Religion as a Force for Good

I'm beginning to see religion as less and less of a general force for good. The difficulty, I think, lies with the uncompromising conservatism of its caretakers. At their inception, each religion (by necessity, usually) reflects the values of its culture - or possibly even reforms them. Arguably, early Christian teachings in specific geographic places gave women the freedom to refuse to have sex, sex that would otherwise have been forced upon them. Those same teachings have been maintained and twisted over the years to discourage sex - when our own secular culture alongside has become more accepting and tolerant of individual choice. It is the current cultural climate, not the religion, which has carried on the legacy of those original teachings, teachings which now are used to oppress instead of free. Does religion do good in this day and age? Sure. Does it outweigh the harm? I'm not as convinced as once I was: http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2012/05/30/real-scientists-dont-let-the-evidence-get-in-the-way-of-the-theory/ The difficulty with the apologist's argument here is that religion no longer reflects or reforms a culture as it once did, it simply holds it back. Each progressive move in the faith is simply giving ground to something that a culture is already getting on with. Feminism, civil rights, even social justice - once the bastion of church work - all seem to be more efficiently acted out as secular movements. Religion for at least the last hundred years - and often at various times in the past - has not been allowed to reflect or reform our culture. It has only held it back. I can't, on balance, support the idea that religion is, or can ever again, be a force for good.