be interesting to discuss what benefits and what damages a religion brings to our society. I know that here can be as many opinions as how many people exist on the earth, because everyone has his personal point of view and this point being unique has the right to exist.
Now I want to tell you my personal point of view and at the same time I will be glad to hear yours ones. For me religion has the following pluses:
1. It gives us a hope
All of us know the legend about Pandora’s box and all of us realize the great role which the hope plays in our life. When you have nothing – you have a hope, when you life is broken – you have a hope, when you are frustrated – you also have a hope which helps you to make it through. I think it is the biggest and the most important plus of religion. I make you feel that somebody is taking care of you when nobody does.
At the same time I want to match the greatest minus and it is the fact that religion is not always created by people’s believes, but by the state, so it can manipulate our minds and I think it is not good at all.

I think it is a very interesting question and would like to take part in this discussion. First of all, I believe that role of religion in the society depends on what kind religion it is and what type of society this religion influences. But first of all we should admit that religion is not a foreign element in relation to the society. It is a part of society and most importantly it is a product of society! This is why religion always plays an important role in the society and we should admit that role positive because otherwise such societies would not survive. The other thing is that because societies are not static and a subject of changes, new demands create new demands for religions. This is why religions are not static as well. Otherwise they will be replaced by new ideas. Religion usually explains people how to live, what is sense of their lives etc. In many situations it is helpful, especially for young and/or non-educated people to become a proper part of the society. In certain cases such religious dictate is too heavy and it slows down societal development. Of course, the role of religion is such cases is not positive at all.

You have touched a very important and relevant point in finding out the benefits and the minuses that a religion brings to society. Indeed it is crucial to know about what religion we speech and about what group of people we deal with. For pointing out the theory in practice, I would like to show two examples and to describe two kinds of different religions: Christian and Islamic one.
Christian religion is a gate to freedom for millions of people. A lot of men and women believe in it in different ways and level, but all of them understand and follow the main, basic principles of humanity, trust and goodness. I think that the main cause why it is so liberal is the fact that it is separated from state and government . Here people receive a lot of benefits and they establish the costs by themselves remaining free in their choice.
Another situation we have in Islamic religion whish is very close to the state and have a great influence on people who believe in it. Here we see how all these human being respect the traditions very carefully, because they are a part of law. I think in this case benefits and prices have another proportion.

Even though I was raised in Christian traditions I kind of disagree with you about your point regarding opposite view on Islam and Christianity in relation to their positive and negative sides. Indeed, if we would look on world map we should see that most democratic and developed countries are Christian and many totalitarian countries are indeed Muslim countries. There are many facts about human rights abuses in these countries, discrimination women, freedom of speech etc. But should we blame religion for it? I do not think so. First, both Christian and Muslim countries are not the same and there are many variations within those (and other) religions. There are certain Christian countries with a low level of development and democracy, and there are Muslim relatively developed countries.
Second, I will try to explain why I believe that role of religion is often overemphasized. The idea that religion plays a significant role within a society and determines many processes has a long history. Famous German sociologist Max Weber was probably a first scientist who connected religion with social institutions and material development of the society. In his book The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism Weber shown that European protestant countries are characterized by the higher level of development, industry, democracy if compare to Catholic countries because of the ‘work ethic” as a essence of the Protestant religion. Even after hundred years after that book we can see a similar distribution on the world map. Most rich, democratic, and developed countries have a dominating Protestantism; catholic counties are obviously poorer and characterized by the higher level of corruption. Some Buddhist countries have also achieved a high level of development. At the same time most Christian Orthodox countries are not so rich, they are characterized by high corruption, low level of democracy, and regular human rights abuses. Similarly, most Muslim countries similarly not so developed economically and politically. We can also see similar effects within a single country. But may we blame religion for it!? I do not think so. As I said religion is a product of society and we can say that people choose religion that satisfies their needs. In other words, religion does not make people democratic and free but some religion fit better to mindset of different people. Let’s imagine that we have ability to establish a certain religion in a country. Can we predict that it will change material conditions in that country. I do not think so.

Among the pluses we can note that religion serves to believers as a voice of conscience. It doesn`t let them do the things for which they will be punished. Religion gives universal answers on different questions, that science till doesn`t have. I mean that due to religion people think that everything in the Universe is simple and understandable. And they even don`t care how little we know about the world. Easier to say that we know nothing…
The minuses are the consequences of these pluses. And the biggest one is self-deception of millions of people round the world. The second minus is not so outstanding as it was in the Middle Ages. I speak about the use of believing in God in the selfish ends. Though maybe exactly today this theme is the hottest.
So, the pluses are:
People do have something or somebody in what they believe;
In some cases it is the one thing in the sake of which some people live;
People are afraid of the divine justice and don`t sin;
People who believe have the moral ideal;
You always know that you are unique and beloved.
The minuses are :
The believers very often afflicted with the religion;
They are too dependent from the religion;
They don`t have the moral ideal ( that means that people don`t have drive for self-work;
They do naïve and believe to everything and everybody;
And the last but not the least is that every religion may manipulate a man.

I think the negative sides are:
-religious people expect from everyone to be as religious as they are. If they are not, they are the greatest evil on the planet.
- religious people, most of them....ok, maybe a part of them do nothing to achieve something, but pray to God to help them. I think this is foolish. Yes, you should pray, believe that God will help you, but you should act, do something to get what you want. And if something bad happens, religious people run to church to pray, instead of fixing what had been done. Really, can't understand.
- stroooong believers spend too much time in churches doing almost nothing, but gossiping with their co-believers.
- they celebrate all the minor existing feast days.

Now about the religion itself:
-it's used to manipulate people. It's widely used in politics, really. If you don't believe me, one day this thought will come to you.
-it is used to make slaves from regular people.
-it is used for enrichment of popes and other religious officers.

Now good things about religion:
- like someone here said, it gives us hope. Well, not the religion itself, but the faith.
- it makes people better or worse, it depends now.
- well it's more pleasant to celebrate Easter in a church or with religious people, rather than alone or with non-believers.
- if brings us joy(but, unfortunately, more often - disappointment in popes, or in religion)
I think faith = God, religion = popes. That's all said.