does anyone else believe that the world would be a better place without religion

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   jamhot32posted 14 years ago

   does anyone else believe that the world would be a better place without religion?

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   dabeanerposted 14 years ago

   Yes, but it will never happen.  The sheep-like genetics that led to creation and belief in religions will prevent eliminating it.  Sheep will always follow charismatic leaders (shepherds) even as they go off the cliff like lemmings.

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   Theophanyposted 14 years ago

   People do evil because people are evil, including you and I. We all contribute to the problem. If it's not religion, it's just going to be something else anyway. You're not looking at the root of the problem. The root of the problem is us.

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   Jessie Jatzposted 14 years ago

   My ethos is to be wary of absolutes - but perhaps that is an absolute in itself? You are right about our tendency to evil, greed and weakness. It is no new fact, that human by nature are not perfect. This can be cheered on by religion, but what would the world be like without it? I wonder... All I try to do, is act against these moments and reflect positive choices. Where is that rippleeffect blog?
   
   Have you seen, "The Yes Men Fix The World"?  - There is a scene where they publish a hoax New York Times where all the world's troubles had been solved. People were elated - stopping in the middle of the road, and it is in those moments true happiness erupted.  However superficial. 
   
   Sorry - I think cut out the bad effect that religion has on us and leave the good - IE Do good for your neighbour. Give. You know the tune. But if it were gone altogether - we would as dabenear said 'be lemmings'.

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   GNelsonposted 14 years ago

   The world would be a better without some of the things done in the name of religion.

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   LetusPonderposted 14 years ago

   Let's consider the absolute to your question, would the world would be a better place without religion?  An assumption must be made, however.  The assumption being that "religion" refers to organized religion as opposed to people's inherent spirituality (belief in a higher power, fascination with the unknown, the inner voice of good vs bad, etc.).
   
   So, what would this world be like with no organized religion?  I think it would be worse off even with the fact that most every war, most every major atrocity throughout history can be attributed to religion either directly or indirectly.  The problem WITHOUT religion is that, unfortunately, human nature on the whole consists of people who need some sort of guidance, some sort of direction, some sort of way to relate to others.  It's quite possible that people NEED that guilt, they need to be reminded that God is watching their every move and if they're bad they're going to hell.  Otherwise, there would be many people, those more inclined to be of the lemming nature, who would gravitate to having no moral compass.
   
   Churches, some more than others - Mormons probably the most, donate time and money to those in need.  They help influence people to really care (through public prayer requests).  They bring people together as they ponder life's bigger questions (even though religion never gets to the true heart of the matter).
   
   Despite its shortcomings, religion for the most part inspires a lot people to be better people - and if not, to at least STRIVE to be better people.

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   nochanceposted 14 years ago

   Actually the world would be much worse off and anarchy would prevail. Religion tells most people what is right and wrong and without it people would do whatever they wanted without fear of consequence. Religion also gives people reasons to be nice to each other.

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   jcmmanuelposted 14 years ago

   Of course 'anyone else' does. Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett, Richard Dawkins, Pat Condell, Christopher Hitchins etc. (the 'new atheists' for short) demonstrate this kind of belief. For some reason they have no sense of history, or - as Hitchens does - they cherry-pick errors from the big pool of people who lived before them - most of them all 'religious' in one way or another and they compile it in a book God Is Not Great. They believe this is the way forward for mankind, and even many atheists including top-scientists (Stuart A. Kauffman, Daniel J. Fairbanks,...) have rejected their views. These views are only valid in a conflict-based worldview, which is a philosophic oxymoron. We also use to call this kind of approach 'subtraction stories' - casting off the shackles of religion on our way to perfection... It is all in the rhetoric. Reality however is not made of this stuff. Atheists could also look to Europe's most influential atheist if they want: Jurgen Habermas - who talked with the pope and wrote a book about it. Surprisingly good. This is substantial progress, not just some kind of negationism with regard to everything that could be called 'religious'. (We cannot even properly define what religion exactly is - but some decided they can reject it - oh well...)

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