It rather depends on how you define good and bad.
Whitehouse asks whether religion has played an important role in promoting cooperation amongst humans. If so, this might thereby lead to the large, complex societies we see today? He and his colleagues have built a database on over 400 societies that have existed in the world over the last 10,000 years. The information stored on the database comprises metrics that can be compared, correlated and tested for causation in order to answer the question. He concludes that religions have successfully supported cooperation over the ages. It is just that older religions did so, in part, by using practices that are unacceptable today. These include human sacrifice, for example. The trouble is that it is not unknown for latter-day religions to stoop pretty low as well.
Link to article: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2197082-is-religion-good-or-bad-for-humanity-epic-analysis-delivers-an-answer/
You may also like to browse other philosophy posts: https://www.thesentientrobot.com/category/philosophy/
