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Forums - Politics Discussion - Can you imagine a world without any religion?

Ka-pi96 said:
archer9234 said:

We'd have more land available. Since churches would be less. And mainly become Wedding places etc. At the very least.

Not just churches, cemetaries too! No land wasted on dead people who could just be turned to ash.

Not really. Just like weddings. These things would evolve without churchs. They just be traditions. I'd say Cemetaries would stay. Just less crosses. I do agree, it be less. People would probably have their dead, on their property more often.



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A world without religion wouldn't work.

Using the religion as a reason to start a war is only an excuse by human. And if there were no religion people would find new excuses to start a war. War has nothing to do with religion (I am talking about Christianity).

Furthermore there would be no values and standards in a world without religion. You could do everything you want in a world without religion because you have nothing to regret (for instance killing or stealing).



In general, other forms of dogma and tribalism would emerge. Like communism. It's part of human nature.

You need very strict constaints on society to stop these things arising. For one, you need an incredibly individualistic culture. The best you can do is try and minimize their bad effects. I think most Europeans know vaguely what that looks like. Most of the bad effects of Christianity had been mostly muffled in Europe over the last 100 years. And then along came Islam...



Dulfite said:
AbbathTheGrim said:

Then your god is created because it couldn't come out of nothing.

I figured someone would throw this out there. I don't agree with that (as I believe God always existed), but regardless it doesn't negate my point. Even with the confusion and incomprehensibleness of an eternal God, it still makes the creation of everything more of a sensible thing than it would have been had it come from nothing.

If you believe your god is protected by the argument that it has always existed then there is no argument against the idea that the forces of nature that made the universe and eventually life have always existed as well.

The quest for truth is being directed by considering what is possible through evidence that everyone can corroborate with the scientific method and not by what is believed and considered more sensible by a creature habitating a mere speck of dust in the vastness of the Universe.



Nintendo is selling their IPs to Microsoft and this is true because:

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread.php?id=221391&page=1

Qwark said:
StarOcean said:

This. Those who believe world issues and wars would not exist are kidding themselves. Humans would displace them upon different things

We would be more honest about our motives though, so that's a win. And we wouldn't have to deal with the stupid ideals of religion which anyone lacks to follow, especially considering the religion of peace.

I doubt that. People are dishonest about their motives with or without religion. Same goes for ideals. I mean, hell you could apply the same thing to politics. They work the same way, dishonest motives and ideals that people fight about if you don't belong to a specific party. That sort of stuff would merely be displaced. Probably put into politics to be honest 



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kodeindahjunk said:

You are not thinking rationally here. Religions exist because there are questions we will never know the answers.

How did time and space start?
Did time and space have a beginning?
Or does time and space have no beginning and no end?
Do parallel universes exist?
etc..

There are only theories to answer these questions.
and the one question that creates religions:

What is going to happen after we die?

Now, have you ever asked yourself that last question? What is going to happen to me when i die? I have no doubt that anyone with a conscious mind have asked and will ask themselves that question. Religions offer an answer to that question. Some people choose to believe in religions and some don't. That's how it is, that is life.

I do believe that humans will create religions even if you destroy all evidences of all religions.

Yes, religions come with problems. But thinking of a world without religions is like you saying "I wish my clothes are not on fire" when your clothes are actually on fire!! It doesn't solve anything.

I think everyone underestimates how much would be cleaned up in today's world without religion.  More people of today are actually ok with not knowing everything, because many of us are always learning and understand the concept of there's always more to learn.

More traditional people may not be so traditional after all.  They may show signs of progression because religion tends to create a strong traditionalist mindset, rather than a progressive learning one.  Those people may end up getting better jobs and lifestyles; plus making more thought out choices.

Going off of this, if we say didn't have religion at this point just overnight I think the world would be much better off.  Dogma is the thing that religion creates in people's minds with its own set rules to try and live by, otherwise you'll be punished.  A lot of those specified rules were created to try and live by what people imagined a god's will would be though...not a persons.  There are distortions of fear and anger thrown in with how people came up with these ideologies back then.  We have more information as well as technology to receive said information faster to make up our own minds.



