A World Without A Religion?

[rayzoredge 2]

Utopia, anyone? Without religion, there would be much less disagreement and less strife, but less stringent behavior, less regulation, and maybe even chaos. I like the idea of no religion initially, but a few good things about religion is that it does bring people together, provides an "answer" for the unknown as human nature likes to fall back on something as opposed to leaving something unanswered, and puts forth a set of rules and regulations that may assist in keeping its believers morally and ethically correct, or at least reflective. Without religion, the world may fall into a case of despotism, giving every individual the freedom to act on desire and not much else. (And as much fun as freedom is, it doesn't take into account EVERYONE'S desires or even rights to be happy. You can probably figure out where I'm going with that.)There has to be at least a unifying, sole religion to keep everyone in check. And I'm not talking about Christianity or Muslim or Buddhism or anything like that... but what religion really is: a set of beliefs. With that definition, if you think about it, science is its own religion in its own right. What needs to be established to achieve a step in the right direction as far as a utopian society goes is to establish an unanimous religion - a set of rules and regulations - that promote ethical and moral direction and a "proper" way of thinking. Thanks to our concept of democracy, where everyone has a say, we will never have that utopian society. Just look around you and think of the political issues that we face now. Is it ethically and morally right to offer the options of abortion and leave that option for people to choose? Should we even give choices? Democracy says yes; but the more choices we are offered, the more deviant we will be from making decisions that will benefit the whole as opposed to individualistic needs and desires.

[FLaKes 0]

Well if we didnt have religion, then there would be less manipulated people and less wars. If you read a bit of history, you will find out that the main purpose of many religions were to control and manipulate people, just like if it was a form of government. I do have to add that religion besides controlling, has also helped some people so I am really not against it entirely.

[slave 0]

i think religion is nice thing. we all should have a faith on a GOD but we people have made it bit complicated actually some of us are using the name of religion for their personal interests. they get their interests and we fight with each other for nothing. so religion in it self is not bad. but we are taking it in wrong way. religions tells us some rules and points to live how to deal with people blieve me if we study deeply about all religions we will find that ever religion just say to love people care about other. but some of us take it wrong sense.

[rayzoredge 2]

Well if we didnt have religion, then there would be less manipulated people and less wars. If you read a bit of history, you will find out that the main purpose of many religions were to control and manipulate people, just like if it was a form of government. I do have to add that religion besides controlling, has also helped some people so I am really not against it entirely.

This ties into the rules and regulations of the set religion I was talking about.

A prime example of the demonstrated control that religion holds over its believers: our "war" in the Middle East on "terrorism." Religious fanatics have twisted beliefs to include the genocide of infidels (non-believers)... which unfortunately includes the coalition forces that are there trying to make a difference. Think of the Crusades and even the religion of Nazism. Just the notion that religion has this sort of impact on society makes it a powerful tool that no one should be exploiting; thus, the need for a religion that establishes a moral and ethical ground to advance the development of society towards some sort of concept of utopia.

What will be determined as moral and ethical is rather impossible to achieve today, however, thanks to our idea of democracy and the introduced "evils" that are abortion, homosexuality, and the like.

As much as I would probably prefer to see most if not all religions abolished, we still need some sort of belief system as I've mentioned. But to be able to settle for that sort of thing is another feat entirely.

[Absolute Zer0 0]

Religion gives us hope for the future, without that hope death is a lot scarier. I'm a Christian, and yes, I don't wanna die tomorrow or anything, and I do worry about it from time to time, but not as much if I thought I would simply cease to exist after dieing. You have to admit, Atheist or Christian, if you don't think you'll ever die, there's little reason to worry about it, and thus improving the quality of the life you have on earth, right?

[tricky77puzzle 0]

The world would probably be the same with or without religions. The only reason religions exist is to give the followers something to do and to follow. Humans get disoriented if they don't have mindset to use. I wish there was an "it would stay the same" option in the poll. I would have chosen that one.

[t3jem 0]

The reason wars are fought because of religion is because the leaders just want to go to war, they would just as easily find another reason to go to war if there was no reason, but the leaders back during the crusades basically controlled everyone because they were the religious leaders as well. The reason the crusades happened is because the followers never actually understood their faith and blindly followed the religious leader thinking they would be saved by doing what they said. There may be a couple religions, such as the ones terrorists harbor, that tell you to fight and kill, but these are people who just want a reason to fight and kill people, they would still do it without a religion.Most religions give people high standards to live by so that they don't just steal and hurt things when they feel like it.

[slave 0]

t's hard from my perspective to imagine a world where morals and ethics could be mandated by anything but religion - at least in society's evolution. Belief of divine justice and retribution kept a lot of society together throughout the ages. Medieval Europe would have turned out very different without the Catholic Church, and our own history is tied intrinsicly with religion and theology.
A lot of the ethics and morals that keep the western world's justice system intact stem from Abrahamic faith (Christianity / Islam / Judaism), and it's difficult to picture what the impact of removing these three faiths (alone!) would do to the world.

Having said this, there's a lot of problems stemming from religion. Because of the increasing chasm growing between beliefs, it's hard to work out whether religion is doing more harm than good.

