I stumbled across this cartoon illustrating Christianity's (and to an extent, Judaism's) silence, via their god's supposed word, on one ethical issue humanity is increasingly beginning to grapple with -- the treatment of non-human animals.
This cartoon obviously refers to the contribution of Western religions to the issue of 'the ethical treatment of animals' and is slightly inaccurate even there, exaggerating a little (the bible does ask that we not hurt animals for fun), and does not recognise the doctrine of ahimsa (non-harm, or non-violence) propounded in Hindu, Buddhist and Jain scriptures. Ahimsa, as laid out in those traditions, does not pertain only to human relationships, but also to our relationship to all other beings.
There are, of course, many ethical issues -- regard and treatment of women, treatment of children, slavery, labour law, sexuality, aggression, genocide, ethnocide, among others -- we, as evolving, modern humans have thought about, studied, discussed, debated and, recognising that certain universal rights exist and that these rights must be protected, have enshrined in law. We have accomplished most of this in spite of religion, with religion(s) being dragged, kicking and screaming into the modern age, rather than because of or through religion. And we have much work left to do.
Religion is perhaps the biggest obstacle, the biggest threat, to continued human progress. Indeed, religion poses a serious threat to human survival itself. While there are many well-meaning religious moderates with whom we can work, as long as religion is granted special privileges in our society we are driving with the parking brakes on. Imagine how much progress we could make without this baggage! We'd certainly stumble and make mistakes, but we'd have a much better chance of recognising our mistakes and correcting them.
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