Would the world be a better place without religion?

[russwest0]

What's your take?

[Im Still Ballin]

yes

[NumberSix]

Probably not.


The simple minded people will say yes. They're missing the largest parts of human history though. Without religion to control people, society wouldn't be where it is. It has done a lot to dissuade large groups of people from pursuing their own interests into pursuing larger group interests.

Are we now at a place where from here on we don't have a need for religion? Maybe. We wouldn't be here without it though.

[tomtucker]

no , only islam

[Godzuki]

yes

[ROCSteady]

No. Less annoying, self righteous and contradictory? Absolutely

[CelticBaller]

People will find ways to start shit, so no

[Godzuki]

People will find ways to start shit, so no


noc's smelly fgt :facepalm

[DonD13]

People will find ways to start shit, so no

i agree.
for example sowjet communism, although atheistic, it was structured like a religion with the same power to destroy

[fiddy]

no , only islam
Allahu Akbar

[Im so nba'd out]

The world would be a POS either way.

[dr.hee]

Probably not. My subjective evaluation of (organized) religion is mostly negative, but I still think it's an underrated factor in turning self-centered individuals into organized groups that subscribe to shared norms, moral guidelines and socially accepted behavior. Humans have an intrinsic need for meaning and externally fixated guidelines, and organized religion provides just that.

At least my personal experience is that being confronted with statements supporting moral relativism and raising questions about the legitimacy of traditional mainstream definitions of free will, people tend to react with fear and irrational dismissal of concepts like moral responsibility on an individual level.

It seems that people have difficulties in dissociating the effect of belief in a concept on behavior from it's actual objective truth value. Just take free will. Mentioning the possibility that free will might not exist in the traditionally accepted way doesn't change anything about the question whether it actually exists or not. It only changes the belief of people about it. Still, it's empirically verified that humans tend to show less pro social behavior when being confronted with arguments against free will. You know, the whole "If we don't have free will, why help other people and punish criminals?" thing. Completely irrational, but still an effect we have to take into account when evaluating external sources of guidelines and moral statements.

So even though subjectively my take on organized religion is basically a bunch of people worshipping their collectively shared imaginary friend, I still acknowledge that in the light of a lack of ability and/or willingness of people to confront themselves with uncomforting truths about reality and trying to construct moral systems and behavioral constrainst purely based on individual thought, organized religion seems to be beneficial for the stability of human societies because of it's value for establishing an accepted external moral authority and supporting socially accepted behavior by inducing fear.

Short story...organized religion=necessary evil.

[GimmeThat]

guns don't kill people
knives don't kill people
religions don't kill people

knowledge don't kill people
dumbness don't kill people

you combine a few ingredients together

[Noob Saibot]

There is no right or wrong answer for this question. Some people may view the world worse off without religion because people are gonna start fighting and talk shit no matter what and about anything. Then some will say yes because you had those who take advantage of people using religion as a means to get ahead in society.

For about the last 150 or 100 years or so humanity shifted from religion to technology/science. So instead of people wearing cloaks, turbans, and robes calling shots for everybody, now it will be people behind computers or machines themselves watching your every move. So take your pick.

[riseagainst]

it could certainly continue to exist without religion. Not sure about better.

[KingBeasley08]

Nah, we'd all just fight over something else lol

[Nowitness]

It was needed 2,000 years ago to kind of suppress violence and give meaning and 'knowledge' to a world that was largely undiscovered and largely divided.

Yes it would. We wouldn't brainwash people to surrender their minds to ideas that basically preach totalitarianism.

Name one good thing a religious person does that can't be by an infidel and then name one bad thing done that can only be justified by religion and you will see the answer.

This is more than murder, most moral debates are based around the bible (homosexuality, stem cell research, abortion). It is just another reason to hate one another, after all doesn't the Quaran preach that atheists are eternally waging a war against Islam? Didn't the Catholic church preach antisemitism until 1964? Or only ever excommunicate one of the 40/50% of the SS who were known Catholics (and he was expelled for marrying a Protestant). Don't Jews mutilate their kids genitals because of religion? The list is endless, you can have faith, but do no organize it.

[Nowitness]

Probably not.


The simple minded people will say yes. They're missing the largest parts of human history though. Without religion to control people, society wouldn't be where it is. It has done a lot to dissuade large groups of people from pursuing their own interests into pursuing larger group interests.

Are we now at a place where from here on we don't have a need for religion? Maybe. We wouldn't be here without it though.

