Has religion ever hurt me? Yes many times.
When I was a child Christian children would tease and harass me because of my religious beliefs or lack thereof. They would tell me that I was going to hell because I didn't accept Jesus into my life, that my parents were doomed for hell as well because of their faithlessness. Kids can be cruel and when I was a child religious dogma provided my peers with particularly effective fodder for their malice.
I've been fortunate in that religion has been kind to me since leaving the hyperbolic environment of the public school system. I have only sustained minor bruising from the religious views of others. Mostly friction created by the Christian parents of my various romantic interests over the years. As far as my Buddhists beliefs, they have never caused me any harm. They have provided me with a framework upon which I have built a solid foundation of happiness.
Buddhism has helped me to extirpate suffering from my life and replace it with understanding and consequently contentment.
