Does religion make you a better person or are you a good person that has religion in their life.

I can't help but think this is the wrong question to answer. I have seen people who religion has completely destroyed and made into mindless misanthropic zombies. Other times I have met individuals where their religion makes them better people or at least helps them express the goodness in their soul. I think which it does to a person is dependent on several factors. The first is what religion/teaching are they following. If someone is christian they can be either following their local church who helps recent immigrants with English lessons if they need them (The baptist church in my town does this) or donating items to food banks, volunteering at the DV shelter, etc; then I think that that person is being helped by their religion. If someone is following say WBC (The “God Hates [insert group or thing here]” church), then their opportunities for doing good deeds are drastically limited. The next thing to consider is the person's reason for following said religion. If a person follows god out of love for Jesus etc (sorry to constantly use Christianity but that is the one most people are familiar with) then they are likely going to have a very different view of faith and the world than someone who follows Christianity because it is “THE ONLY WAY TO SAVE YOUR SOUL FROM HELLFIRE!!!” (yes I have had people tell me this multiple times on many different occasions). There is an old Hindu proverb that goes “Text is worthless before illumination and after illumination”. What this means is that holy books (or any book rather) and teachings are rather like a spiritual Rorschach test. Everyone is going to see the teachings within it a little bit differently. If you are at peace when you read it, then you will focus on the parts of the holy book that talk about how you will be able to bring peace into your life, and, if possible, share this peace with the outside world (and I don't mean “spreading the word”. Inner peace can manifest in a number of ways). If you harbor hatred, insecurity, etc then the holy book is likely going to give you justification for hating certain people. We all “cherry pick” what we like and ignore the parts we don't. This is human nature and it is why, as Harper Lee put it, “A bible in the hands of one man is more dangerous than a bottle of whiskey in the hands of another”. So to answer your question, it depends on the person, the belief system, and the local culture of said belief system.