It's human nature to keep those nagging thoughts of reasonable doubt in thier head. In a world where people can't even agree whether the moonlanding happened or not, people can't work out whether creationism or darwinism is the more likely candidate. In a world where we can't even agree what the right thing to do about Iraq is, we have millions of people from different faiths telling us, in complete certainty, what the right thing MUST be when it comes to this situation.

I don't think the world is ready for removing religion. Too much is still connected to it - particularily politics. I'm also pretty sure we'll never be able to give belief up. I've also got into arguments with people about this connection to human nature. My argument, that if the entirity of universal knowledge was placed into everyone's head at the same time it would cause world chaos as people came to terms with the completeness of existance (and the lack or proof of a diety existing), is shot down by people who claim that belief still holds sway and that people would still be able to disbelieve certain parts of univeral knowledge even with no doubt of the credibility of the source.

[velma 6]

I did not vote as I did not find the option I wanted

 

My honest opinion is that religion is not the villain but the human is the reason for all the destruction that has been caused.

 

We tend to forget that when religion was born, it was born to help not be the reason for war or terrorism. The people who make religion the scapegoat are not fighting for the religion but are merely fussing because their ego does not agree with some thing another person does.

 

If we look at all of the religions in the world, none of them "actually" encourage murder or so on. Yes, there are some religions that have sickening beliefs but we cannot judge them as the beliefs were written centuries ago when people were still raw in their thinking

 

If Religion is treated like a coin with 2 faces "black" and "white". One face clearly tells you that the world would be really beautiful and peaceful without it but the other face would remind you how uncultured , ignorant, lost and mainly individualistic we would be without it.

 

But if Religion is treated like a weapon then you are already seeing the result, people who proclaim that "their" race is better are already letting us know that they are ignorant about their religion for all religions ask us to be "humble"

 

The time when Religion started turning ugly was when people started thinking that religion was for their disposal.

 

I mean come on.. Same caste marriages, my race is better than yours, God Demands we do it, We'll get virgins if we die as martyrs.. Who will disagree that they were designed for a particular period or was being done for man's own selfish reasons..... Not aimed at any one as this is only my opinion.

 

But if people focused on helping each other rather blowing up the brains of a supposedly "retard" I think we could do better...

 

When I say retard, I mean the expression we use so loosely to describe people who are supposed to be dumber than the smart jock ...

 

Hopefully I made some sense in this topic

[tricky77puzzle 0]

I did not vote as I did not find the option I wanted

 

My honest opinion is that religion is not the villain but the human is the reason for all the destruction that has been caused.

 

We tend to forget that when religion was born, it was born to help not be the reason for war or terrorism. The people who make religion the scapegoat are not fighting for the religion but are merely fussing because their ego does not agree with some thing another person does.

 

If we look at all of the religions in the world, none of them "actually" encourage murder or so on. Yes, there are some religions that have sickening beliefs but we cannot judge them as the beliefs were written centuries ago when people were still raw in their thinking

 

If Religion is treated like a coin with 2 faces "black" and "white". One face clearly tells you that the world would be really beautiful and peaceful without it but the other face would remind you how uncultured , ignorant, lost and mainly individualistic we would be without it.

 

But if Religion is treated like a weapon then you are already seeing the result, people who proclaim that "their" race is better are already letting us know that they are ignorant about their religion for all religions ask us to be "humble"

 

The time when Religion started turning ugly was when people started thinking that religion was for their disposal.

 

I mean come on.. Same caste marriages, my race is better than yours, God Demands we do it, We'll get virgins if we die as martyrs.. Who will disagree that they were designed for a particular period or was being done for man's own selfish reasons..... Not aimed at any one as this is only my opinion.

 

But if people focused on helping each other rather blowing up the brains of a supposedly "retard" I think we could do better...

 

When I say retard, I mean the expression we use so loosely to describe people who are supposed to be dumber than the smart jock ...

 

Hopefully I made some sense in this topic

Yes, you made a lot of sense. Religion is not there to have war with. It is there to guids people in peaceful ways. You could say that it promotes peace, actually.

 

When people decide to go on crusades and mortal wars they completely undermine their own religion. However, there are atheists out there who do not like the idea of bowing down to a god. They are not being arrogant; they respect each other and don't make anyone bow down to them either. However, some Christians lord over others , saying "we're better than you because we're Christians". That is NOT good.

[BooZker 0]

Amazing! I come back to this topic as it approaches the two year mark and people are still debating this. Now this is what I call a debate. I found this because I am finishing up my degree and my last class I'm taking is religion. I will be going to a four year next to study religious philosophy so I looked up "A world with religion" and this topic was number two on google and I thought to myself, interesting, this topic is STILL going! Anyways, even though I haven't been active here for a long time I thought I would reply to a post and maybe come back more often when needing help with religion work.

Religion gives us hope for the future, without that hope death is a lot scarier. I'm a Christian, and yes, I don't wanna die tomorrow or anything, and I do worry about it from time to time, but not as much if I thought I would simply cease to exist after dieing. You have to admit, Atheist or Christian, if you don't think you'll ever die, there's little reason to worry about it, and thus improving the quality of the life you have on earth, right?

