Question 5 - What's worse, sport or religion?

There are many criteria for addressing this difficult question. I'll tackle them one at a time:

1) Death. Sport causes injury and death, both among participants during training and execution (if you'll excuse the term) and among spectators by accident and by acts of extreme violence. However, nothing causes war like religion and nothing causes death like war so I think religion wins the point hands down here. Religion 1, Sport 0.

2) Money. Sports fans are regularly fleeced by organisers, whether for ever-changing (sometimes price-fixed) replica football strips or over-charging to attend or watch the occasions. In addition, those with no interest whatsoever in sport are charged indirectly, for example through raised taxation in order to create occasions such as the 2012 London Olympics. However, a quick look at the treasures in the Vatican will disabuse anyone of the notion that sport is a bigger leech on the monetary wealth in the world - and that's before even considering other religions. Religion 2, Sport 0.

3) Time. The average sports fan probably spends a few hours per week watching the stuff but several hours additionally discussing the details and nuances of these occasions. Conversely, the average religious person spends a few hours per week praying and several hours discussing the finer points of their faith. This is close enough to a score draw. Religion 3, Sport 1.

4) Charity. Those of faith perform fabulously generous acts of charity. Sports fans contribute to Sport Relief and engage in charitable sponsored acts and such like. The religious probably put in more effort since they are doing it through a belief that it is the right thing to do and that they will be judged eventually on their level of righteousness - however this has to be countered by the negative effects of evangelical missionary practices. But there are many parts of the world where charity coming from sport is negligible and so, even with the evangelism caveat, I think religion is better overall in this category. Religion 3, Sport 2. (Don't forget, points are given for worse behaviour.)

5) Health. Those of faith (anecdotally) live longer than those without it, especially if those without it raise their blood pressure regularly by fretting about the performance of the team they support. However, this is easily out-weighed by the sheer brainless arrogant rubbish that religious people have put in the way of healthcare, e.g. GWB blocking stem-cell research, Pope's comments about condoms causing AIDS in Africa, etc. Religion 4, Sport 2.

6) Progress as a species. Sport has given us new technology, improved vehicles, better understanding of the limits of human resilience, etc. Religion has an unfortunate tendency to stamp on science, e.g. Galileo, Copernicus, Darwin, stem-cells (again) - basically anything that looks like it might be a slight threat to some dogma, no matter how ridiculous and unsubstantiated the dogma. No contest here - in fact I'm going to give religion one point and take one point away from sport. Religion 5, Sport 1.

And there we have it. I'm unlikely to think of more than another two or three categories and now I'm not going to bother as, even in the unlikely event that it gets three more strikes against it, sport would still be the winner.

I hereby declare that religion is worse than sport.