There are many levels to the question being asked in my opinion. Are we speaking “good” in terms of the spirituality, the outward fruits, the potential or all of the above?
I personally can’t say all religions possess good since I am unaware of many religions. I think most religions have had positive impact on their respective parts of the world.
On the surface most religions have stabilized the areas that they have taken root in. The Jewish faith gave its people law, a system of government and an identity. These are all very positive “fruits”. Christianity similarly gave its followers a reason for existence and an insight into what their position in the universe was. Both also gave a “face” to the creator.
Buddhism taught its people a path of self-introspection and a way by which to approach life. Christianity also does this which is probably why that Buddhists and Christians tend to see eye to eye intellectually. Buddhism, Christianity and Judaism all brought philosophies that tended to bring order and personal accountability. All of these things could be seen as “good”.
The Hindu religion basically created the entire culture and civilization of the sub-continent. As such it gave identity to its people and that would be “good”. Hindu and Judaism also seem to have an additional ability for its followers to excel at Law, engineering and medicine.
I kid, I kid…
Shinto seems to have given its people an eye and desire for seeing and creating beauty all around them and this would good.
Now on too something a bit more controversial. The Nation of Islam was always trying to get into the neighborhood that I grew up in. Now the Nation of Islam has some really whacky and sometimes hateful ideals. Yet I can say this, if they moved into a neighborhood that had a problem with crime and drugs those problems went way down. So while I don’t care for the movement it did bring some “good” with it.
So I’ve seen good out of many religions even those I don’t care for.
So I think there is potential out there for many religions too do good. What I do know is that if religions gain political power their chances of doing good start to plummet. Also a whenever a religion lacks the ability to criticize itself its ability to good becomes diminished.
I’m Christian and as such I do believe my faith is the Truth. Still, I as a believer must maintain the ability to look at myself and my Church critically. We owe this to ourselves and too our God. While it is true that God is perfect He builds His kingdom with broken tools and we must always keep in mind that our intellectual myopia can make us very broken indeed.
So to make a long post longer. I would say that as long as a religion keeps its focus on the eternal and not the temporal and always reviews itself in the mirror of self-introspection it will more than likely bring some good into the world around it.
