What would the world be like if there was no such thing as religion?

Answer 1

This question boils down to a discussion we had at school a very, very long time ago. We decided that the worlds problems boil down to three things- Money, Religion and Greed. Money and greed obviously interlink, but religion struck me as being rather an odd choice. Yes religion has been the fuel over many, many conflicts (from the crusades, to the hundred years war, to the troubles in Northern Ireland) but I believe that religion offers light to a lot of people around the world (including myself). As a christian transending into Buddhism, I especially from my buddhist faith, see religion as an enlightening experience, and one that we can never really discover the answer to.
To answer your question, a world without religion would have diffrent country boundries, different basis's for goverments and different laws (for one thing Murder would not be illegal). All in all, I think that a world without religion would be a much darker place.
Sermon over.

Answer 2

Chaos; In my opinion religion is more of a school that is simply tutoring self control to it's students. Morals, self-awareness, respect, honor, truth, and many more wonderful qualities can become out of religion. Without it negative emotions far outweight too great into the negative sides of humanity.

Imagine if you will that there is no life after death. That there is no penalty for your sins. Humanity would have died out long ago because people would never care. Does this explain everyone? no. By all means no. Is this the way it is. More then likely not. Just a thought if you will.

Of course, even with religion a lot of people can't control themselves. Evil is not born of satan but of free will to act in such ways while upon this earth.

Then again, just my opinion, especially since i'm not religious.

Answer 3

Religion came about because human beings are the first animals to evolve with the capacity of creative thought. This is a wonderful ability that allows us to imagine things that don’t actually exist in the real world. The reason that this is so useful is that we can come up with an idea for something say a house, car computer etc., and then actually build it. An unfortunate side effect of this is that sometimes the ideas we come up with aren’t actually true. However because of our vivid imaginations we believe in them so much we get mixed up between fantasy and reality.

This is what happened with religion. Back in the days when people first thought up the various religions, humanity was still at a fairly primitive stage. So when they were confronted with the idea of a god (or gods) whose existence could neither be proved or disproved, they took this as pretty reasonable explanation for all the other things that where too complicated for them to understand.

Obviously now we have the real answers to most of those questions or at least considerably more likely explanations. But amazingly the majority people in the world still cling to religion like an alcoholic does to a bottle. I believe religion is actually a form of mental illness that is passed on from parent to child and once you are fully infected with the idea it is almost impossible to cure.

If somehow we could erase all religious ideas from the minds of everyone on the planet, I doubt it would ever come back. Someone may well come up with the idea again but with the incredibly advanced scientific knowledge we now have about the world it would soon be brushed off as being completely ridiculous.

What a wonderful world that would be people could get on with the job of being creative again and would have a lot less reasons to kill each other.

This all reminds me of the words of the great John Lennon....

Imagine there's no Heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today
Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

Answer 4

The world is already like a hell because Religion has been overwhelmed and side-tracked by Secular Laws( some laws are quite heinous and a shame). We pronounce that we 'love' The Holy, yet our legislators, chosen by our votes, make Laws contrary to the Holy Commandments. So, we can only blame ourselves, not the Religion, for the miseries of the age.

Answer 5

It is like asking - what would a tree be like if there were no leaves, flowers or fruit? I have tried to imagine but I can not think of anything rational describable. the fact is religious thought is the embodiment of best in our mind. The best we can think of within and without our reason. With our knowledge and reason we can go only that far. But in the words to Robert Browning, 'if our reach is not farther then our grasp then what the heavens are for?'

There are things we know, and then there are things we do not know. Religion is our way to manage what we know and to define what we know that we do not know. As a matter of fact we can know things that we know with reasonable certainty unless we have defined what we do not know. We for example know the Earth, but our theoretical knowledge of the universe acts like back drop of knowledge of the Earth.

If we are humans with conscious mind then we must reach beyond reason and for this we need faith. We can think of the best, the ultimate and the ideal to which science has no answer that we can find in religion.

Answer 6

Children always enjoy their fairy tales. A world where there is "no such thing as religion" just isn't possible.

Answer 7

We are supposed to be the most intelligent forms of life on earth.
We are the ones who came up with the idea of religions.
I`m sure even without religion ,we would find something to fight about .
At least when the lower life forms fight it is about their territory being invaded .
the rest of their lifetimes is about survival and taking care of their families.
So who really is the most intelligent ?

Answer 8

That is a tough question. Without religion we probably would not have advanced as far as we have. I think we have passed the need for religion though, as science now guides us as to how the world works.

Answer 9

Lifeless

Answer 10

So much better. We could devise a code to live under based on reason rather than irrationality and discrimination against those who believe different stories than we do.