A World Without Religion?

Question

Okay ladies and gentlemen lets try and not be offended by this, I Know its a touch subject. Just to clarify I am very against discrimination of any kind and I respect people form all walks of life.

Lets all asume for a moment that there is no God (higher power) - Lets aslo asume that the bible and all other religious book are a complete work of fiction. Lets all asume that we have complete legitimate proof and evidence of this and that the whole concept of existance and evolution is compltly scientifically explained.

Religion has caused alot of pain and suffering; would the world not benifit without it. Would it not lessen the likelyhood of wars between nations. Would it erase the whole consept of homophobia and racial conflict completly. Would this create world pease.

I'd like to hear your thoughts.

Answer 1

Actually, as any intelligent, well-educated person knows, the assumptions you mention are, in fact, all correct. There is no legitimate evidence to demonstrate that there are any fantastical beings such as gods, spooks, hobgoblins, or whatever. The bible is a poorly compiled, heavily revised collection of primitive myths, irrational beliefs, and archaic dogma...just like all the other "religious books." Evolution, by contrast, is a theory...just like the theories of gravity and of thermodynamics. (As you may recall from your high school science class, while any explanation for a phenomena is a hypothesis, only those hypotheses with sufficient evidence to be considered the most likely explanation for a phenomena will be deemed theories.)

Would the world be better off then without religion? Absolutely. Religion is a symptom of and a contributor to social inequality. The well-educated prosperous have no need to desperately cling to primitive superstitions as they know them to be false, and their lives operate based upon reality. Reality-based, as opposed to delusion-based, living is essential for success in this world. Wherever one finds strong religious belief, one always finds lower education standards, lower income, lower standard of living, domestic abuse, and most of the other ills associated with the lower class. Religion, both by its enforcement of hierarchal command structures and by its historical collaboration with the dominant power structure at the time(whether dictator, king, or president), serves to maintain oppressive class distinctions. In other words, religion helps to keep the impoverished, disenfranchised of the world on their knees, rather than helping them to stand up and demand for equal representation and access to resources.

Answer 2

This is a double edged sword, so yes and no. Yes if there were no idea of god or religion monarchs would not have led by divine right and would have actually had to prove their worth through their actions and policy rather than saying god will smite them. We wouldn't have the holy war in the middle east, nor would we have had the Holocaust.

At the same time there are hundreds of millions of people that need religion as a means to get by, especially in underdeveloped countries. If you lived in a place that was completely impovershed, had a very low life expectancy rate and where you went days with out food. The only thing to keep these people hopeful for an other day is thier religious beliefs. Even in the developed world, people use prayer as a form of self help and healing. With out this hope and faith in something a lot of peoples standard of living would drop with out the word of god in their lives.

Ultimately i can go either way on the whole religion subject. Assuming there were no religion yeah a lot of things would be worse, then again a lot of things would be worse. As with many of the big questions we are posed with today there is going to be no way of deciding whether its better to have religion or have no religion, you just have to take the good with the bad.

Second Thoughts:
One thing I can not agree with however is the Christian scientists that say the earth is only 5000 years old and that humans and dinosaurs lived togethet. Sldo the "science" of devine creation is the biggest scientific joke since "spontaneous generation."

Answer 3

No, I don't think getting rid of religion would create world peace. Why? Because something will replace it. People are prone to fight and religion is just a reason, take that reason away and there will be another reason. You talk about how religion leads to a lot of pain and suffering, but you fail to mention the good that religion does for people. If you read the news, you will see the studies done that say that families that embrace religion are often better off than those that don't (the family that prays together, stays together). People would also still be homophobic and racist without religion - racism actually has nothing to do with religion, it is just the idea that whatever race is not as advanced as the other (this would actually make racism more of an evolutionary thing). Homophobia also doesn't necessarily stem from religion. I think that it is not right to be gay because it isn't natural (that argument does not contain any mention of religion).

To conclude - in a world where religion has be proven fiction, we would likely be worse off than we currently are because the negative impacts of religion that you mention would still be around but we would no longer have the positive impacts of religion.

Answer 4

It would depend on whether this was a world that had transitioned from religion (and how that transition was accomplished) or if the world was just naturally without religious concepts.

Man has the capability and propensity to do both good and "evil" - as well as the ability to define what those are. So without religion, humans would need a good understanding and commitment to getting along with each other both personally and globally. In the transitional case, many societies would need to consciously change their norms that were there only due to religion.

Ultimately, yes the world could be a better place without religion - but then again as religion is not the cause of all the worlds problems, it might not change anything.

Answer 5

A world without religion...
So you said lets all ASUME that there is no God,no Higher Power...

If we are to all think that there is no God,what can you make of that? Ok,so let's say there is no God,so where did we all come from? All the trees,plants,and animals? Did we simply were born by mistake? What gave us the talents and abilities to be who we are and choose to be? If you consider that,what is the purpose for living if we are mistakenely born?
So you can't really "asume" that.It will just leave us with more questions about the past.

If you think God is a lie,then why have people known to die for God? If the 12 apostles made up God,then why did they die for him? Surely they wouldn't die because something was not true? They gave their own lives for a single lie? That doesn't make any sense.