Not the question though. A lot was needed in the past that we grew out of. I agree with Freud in his analysis of the historical importance for religion.

[navy]

Maybe. Probably not initially.

[BrownEye007]

Yes, absolutely.

[ace23]

Of course lol

[~primetime~]

no way...overall religion keeps human doing "good" rather than "bad"

yes you can point to a few wars and 911 but that ignores the retarded amounts of charity work done through churches

I know a woman in a church that just got back from Africa on a mission to save abandon children, it is absolutely impossible for me to say that the world is better off without her church. And her church is just one thousands just like it.

Also, lettuce be reality...I don't believe in the Bible but what it teaches, to act like Jesus, is a GOOD message, not a bad message. Just because there are a few tards out there that don't believe in dinosaurs doesn't mean the world is better off without...

[Nanners]

I dont think the world would change very much without religion. There would still be wars and conflicts, there would still be people doing charity work, there would still be social conflict over inconsequential issues like gay marriage and abortion.

[~primetime~]

I dont think the world would change very much without religion. There would still be wars and conflicts, there would still be people doing charity work, there would still be social conflict over inconsequential issues like gay marriage and abortion.
yeah people get too caught up in blaming religion and not humans...(good or bad)

I am probably guilty myself



I bet men in the Middle East would still treat women as subhuman with or without Islam...it's the MEN that are doing bad, not the religion.

[Kblaze8855]

Are we now at a place where from here on we don't have a need for religion? Maybe. We wouldn't be here without it though.


Naaaah.

the world has not needed it in hundreds of years at the very least....if ever. If anything has held humanity back more in science and the acceptance of facts im unaware of it.

People used to get jailed for refusing to recant statements of scientific fact....

The catholic church was out there issuing bans on mathematicians and astronomers because their findings(since verified) went against their opinions.

We are so far behind where we could be given the extra few hundred years of free thinking. Galileo gets put on trial and later on house arrest(till he died) for daring to be correct...

How many generations of brilliant minds were never even allowed to explore the truths of the universe because some book convinced a group of idiots that free thinkers were evil?

Truth could literally....get you burned alive.

Religion held us back for far too long.

Once you settle on "God did it..." you dont really even need to ask questions.

The anti knowledge aspects of religion have set us back years.

[Nowitness]

yeah people get too caught up in blaming religion and not humans...(good or bad)

I am probably guilty myself



I bet men in the Middle East would still treat women as subhuman with or without Islam...it's the MEN that are doing bad, not the religion.

Respond to my post above then. Cause I listed plenty of things evil religion does which can only be justified by religion.

[~primetime~]

Respond to my post above then. Cause I listed plenty of things evil religion does which can only be justified by religion.
You can probably pin down some "evil" things attribute it to religious persuasion, I don't want to suggest that the religion itself is without blame. But I do feel like there are many wrong doings in the world where people point the finger at religion when they should be pointing the figure at the actual people.

There are also many "good" instances you pin on organized religion...that is also ignored by many who want to shun religion. Many people who are heavily involved in church spend day after day doing charity work, organizing blood drives, taking in homeless and giving them a new family, etc etc

Also, suicide rates and overall depression rates are generally lower for those of faith vs. atheist...even if it is a false belief it gives some people a reason to live

[zoom17]

No if it isn't religion it would be something else like resources.

[Nowitness]

You can probably pin down some "evil" things attribute it to religious persuasion, I don't want to suggest that the religion itself is without blame. But I do feel like there are many wrong doings in the world where people point the finger at religion when they should be pointing the figure at the actual people.

There are also many "good" instances you pin on organized religion...that is also ignored by many who want to shun religion. Many people who are heavily involved in church spend day after day doing charity work, organizing blood drives, taking in homeless and giving them a new family, etc etc

Also, suicide rates and overall depression rates are generally lower for those of faith vs. atheist...even if it is a false belief it gives some people a reason to live

But again, it drives people to do some good things. As I said anything good done in the name of religion can and has be done by non-believers. I don't see many anti-abortionist who use the bible as a reason adopting crack babies. I give blood, not because I believe in God (cause I don't) but because I like the idea of helping someone. Someone gains whilst I lose nothing.

As for the bottom piece of information I don't know how reliable this is, but I could just say rapist in America are more trusted than Atheists, numbers don't reflect much. Atheist are less likely to believe anything they are told or follow any given order like many religious nuts do (cough Holy War cough).

[Nowitness]

No if it isn't religion it would be something else like resources.

