If a particular religion makes a criminal straighten up his/her act, what is wrong with that?

It's really good if a religious system helps a criminal become a law-abiding citizen. The trouble is, you don't need religion to do that. People have straightened out their act with help from family, psychologists, friends - none of whom were religious! Atheists can take a tumble to themselves and resolve to become humanists and altruistic.

The Christian view is that a person must be convicted by the Holy Spirit of their sinful standing before God, and realise that only by putting faith (trust) in what Jesus did, will they become new creatures in Christ. The critical point is the role of the Holy Spirit. Christianity is not a self-help system! The world is full of those! Christianity is about God stepping in and doing for us what we could never do for ourselves - be lifted out of the mire of sin that we are all in (it's only ever a question of degree.) Conviction of our sin, and that even our most righteous acts are as filthy rags in God's view, is the work of the Holy Spirit. Only religion that wakens us up to the bad news - that we can't straighten ourselves up sufficiently to merit God's approval - can then go on to share the good news - that Jesus did it for us, for free!

Now, according to you, I should be charged with a hate crime for having said that. What's wrong with that? I hope you can work it out!

EDIT - Thanks for your additional points. I live in Britain where there ARE new laws being pushed through, trying to suppress freedom of speech under the guise of "hate speech". For instance, the hate speech of some ignorant football fans (Celtic versus Rangers) is truly hateful, but by legislating for that, the knock-on effects will include anyone in public saying anything that another person takes to be insulting or hurtful - even if there was no intent!

The minute you legislate for what people may or may not say in public, you open a can of worms. It's ironic that swearing and blasphemy are never legislated against, yet that offends the sensibilities of millions of people! Despite that, we know that people cannot be told which words are permissable and which are not, because new words would just be created to get round the law. Same with those football yobs - if one chant was forbidden, they'd invent a new one with different words!

When people have reasons for objecting to anything, they should be allowed to state their reasons in public without fear of jail! Even if I am verbally attacked by someone who hates Christianity, I would never try to get them jailed for it. They should be free to express their views. Then those who ARE ignorant show themselves up to be dumb!

You have a point, but when a junky quits drugs and turns to religion, he is just replacing one drug with another, and it doesn't last long anyway. I haven't seen religion really help anyone...when you're grieving, believing in God doesn't seem to help.

On the other hand, believing in Hell is scary for many, and they live their short lives in fear. Fear of something that doesn't exist.

What's wrong with it is that if it's a scam, and the person who straightens up his act finds that out eventually, the cure could end up being worse than the disease.

Because, as my experience as a corrections officer indicates, its rarely permanent. It does happen, though. Just not near enough to be really useful.

Ironically, most break parole and find themselves right back in jail.

For psychotics, faith is a poor substitute for proper medication.