How would the world be better or worse without religion?

Question

In what ways would the world and society in general be better without religion? What about worse?

Answer 1

I would go with worse for the non-traditional reasons. There are many people out there with Lord of the Flies like personalities.

It's true that there are many who survive well with others given a lack of religion. But there are also many out there who would go crazy without a stick and carrot for the afterlife, so those types of people wouldn't be as pleasant to be around if somehow religion got abolished.

It's true that we fight all the time over religion, but people are going to come up with some form of belief no matter the time period because it will always be a mystery about the beginnings of the universe and all that. In addition, many need the guidance that religion provides to life. There are all types of people in the world, and it would be nice if everyone respected everyone else but that's not happening.

Answer 2

It would be way worse. People with menial jobs who work 80 hours a week just to pay half their salary just to rent a crappy apartment and the other half to feed their family are HAPPY to live like slaves as long as they have religion. They believe that by working hard and letting the rich and powerful reap all the benefits, by fighting wars for the rich, and letting their kids kill and die in combat for God and country, that one day they will go to heaven. The day there is no religion, the world economy will go down the toilet. We all need religion, and we don't have to personally believe to reap the benefits. Religion keeps people happy and productive.

Differing religious views are usually just an excuse for war. They are really about money and power. Without religion, there would still be ethnic cleansing, genocide, and other atrocities, as well as wars over oil. In fact there might be more, because without religion, many governements would have to turn to more violent means to maintain power over their populace.

Even without religion, many people would still be intolerant of other groups. Most people are racially intolerant to some degree.

Why can't we all just "LIVE A GOOD LIFE AND ALLOW OTHERS TO DO THE SAME?" - That works for awhile. Then we start to envy others who have more than we do. Religion is the only thing that allows this difference to propagate and gives us the American dream - to be rich!

Answer 3

This is a good question and its important to answer it without being narrow-minded. First to those who are talking about "God" remember the question was about religion not about "God". What I mean by that is that many people worship different God's not the one that is associated with Christianity and Jesus Christ.

I'm not religious but I love to read about different religions. The good thing about religion is it gives society a set of guidelines and morals. We don't always follow them but we often strive to follow them. People that consider themselves religious should take the time to study other religions. Not to be converted but to get out of the narrow minded thought process that religious people find themselves in. I watch a show on TV once where there was a Christian, athiest, Muslim, Jew and and Buddist. The Buddist said he loved to read all of the holy books because it helped him to understand his fellow human beings and thus become a better Buddist.

The flip side to that is you can have morals and be a good person and not be religious. The problem with religion is when people become fanatical about their views and try to cram it down every ones throat (George Bush, Al Qaida, Muslim extremest, fanatical Jews) Now look at the people I listed. All of them consider themselves religious but all have been involved in major conflicts or disputes because of religion. Is that good?? Hell no!

I'm sick of people like G. Bush, who I consider very flawed because of his religious views. If people can learn TOLERANCE and religious acceptance the world would be much better.

So my answer, the world would be just as good or bad because if we don't fight over religion it would just be something else, like race or sexual orientation.

Answer 4

It would be better in that most religions are based on an untenable superstition of a supreme deity. Belief in this produces some might weird distortions in people's thinking (half of the US doesn't believe in evolution!), and promoties personal irresponsibility. After all, if God supports your point of view, there's nothing more to think about, is there? It would be better in that we wouldn't have wars based on the superiority of one group's version of an untenable superstition vs. another's.

It would be worse in that most people seem incapabable of accepting 100% responsibility for themselves or committing to treating those outside their "tribe" decently. Most societies cannot provide the material necessities required for people to have the luxury of time to develop the capacity to think and decide for themselves. Without religion to guide them, most people would fall back on other superstitious systems.

Answer 5

A world without religion is a word without moral codes, there would be nothing to say that murder is wrong, theft is wrong, rape and incest is wrong, and so on. Figure out how many principles that are in our society that relate back to religious belief one way or another.

Answer 6

There are many religions and belief's in the world today...take away RELIGION and it would be replaced with something else...as far as I am concerned I would rather live my life believing there was a God and die and find out there was not a God than to live my life believing there was no God and die and find out there was....you do the math

Answer 7

Better. I don't understand why people can't live their lives under these very easy to follow rules. LIVE A GOOD LIFE AND ALLOW OTHERS TO DO THE SAME. That way we wouldn't have genocides, crusades, Jihads (basically Islamic Holy War) and just semingly endless amounts of excuses for horrible attrocites..

Answer 8

Well the world would be better because there would be one less division between people and fewer wars. The world would be worse because you might see a decline in certain values.

Answer 9

FAR better.
95% of the worlds problems are a direct result of the disdain that religion instills in it's followers for anyone other than other followers.

Answer 10

You honestly have to ask? War would be fought over property rather than ideas. There would be no morality, but no conflict in morality. Religion is a source of dissension in humanity, regardless.