Something that isn't man made. Sure we will still fight, but not over fairytales made up 2,000 years ago.

[~primetime~]

But again, it drives people to do some good things. As I said anything good done in the name of religion can and has be done by non-believers. I don't see many anti-abortionist who use the bible as a reason adopting crack babies. I give blood, not because I believe in God (cause I don't) but because I like the idea of helping someone. Someone gains whilst I lose nothing.

As for the bottom piece of information I don't know how reliable this is, but I could just say rapist in America are more trusted than Atheists, numbers don't reflect much. Atheist are less likely to believe anything they are told or follow any given order like many religious nuts do (cough Holy War cough).
wars, slavery, etc can happen WITHOUT religion too...that's why I'm saying for the most part at the heart of "good" and "bad" is the human, not the religion

idk wtf you are talking about with "rapists are more trusted..."

[Nowitness]

wars, slavery, etc can happen WITHOUT religion too...that's why I'm saying for the most part at the heart of "good" and "bad" is the human, not the religion

idk wtf you are talking about with "rapists are more trusted..."

I Minnesota study asked people who their least trusted minority was. More say Atheists than rapist, hell more said the same when asked which minority totally disagrees with your view on American society.

AKA I don't really care what religious people say after results like that (and 40/50% still believing in creationism).

And I acknowledge they can and do, but in those cases their is nothing to justify them unlike religious slavery where the defense is :drumroll:

THE BIBLE SAYS SO.

[oh the horror]

People can deny it all they'd like but there are spiritual elements to life.

Hell, some of the greatest scientific minds came to that conclusion on their own without a church.


Would the world be better? I don't know...humans are the cause for wrong doings. Blaming religion is like blaming a gun when someone gets shot.

[Timmy D for MVP]

No.

In my personal assessment I see no real difference between a world that grew with religion, and a world that grew without.

In fact I think in a world without religion as we know it, there would be some facsimile. Maybe instead of based in faith it's based in tribalism and would evolve to nationalism. Maybe politics. Etc. I think we would be drawn together into a similar aspect of society, and that would reach a proportion similar to what religion is now.

Something would take that place because that's the way we seem to work. And even if it was something provable like Math of Science we would still find ways to disagree and push it to radical levels.

[sammichoffate]

People can deny it all they'd like but there are spiritual elements to life.

Hell, some of the greatest scientific minds came to that conclusion on their own without a church.


Would the world be better? I don't know...humans are the cause for wrong doings. Blaming religion is like blaming a gun when someone gets shot.Exactly, religion is the tool that causes someone to get hurt because they don't believe in whatever nonsense someone else wants them to believe. However, I do think that it it shouldn't exist in the first place. Certain events that happen just have no explanation sometimes, and religion is important distinguishing societies from each other. It can also unify people under one scope, that's how Yugoslavia was able to leave the Soviet Union even if they ended up going through even more hell in the 90s.

[stalkerforlife]

No.

If I didn't fear God, I would kill a lot of people and then myself.

[Josh]

I could see both sides to a YES or NO answer regarding religion specifically. Spirituality however, then obviously the answer is NO. Humanity without spirituality is like life without complexity. To put it to you in another way; would the universe have a point, a need, a significance or serve any real purpose if there weren't us (complex life) there to behold it?

[MadeFromDust]

No, it would be something like Escape From New York

[MJistheGOAT]

Yes, I think that a world based in universal positive values, stimulating free thinking, science, logical explanations and specially TOLERANCE should be a better world.

I dont consider the extreme atheism to be the correct option, believe in nothing but men is a self centered and simplistic way to explain life and its meaning.

Spirituality MUST exist and it

[masonanddixon]

Of course the world would be better without religion.

You have to understand that religion replaced mysticism, which was the highest form of human contemplation and awareness. We have been living on/shackled by a regressing intellectual plane now for over 2000 years

[That_Admiral]

No.

[tomtucker]

new nsfw video shows how great islam is : just google search this link :

.
http://******.com/theporkmonger/islamic-state-kill-many-muslims-and-throw-some-in-the-river.htm

[GimmeThat]

of course the world would be a better place if people didn't worship one book over another and they decided to read books and treat books as books.

[NumberSix]

People may not like this line of thinking, but honestly.......

Most of the sheep need to be herded.

[tomtucker]

http://www.barenakedislam.com/2013/05/17/more-muslim-animal-abuse-setting-a-donkey-on-fire-for-fun/
..
wish we could rid the earth of those devils !