Wars over religions are just part of life,like a really,really,REALLY big fight.Whenever people fight,they always have a reason behind it,wether they know it or not.For instance,the battle of the Alamo: The Mexicans fought for one purpose:to regain back Texas. Texans too fought for a reason:To gain freedom. So wars over religions proves that people are fighting for what they believe in.And if they are willing to actually give their lives for what they believe in,their religion,do you think that God is a lie?

There are,however,some people who choose to not respect others beliefs.Those people are the ones who cause war because they simply dislike others' religion(s).Religions are not the cause of wars,they are simply ones belief and can help others to understand ones cultures.

Answer 6

Well, honestly, I think that if this hypothetical discovery emerged at this point in time with people believing the way they do, it would send people into a mass hysteria that would probably trigger armageddon. Whether people would believe it or not would be the question because as you know, many people do not believe concrete evidence that's right in front of their face...thus the panic because people fear death and relgion provides solace for what happens to you when you die. So whoever uncovered the "evidence" would be burned at the stake and people would turn on each other and things would just go nuts.

But if we should assume that there never was religion to begin with, I think that would only mean one less thing to fight about. In human nature, everyone wants to be right and when people tell you you're wrong, you'll use force to make them see it your way hence the violence. The three main religions all preach that there is no other way. It's these types of religions that create the extra hostility.

BUT! Humans are just hostile by nature. If we're not fighting over who's right and who's wrong, we'd just be warring over the things we've always warred about - resources and money. Then other countries would get caught up in the fray because the desire to capture the prime strategic locations would be too great.

Humans are just too greedy and self-centered and we stop at nothing to get what we want, no matter who we have to kill or destroy to get our way. There will never be world peace until we stop the mass selfishness. But THAT will never happen because selfishness is a survival instinct.

Because we've developed the intelligence to develop ways to clear out the things in the way of what we want, we're always going to abuse that ability.

Answer 7

It's not religion that is the problem, it is division and fundamentalism,. It is lockstep thinking that has always been the problem. Whether Hitler, Stalin, Inquisition, Taliban, whatever.

It is fundamentalism, or, the 'my way or the highway' philosophy that is at fault. Religion and/or statism often uses this absolutist dogma to spread it's power and influence.

Conflict arises from power play and suspicion of the 'other', both religion and politics utilize this method to gain power and influence.

A KGB execution and a Christian conflagration of heretics are the same thing. i.e neither representative of 'atheism', or of 'religion' respectively. They are both representative of absolutist doctrines.

Atheism, freethinking, agnosticism etc is by and of itself opposed to fundamentalist thought.

Religionists will try and point to communist dictatorships as an example of the danger of 'atheism' but that is either inherently disingenuous or mistaken.

Meanwhile, religion isn't the be all and end all of the world's problems, some things about it are good, some things are not so good.

I've known many wonderful religious people and atheists and all inbetween.

Unfortunately the Christian right and the Muslim fundies have the world's attention and they aren't going to give it up overnight...

They are both ultra-conservative absolutists. There is a clue.

Answer 8

Hello,

Religion though does cage the beast in many cases. I say the world would be a lot worse than it is now. Personally if I realized this life was a one shot deal I would be far more self centered and care nothing for other people. I would destroy anyone be it their lives, financially or physically that got in my way of enjoying my brief flicker of existance.

On an international scope there would probably be more war and genocide and far more atrocities unchecked. The almighty dollar and greed for power and wealth would become paramount and totally replace God or the gods.. Things like racism and homophobia would most likely become worse since there is no reason any more to love your neigbor as yourself. Don't forget that the vast majority of conflicts when carefully studied had more to do with land grabs, finacial gain and power.


Cheers,

Michael Kelly

Answer 9

First of all, you assume too much. The possibility of a higher power or not has nothing to do with religious animosity. Most religions start with a very similar set of rules.

Second, the human race has a knack for finding a way to have an in-group out-group mentality. This can be because of religion, race, sex, hair color, height, shoe size, whatever. We'll always find a way to hate, because we so desperately want to belong. And belonging would be pointless, if there weren't another group that somehow didn't.

Peace is only possible when there is not any competition for resources. That unfortunately won't happen, ever.

Answer 10

I really think that it would not matter. Humans are animals and just like any other animal they fight. whether it be about beliefs or about territory there would be wars. if there was not a war about whos God was more correct than the others there would be a war over getting oil or land or whatever. I dont think anything will create world peace (with a c not an s) lol. this may be a slightly cynical veiw on the human race but this is what I have seen. as far as homophobia I do not know. I am not christian and I am not homophobic but this does not mean that athiests are not homophobic. in countries other than america there are different customs. in Africa you are expected to, while walking down the street with your best male friend, to hold hands with him even if you are male. I believe its in Italy that while male and sitting at like a coffee house with your best male friend you are expected to hold eachother's knees while speaking. if any of this was seen in america there would be dirty looks and possibly even beatings for it. yet its ok for two guys in spandex leatards to grab eachother in truthfully sexual-esq ways and wrestle eachother to the ground? lol. people are very weird.

Answer 11

Everyone is different. I think it would help lessen the reason wars are caused right now. But,for most religion of any form acts as a deterant to "scare" people in to doing the right thing. The planet would be total anarchy with out it.

Although, I think organized religion in any form is just fiction and was made as a form of control and power. I am spirital but do not conform to any particular religion I believe it is within myself and that is what keeps me moral for the most part. Not everyone would have the self-detrmination.