How much better would the world be today if humanity had never invented religion?

Answer 1

Actually I think under the circumstances, no matter when in our history; humans would still invent a form of religion. (religion, which first started out as rituals)
It might be called something else or have similar ideas about it; but in our process of trying to understand our existence, we create things to try and explain it.

When the first 'man' saw lightening.......it came from the sky..
What would you think,
if you had NO IDEA what it was? Or when lightening hit the ground and created a fire.
Or what about volcano's?
(Now, please remember, I’m not taking into consideration how we came to be what we are, from monkeys to man; or how something evolved into monkeys, or even how the earth was created.)

We had no way of understanding nature at that time, no way to know what was really happening. We did not understand much.
So in actuality, I think religion of some sort, was inevitable.

I'm not saying that religion is a good thing or bad thing; but how else could we explain what was happening, and be able to communicate it with others. How could we do that without inventing a word and then a meaning for what was occurring.
That word has evolved with us, and the meaning as well.

Now the evolution of religion, unfortunately, has not evolved exponentially like we have. Religion stopped evolving with us, and started to evolve in its own slow process.

My personal opinion, is that religion has hampered our capacity to grow, and how we view our existence. We have come to rely on it too much, instead of relying on ourselves, like we did in our past----past. We have come to use it as a crutch to help support us, instead of supporting ourselves, with non-religion based ideas and thoughts.
I think humanity would be, better off, without it.
But we would be facing a different problem, if religion was never invented by humans. It would be something else having to do with creation and our understanding of it. Just different words in a comparable context.

Answer 2

The problem is not religion. Religion is a man made construct. The problem is people. Religion is just an excuse to channel hate. The communists proved that you don't need religion to commit the most atrocious of acts. However, religious apologists who think that religion does no harm are simply ignoring the apalling history of religious fueled violence.

But, that is a two way door. People also use religion as a channel for good deeds. Many beautiful paintings were done under the auspices of religion. However, when one looks at the cityscapes of Dubai, Hong Kong, or New York, one sees a beauty that was built for wholly secular purposes.

The one consistency is human minds, which shape religion to suit their purposes. Modern Christians, with their 21st century zeitgeist, would find the idea of burning a witch horrifying. But earlier (as late as the 18th century) Christians would view their reluctance as being supportive of heresy.

Compare that to a more secular profession. Modern soldiers in Iraq would not go into Mosques because they felt that causing human suffering was wrong. Soldiers in an earlier era (anything before the age of enlightenment) would have been given leave to sack the town, take what they wanted, rape a couple women, and be on their merry way. And that goes for religious soldiers as well as atheist soldiers, or just plain disinterested soldiers.

In enlightened eras, human zeitgeist becomes exceedingly positive. In more dark eras, it becomes atrocious. Religion has been a tool for both good and vile evil, which to me suggests that it is insubordinate to a higher human zeitgeist, which is wholly grounded in the affairs of the here and now.

@ Wakawaka

Not everyone needs the fear of punishment to do the right thing. The more honorable elements of our society call it "integrity".

@ Timaeus

You are right, those things wouldn't have existed. But then again, it is entirely possible that we would be in possession of even more marvelous works of art, so lets not get into "what if" conjectures.

Answer 3

Let's see... No Pyramids. No Parthenon. No Homer. No Ovid. No Plato. No Augustine. No Aquinas. No Universities. No Dante. No Gothic Cathedrals. No Abelard. No Boccacio. No Michaelangelo. No Raphael. No DaVinci. Shall I go on? Do you get the point? It seems to be common parlance on a lot of these boards to reduce religion to being the scapegoat for all the miseries of humanity. Religion, like all human endeavors works for good and for grief-- just like politics, economics, science, literature, so on and so forth. Fine. Get rid of religion. But religion has been one of the main catalysts for the development of human culture and civilization would be radically impoverished as a result. Let's not forget that the twentieth century was the most secularized of all the centuries of human history-- and what did all that secularism get us, objectively speaking, the body count from the genocides of the great secular ideologies is far greater than anything religiously motivated cultures has ever been able to produce. If there is an enemy to human progress and rationality-- it ain't religion-- we all know who the enemy is-- the enemy is ourselves.

Answer 4

No better off. I am not a strict believer in any religion because life is to full of "What Ifs?" to put all my eggs in one basket. I say no better off because religion is necessary in mankind's existence. We need order and something to believe in. If we had to concept of an afterlife or purpose we would be no better than animals. Its the belief that an afterlife exists that gets most of this worlds population through the day. Not consciously no but the faith that we aren't here for no reason and that our actions will have eternal ramifications when we "meet our maker". Religion is necessary, it may be a necessary evil or it may be our redemption. The details aren't for sure but if you look at the question from a cultural, historical and sociological / psychological point of view.... then religion(or the simple faith in otherworldly beginning's and endings) is ultimately something we, as humans, need.

Answer 5

I think it would be much better off without Religion. Cause all these religious franatics have thought that Religion has to be used as a force to pressure human beings into submission.
I can't understand why so many preach in the Love of God when instead they preach hate. If that's God than I d rather be without a Religion. Cause I do not hate, and I have more understanding for human beings . I tolerate people who are unique and intelligent.

Answer 6

Yes, for religion is simply, beliefs mixed with customs and biases of people or those who lead the religion and use it for their own advantage.
For example: What makes the pope holier than us? A title? Ceremonies? Votes? Because the holy body deems it so? What about limbo? It has recently been abolished because the church no longer deems it within its interest and pressing pastoral needs due to the increase of abortion rates and babies dying prematurely. What kind of basis is that? What happens to the babies before the declaration? What if i still believe in God but think differently, would I no longer be a Catholic for what i believe in differs from the church? It creates discrimination and antagonism when there should be peace. People condemn one another and slaughter relentlessly under the guise of a bigger purpose. 9/11 in its core is due to religious differences.How can something deemed good bring so much tears and grief, all in the name of honor. People should not be forced to think, act in certain ways just because of religion. People should make the decision themselves due to faith in our beliefs and ideals. What would truly benefit humanity, the world, would be pure individual faith in a personal God with mutual respect for one another's beliefs.

Answer 7

Most civilizations wouldn't be here today, if it wasn't for religion. The ancient Chinese and Indian (India) societies went through hard times, and if it wasn't for their belief systems, they wouldn't have stayed together as long as they did. They would have ended up like Rome, which had no major unifying religion (Christianity came to late and wasn't fully embraced by Roman society) and fell due to the lack of unity in the society.

Answer 8

China ditched religion four thousand years ago, still didn't escape what you might as well call religious tyranny.

Naturally, the sort of people who require a god to be moral would have been weeded out, as a general rule, through one means or another.

Answer 9

Basically the same.
The humans are very creative, they will invent another thing to control the society.

Answer 10

i think humanity would no longer exist. we need to have hope! without religion, there would be no reason not to kill each other to take the possesions we covet from them. not all of us want to live in a society ruled by out of control greed and rage. yes we will go through this suffering. this is not the end! GOD WILL WIN. hold onto HIM. you'll make it!