I completely disagree. To me it gives me more of a future. In my religious beliefs, or lack of I should say, it makes me want to live life to the fullest extent even more. When I was younger before I became an Atheist I went to a Catholic school and learned about heaven and so fourth. I wasn't scared about dying just as you aren't, but I also didn't seem to care about what I did and when as much. When I turned 11 I had an epiphany that I never believed in God because I honestly couldn't believe of this mystical creature/being/man.

Sense then I put my life into full gear am more cautious about what I do and find myself more moralistic because I know that I have one life to live, only one, and then I am done. I want to live it to the fullest. Being a criminal and spending life in prison would be a total waste of life to me because I would have accomplished nothing. Prior to that I had the feelings of "why does it matter if this life doesn't mean anything except to get me into heaven?"

I know for a fact, in my case, I would have never been able to finish high school, graduate college with a 3.7GPA+, be in a long term relationship starting at 16, and become a web developer at 17 if I had never become an Atheist because I wouldn't have felt the need to work that hard sense this life was only to get me into heaven. Religion to me, does not give hope, but a reason to slack off and only do the minimum. Obviously not all people who are religious slackers, but I think many do use this as an excuse.
Edited April 7, 2008 by BooZker (see edit history)

[dre 0]

I know for a fact, in my case, I would have never been able to finish high school, graduate college with a 3.7GPA+, be in a long term relationship starting at 16, and become a web developer at 17 if I had never become an Atheist because I wouldn't have felt the need to work that hard sense this life was only to get me into heaven. Religion to me, does not give hope, but a reason to slack off and only do the minimum. Obviously not all people who are religious slackers, but I think many do use this as an excuse.

Hey man, whatever rocks your boat. Religion or the absence of it will not make you get good grades, I'm Christian myself and so far I'm getting a 4.2-ish in high school and I never broke a sweat. Many Christians might disagree with me on this, but I believe that religion shouldn't dominate my life. Edited April 7, 2008 by dre (see edit history)

[truefusion 3]

Sense then I put my life into full gear am more cautious about what I do and find myself more moralistic because I know that I have one life to live, only one, and then I am done. I want to live it to the fullest. Being a criminal and spending life in prison would be a total waste of life to me because I would have accomplished nothing. Prior to that I had the feelings of "why does it matter if this life doesn't mean anything except to get me into heaven?"

Since (not sense) when is working to get into Heaven part of Christianity? Being religious does not mean that we are not allowed to become artists, programmers, musicians, et cetera. You're making assumptions about the Christian life that isn't true. You say you want to live life to the fullest, but you also imply that you are limiting yourself. For a moralistic person would not try to live life to its fullest. You might see worshipping God as a waste of time, but what if people choose to? Who says i can't become a musician and give people a new look at my religion and change the music industry from foolishness to proper morals? Who says i can't become a programmer and make programs for churches, schools, people in general, et cetera? People have many ways of worshipping God.

 

I know for a fact, in my case, I would have never been able to finish high school, graduate college with a 3.7GPA+, be in a long term relationship starting at 16, and become a web developer at 17 if I had never become an Atheist because I wouldn't have felt the need to work that hard sense this life was only to get me into heaven. Religion to me, does not give hope, but a reason to slack off and only do the minimum. Obviously not all people who are religious [are] slackers, but I think many do use this as an excuse.

Because of your assumptions, that is why you "know for a fact" that you would not have done what you have done. Regardless, you're making little sense: you keep mentioning that for the religious this life is to work for Heaven. Wouldn't someone who is working for Heaven work harder than you? Do you know how hard it is to get into Heaven through deeds alone? I don't think you've taken the time to look at the religious folk who have been working as "hard" as you say you have or harder. Either that or you are emphasizing far too much on those who don't. Each have their own reason(s) for doing and not doing something, but if they aren't doing anything wrong, why speak against it? But what is the "minimum" to you? Or, perhaps i should say, what is the "maximum" to you? How will you make it appear objective?

[tricky77puzzle 0]

Faith in God can actually be a good thing. It gives you a sense of motivation, et cetera, that if you do something that's bad in someone else's eyes, "He" (there, I capitalized it once) will know that you meant well, and forgive you against that specific other person.

 

It's only the organization of religion that's a problem. No religion today can possibly claim that they are the best religion to follow God with, simply because they have too many flaws for the perfect image of God to accept. For example, Catholicism holds an Index Librorum (?) Prohibitorum that acts as a "guideline" (since '54, it was the absolute law before then) to which books Catholics should not look at. And in Islam, if it's not good enough for you, too bad, you're already under Allah's control. With Judaism, you have to lose part of your skin near your "equipment" at 8 days of age, which is an extremely old tradition.

 

All I'm saying is, follow what you want.

[iGuest 3]

Replying to JasperIkReplying to Justin S.Then what has happened to humanity? We would've destroyed our diversity, which is the largely defining trait of humanity, in order to not offend people of our own race... Are you willing to sacrifice everything that makes us human just to make things "better"? The last time religion was abolished, Stalin and Red China killed millions, if not hundreds of millions.-reply by none of your business