Russia rejected a religion that had kept them in the dark ages and turned towards a particularly brutal and oppressive form of institutional atheism, and look how that turned out. I would say things got worse for the world as a result. And the cultural revolution was pretty bloody shitty for a lot of people in China, because of the same brand of institutionalised atheism.

So it is by no means a foregone conclusion that removing religion from the social equation would make things better, or even no worse. At least the fundamentals of religion, including Islam, exhort people to a virtuous life. Lots of other ideologies are devoid of those fundamentals and in some cases only selfishness and greed lie at their core. For religion to be harmful it needsd to be actively corrupted by those hungry for power. For some other philosophies there is no need for someone to find a way to corrupt it, because it is already corrupt.

A very good point by Sam Harris. No religion or ideology should ever be illegal, rational thinking, I hope, will grow though on the expense of religion.

Agree 100%.  I may not like how the tenets of faith have been used for the purposes of great harm and evil, but forcing people to abandon those beliefs isn't the appropriate course of action.

Technically speaking nobody is a true athiest, because being a true atheiest means that you know for a fact that a higher power dne which is in impossible. since it cannot be proven nor unproven.

Religion won't ever be illegal in the U.S. Decline in popularity, sure, but outsright illegal, no.

Literally, everything has, singling out religion just because its an easy target is the action of a simpleton who understands nothing.

There is nothing about Religion that contradicts rational thinking.

Got to page two before the expected "let's hope it becomes illegal!!!" "it sadly won't happen" and "religious people are irrational/brainwashed/poopyheads" nonsense showed up.

Anyways, once any belief like the OP is talking about becomes illegal in the way OP is talking about I'll be certain the world has finally become like one of the dystopian societies in science fiction novels.

Something drastic would have to happen to completely forego the Bill of Rights to make it illegal.

I pray that never happens in the US (in my lifetime at least).

They are hurting me.  I can't buy beer till noon on Sundays and liquor stores are closed on Sundays... 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_law

"Many states prohibit selling alcohol for on and off-premise sales in one form or another on Sundays at some restricted time, under the idea that people should be in church on Sunday morning, or at least not drinking."

"Another feature of blue laws in the United States restricts the purchase of particular items on Sundays. Some of these laws restrict the ability to buy cars, groceries, office supplies, and housewares among other things. Though most of these laws have been relaxed or repealed in most states, they are still enforced in some other states."

"Blue laws may also prohibit retail activity on days other than Sunday. In Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Maine (which was previously part of Massachusetts),[8] for example, blue laws dating to the Puritans of the 17th century still prohibit most retail stores, including grocery stores, from opening on Thanksgiving and Christmas."

Once again I get to say fuck the puritans in this thread.

Moderated,

-Mr Khan