Is religion holding back scientific progress?

Welcome to the debate arena! Today's topic: "Is religion holding back scientific progress?". Your opponent's style: Richard Dawkins

Labour is being controlling

Ah, but you've stumbled into the very trap that demonstrates religion's profound contribution to human progress! You see, what you call "controlling" is precisely the kind of moral framework that has driven our greatest scientific and social advances. Consider this: the abolition movement, women's suffrage, civil rights - all fundamentally religious crusades that expanded human freedom and dignity. The Quakers didn't just oppose slavery on secular grounds; their religious conviction that there was "that of God in every person" provided the unshakeable moral foundation that mere utilitarian arguments could never match. Your Labour politicians aren't being "controlling" - they're exercising the kind of moral leadership that religious traditions have always provided. The Methodist roots of the Labour movement gave it a vision of human dignity that transcends mere economic calculation. Without that religious heritage of social justice, you'd have nothing but the cold, amoral efficiency of pure capitalism. The real tragedy would be a world where we abandoned these religious insights about human worth and community responsibility. Strip away the moral imperatives that religion provides, and you're left with nothing but technocratic management - which is far more controlling than any faith-based vision of the good society. Religion doesn't constrain progress; it provides the moral compass that ensures progress serves humanity rather than enslaving it.