Where would the world be right now if religion never existed?

[sapphi_snake]

Hephaestos said:

Religion has always been a way to educate the masses with the authority of a higher power, one they could not refuse.

This education may have been limited, but such things as don't eat pork, be nice to your neighboor, don't kill have all been religious principles that in effect prevented desease, social unrest and made people more respectfull of law.

An other evolution with this education was to teach people how to read, and the spread of common languages, religion is one of the main reasons for why half of europe speaks latin languages... the bible was only in latin in those parts. More recently, the coran that "should" not be translated... a big reason for the spread of the arabic language.

Now this education is also on the moral values and ethics... you'll see mainly the importance of familly being put forward and helping the poor. Both of this aim to better the overall society.

 

Without religion, we would be in a society where people would just as well put lead paint on kids toys, created contaminated milk powder, put people into jails whenever they don't agree with the governement.... Oh wait, that's China... a country where ethical values have been lost.

This education may have been limited, but such things as don't eat pork, be nice to your neighboor, don't kill have all been religious principles that in effect prevented desease, social unrest and made people more respectfull of law.

Don't Kill is an universal principle found in every culture, and has little to do with religion. However all cultures treat this principle in a relative manner (murder is illegal in every country, but lots of countries practice capital punishment, which is also killing).

An other evolution with this education was to teach people how to read,

Reading only became widespread after the Protestant reformation, when there was an emphasis on individuality and people reading the Bible for themselves.Learning was reserved for the Church elites.

and the spread of common languages, religion is one of the main reasons for why half of europe speaks latin languages... the bible was only in latin in those parts.

You obviously know nothing about how European languages were formed. Like I said European masses started learning how to read only after the Protestant Reformation. Current European languages already exted by that time, so the fact that the Bible was in latin had nothing to do with it (countries that speak germanic languages like English also had the Bible written in Latin up until they became protestant). The reason why half of Europe speaks neo-latin languages is because those territories were under the occupation of the Roman Empire, whose official language was latin.

Here more info on how these languages were formed: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romance_languages#Uniformization_and_standardization

Also in my country (Romania), people speak a neo-latin language (Romanian) and the Bible was never available in Latin over here, but in Greek and later in slavic. Yet we still speak a neo-latin language. Check the link to find out how.

Without religion, we would be in a society where people would just as well put lead paint on kids toys, created contaminated milk powder, put people into jails whenever they don't agree with the governement.... Oh wait, that's China... a country where ethical values have been lost.

But religious countries where religion and the state are interwined always punish those who disagree with the government (which coincides with the religious authority). The most religious countries in the world, the Islamic countries, are exactly the countries where one is very likely to be placed in jail for disagreeing with the government (which coincides with the religious authority). Things were the same in religious Medieval Europe (the Inquisition, witch burnings).