Lube Me Up

Dulfite said:
the-pi-guy said:

Socialism is not the issue, regardless of your definition of "socialism".  

Racism, and all the other issues can come out of people regardless of whether socialism is part of it or not.  

Except God doesn't come from religion.  Religion comes from God.  

Even if I don't believe in you, that doesn't mean you cease to exist.  Suppose for whatever reason, that God didn't reveal himself to man, and we developed without knowing anything about God.  What would that world look like?

Well, that's an interesting question and perspective! I am a Christian and God has time and time again revealed HIMSELF to show HIS deep love for us, but I suppose if HE didn't do that, and we didn't know him at all, and therefore nobody had any kind of religion, that the world would be in chaos. What is the point to adhearing to any ethical or moral code if there is no life after death? If there are no eternal consequences, what is the point of anything?

The point is that there are other people.  I can safely assume that the other people are very much like me.  They feel good when they are loved, angry when they are wronged, sad when they experience loss, etc.  From this basis, I can empathize with other human beings.  Having experienced hurt and pain, I wouldn't wish it on anyone else, and try to avoid causing it in so much as possible.  When I do cause others pain, I regret it.  Not because I'm after some sort of reward, but because I know how it feels. 

If you're only doing something because you believe god is telling you to, then you are neither moral nor ethical.  You are a trained puppy who is doing tricks to earn rewards or avoid punishment.  This is not morality, this is obedience.  Morality requires thoughtful examination of your actions and how they influence others.  "I shouldn't do this because a book told me not to" is not an example of morality.

Frankly, this kind of view is horrifying.  People keep saying that if we eliminate religion there will be other random reasons for wars, but I don't think that's true.  Religion is special because of its demand for obedience.  Once you truly believe that a god will grant you eternal life for doing what he wants, then that opens the door for other people to manipulate you.  If someone convinces you that they know what god wants better than you, and that god wants you to blow yourself up in a nightclub, then you'd do it.  That's why religion is dangerous.  

Dr.Vita said:

A world without religion wouldn't work.

Using the religion as a reason to start a war is only an excuse by human. And if there were no religion people would find new excuses to start a war. War has nothing to do with religion (I am talking about Christianity).

Furthermore there would be no values and standards in a world without religion. You could do everything you want in a world without religion because you have nothing to regret (for instance killing or stealing).

The thing is, most people don't want to start wars.  Most people want to live their lives, have food to eat, people they care about, and so on.  Most people don't want to get shot or maimed.

The people who stand to benefit from wars need some reason to convince otherwise decent people to kill eachother for no personal gain.  One of the most effective tools of manipulating people to fight for you is convincing them that the god they've been taught is infallible wants them to.  Taking away this tool wouldn't stop wars entirely (we still have nationalism after all), but it would greatly reduce the abilities of war mongers.  There is a good reason that religion is used so often to incite violence instead of other methods.  Because it's really fucking effective.

If you think that you could do whatever you want in a world without religion, I am honestly horrified.  Far more fucked up and disturbing is the fact that you included killing in the category of "everything you want".  I don't believe in god.  I've killed every person I've wanted to kill.  That happens to be 0 people.  Because I am capable of compassion, empathy, and respect.  If that's not enough reason not to kill somebody, then that's really fucked up.

And just for the record, violent crimes are far less prevalent in secular countries, and even in more secular states in the US.  Atheists are severely underrepresented in prison.



One of the barriers that separates people would be gone.

So the most important difference would be accelerated globalism.



I LOVE ICELAND!

It would be a much better world with less stupid wars that are fought because of religions.



Uabit said:
It would be a much better world with less stupid wars that are fought because of religions.

No, it would be wars fought for even dumber reasons.

Think of the Trojan War fought over one woman.

Imagine wars being fought over Justin Beiber.

People would just replace religion with something else. Heck even Aethiest today replace religion with other things, such as say being vegan or something. If you don't think some vegans go around preaching as bad as any religious nut does, then your not paying attention.

With no religion we may have a war of vegans for meat eaters. The vegans wanting to make the world a better place, or somethign.

ECT. Getting rid of religion would just substitute what the fighting is about.