Is the world better off without religion?

Seems to me so many wars throughout history and even in the modern day are caused by religious factions and\or differing religions, Religion can have a negative impact on people's lives also, having to live your life a certain way etc..

On the other hand.. Many people find solace in religion as it helps them lead a pure life, Religion also helps many people re-direct their lives after set backs and also brings communities together....

Votes and Opinions welcome

 

What is religion? That can mean different things to different people.

 

Religion: The belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods.

 

I don't think religion in and of itself is the problem. Organized religion is what causes most of the problems.

Many people will say they are spiritual but not religious.

 

Religious extremists are not positive in our world. But peace-loving folks, no matter what god they pray to, aren't the problem. Those who believe they have not only a right to oppress or even kill unbelievers, they are truly dangerous. I think many secular folks today equate hearing the Gospel message with having the beliefs of others forced upon them.
Christ told His followers to carry His message to others but He never said to try to force it on ANYONE. Much to the contrary, he told them that if a town rebuked or rejected His message that the Disciples should shake the dust off their sandals as they left that town.

 

I voted "No" even if I would have chosen a "No but'.

A lot of problems associated to religion, are deeper problem. During the first half of the 20th century where the power of religion was seriously weakened, people killed each other over petty nationalistic pride or political ideologies such nazism or communism. Today the political tensions in USA aren't that much caused over religion even if right wing tend to be more religious.

The problem that are associated to religion, are often deeper, human troubles, such dogmatism, pride, fear. If religion disappeared, some problems associated with it would reappear in another manner.

Where is the "but" ? Would it be positive that a part of mankind cease to live in the constant terror of hell for the smallest mistake ? Would be the world better with some problems caused by the dogmatism caused by some religions ? I do think so.

 

I have less of an issue with Religion itself but instead of what the ardent militant followers of Religion do in their twisted view of that religion such as murder, terrorism, subjugation / disenfranchisement of entire minority groups, forcing religious views into laws, giving religious persons special rights.

Religion isn’t necessarily bad and has many good aspects, extremism and being able to force religion unto others is the problem.
The question is, can you have one without the other?

 

Religion is bollocks... unless it's the right (i.e. my) religion.

 

Religion is a necessary, man made product, intended to keep the sheep in line. Without religion and 'fear of god' things would really go out of control.

 

Religion is the product of dysfunctional societies, the answer is for better societies like those in western Europe and others. When society provides the safety net religion becomes unnecessary.

 

With the exception of natural causes and disease, more people have been killed in the name of religion than any other cause...

 

Also, without religion, we would be something like 1,500 years ahead in science and technology...

 

"We pray for God to destroy our enemies. Our enemies pray for God to destroy us. Somebody is wasting their time. Could it be...….everyone?" - George Carlin

 

Ther world would be a million times better without ANY religion of any kind.

Chrisitans have killed more people than any other sect of people in the history of the world.

 

No. Religion provides a motivation to be moral. That is not to say it is always effective but it is at least a motivation. It benefits society for that reason.

 

I think faith and spirituality are fine things. But, sadly, the religions that inspire these things are like any organization - they are open to corruption and radicalization. We see it in all religions. So if we could remove the 'organization' aspect and leave people to pray and exercise their faith on their own, I believe we would be better off the world over.

 

That's somehow debatable.
First, it would require to determine the actual number of death we could consider as christian death, some occupy a vast part in collective imagination, but for instance witch hunt caused hundred of death, which isn't that much compared to many other death count, for instance the one because of totalitarian government. To that there is two problems : what we agree as death caused by christianity, and to manage to determine how many actual death happened because of christianity. Some things would be hard because it would be difficult to do a death toll, for crusades for instance (and we could debate of the legimacy of crusades when christian were themselves constantly raided by muslims).
To that we could add that some death weren't caused in a willing manner : many native american died because of the harsh treatments of conquistadors, but many died because they couldn't resist the new sickness the new comers weren't aware to bring.


Also, that's ignoring large amount of death we have huge difficulties to determine : we could take as an example of the conquest of India by muslims that likely caused dozen of millions of death. However managing to get a precise death toll would be hard to get.

We're also rarely giving attention to some wars that happened in China that caused more death than WW1.

Basically, what you pretend may not be impossible, but that's also potentially a completely western centered view of the world.

 

Until fairly recently, religion was about the only method mankind had for exploring the most intriguing and difficult studies in our lives.

Where, what, when, why, and from whom or what did all THIS come from... and, how long is it going to last...(?).

So far, to everyone except dyed-the-wool atheists, the concept of God has stood up quite well.

 

It really hasn’t. God has ranged from emperors all the way to natural phenomenon, from singular to plural, they simply take pieces of one another and reinvent it.

The only thing that has proven constant is that with scientific understanding (or the collapse of a civilization) god is proven false.

There may be some devine being(s) but a book written by man, edited by kings then transcribed into languages where words have had to be substituted if not outright forged surely is not representative of it. I would wager we would be unable to even comprehend the idea of what that would be.

People that claim their religion is the only correct one and that they understand it are nothing short of arrogant.

 

I had to think about this for a few moments because this is not such an easy question.

I went with No... but I admit that I was somewhat conflicted.


https://www.near-death.com/experiences/exceptional/mellen-thomas-benedict.html#a09

An online contact of mine through a Richard Dawkins Ph. D. group told me a few years ago that my beliefs on "God evolving" or learning over infinite time in the past and Adam and Eve being created..... or invented... was technically a genuine branch of "Atheism" by definition.


www.CarbonBias.blogspot.ca/

Ezekiel chapter forty seven is technically the application of religion.... and the benefits to all nations in the Middle East will be astonishing when all that is behind Ezekiel chapters forty to forty six comes to pass.


This will take place though during a time in a massive transition in human spirituality and religious belief.

http://www.thomastwin.com/7 A Thomas samples.html

 

But I didn't espouse anyone's religion... I think you pounced too soon.... The concept of God does not depend (DEPEND) on that of "religion".

In my subjective view, it has much more to do with a power that has been developing an evolutionary continuum for billions of "years" on this planet --and doing so intelligently!

It's as much about "life WITHIN life" as it is in "life after death".

 

Its not a yes/no answer. Religion is irrelevant when someone acts to help or harm others. Overall, it is not religion, but those who use ti control others that is a burden on society.

 

The scariest thing (currently) about religion in first world nations IMO is that they believe Earth and this life are only temporary until they can go to their paradise in the sky. I believe that is why so many religious people care so little for this planet in regards to pollution and environmental concerns because this is only a pit stop.

That they also want to force their views on the unwilling through twisted interpretations of their religious texts still perplexes me though.

 

Come on, we all know God was just an ancient alien.

 

The biggest problem I think is that religion destroys humility. It claims to reveal divine and absolute knowledge. And once revealed, to deny this "knowledge" means certain damnation. So the ability to question beliefs becomes synonymous with lacking faith. This in turn results in extreme beliefs because they believe their truths are absolute and the word of God.

Religion itself tells you that you must be an ardent militant follower of religion. Those whose faith is lukewarm will be vomited out of God's mouth.

So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of my mouth.
Revelation 3:16

It is a logical trap from which there is no escape if you chose to have faith. And without faith there is no salvation. I was raised Catholic and struggled with this for decades. I had to put a gun to my head intending to pull the trigger, before I finally escaped my Catholicism for good.