The World Without Religion?
6 posts in this topic.
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The title mostly says it all. Basically, these are just two questions I've been thinking about for the past couple of days, and I'd like to hear your thoughts about the topic. Firstly, could the people of the world be able to coexist without having any form of a religious system, and, secondly, even if they could, would they be willing to live in a world without a religious system? Once again, I'm interested in hearing your thoughts.
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Honestly, for me it really depends on the era you're living in. I know this is an unpopular opinion, but I'll say it anyway because it's the internet; I don't think religion is that bad. It's bullshit most of the time, but from how I look at it (and take this with a bucket load of salt, as I have no credentials to prove I'm right and honestly this is just me going all out), religion to me is what we as a society want/wanted to be. God is a mirror of our virtues and what we wish to be, while the Devil is everything we'd rather repress. I think you can learn a lot about a society just by looking at its belief system, and that labels like Christian or atheist or Muslim or Hindu can say a lot about yourself whether you realize it or not.
With that said, though, your first question confuses me: "Could the people of the world be able to coexist without a religious system?" What do you mean by that? Do you mean that without religion people won't see other people as people and end up killing each other? Because, if so, I'd say that no, you don't need to believe in a God for that sort of thing, but I suppose back in the day convincing people not to kill each other needed it. I wonder how the people back then looked at "human rights"; if they really did believe such a thing existed but only through the eyes of God or if they're too selfish to care about other people's well beings, or a mix of both. Either way, I don't think it was necessary, but it happened and it was effective in building our first ideals.
The second question is clear enough, and the answer for me is also clear; not yet. Probably never, really. I say this living in a moderately religious country, but not everybody likes to think of themselves as dustmotes in the space of the universe. Not everybody likes to think of themselves as being any less important as the planets or the moon or anything. Human beings have always been a little egocentric, but that doesn't mean they're jerks, it just means they're trying to find a purpose for themselves--they don't want to be left with an empty gap and a hollow "maybe". Someone out there will always try to find the meaning in their existence, someone out there will always wander the cosmos looking for something to believe in, because that's just how we roll. So no, I don't think we can expect god to be entirely dismissed anytime soon. However, I will say that our old school way of looking at religion is slowly dying and being replaced by a very open understanding of others, and I really like that, I hope it continues on its road (and yes I'm aware things like ISIS exists but hey, I'll take what I have).
But again that's really subjective and I actually have no idea how other people will react to that, so yeah. Sorry. -
Pardon me, putting on my anthropologist's hat...
Religion is a sociological construct that actually serves an incredibly important purpose. It provides humans with:
- A mental safety net ("If I do good, I'll be rewarded. If I do bad, I have these ways of fixing it") that meant they were more likely to take risks
- A sense of control over their environment (see above+ add on "Things will go better for me if I do x")
- Social gatherings to draw people together
- Holidays and designated break times
- Stories to tell
Not to mention religious laws can have extremely logical reasons behind them. For example: in Hinduism, cows are sacred and cannot be eaten. This is because cows provide oxen (main farm animal), cooking fuel that's more effective than wood (dried dung), floor polish (dung, again, but it's a smooth surface instead of dirt floors), and milk. By having cows owned by the temple and not killed, anyone can reap the rewards of the animals and society runs much more smoothly.
Yes it's all based around something you can't prove and the mythology grows from practical reasons to supernatural reasons— humans are storytellers, after all— but that doesn't mean the religious rules serve no point. At one time in history they did, and that reason can still exist.
So it's not so much "would humans get along better if there was no religion" as it is "would humans even survive without religion. The answer is by and large no.
If you want a straight up answer to your question, no. People wouldn't be able to coexist without religion. Religion is not the only source of evil out there, and religion itself is a neutral force. Whether or not your religion is violent depends on whether or not you as a person are violent. Yes, religion can give people an excuse... but so can any social system on the planet.
Religion is a neutral to positive thing in human society. It really shouldn't be a scapegoat for why humans lash out at each other. -
The point of this topic was never to ask "would humans get along better if there was no religion?" I never intended nor implied that I was shedding a negative light on any form of a religious system, nor am I using it as an excuse to explain conflicts, violence, and tension among people. I probably could've worded my original questions better (yes, the more I look at them, the more I realized I wrote absolute rubbish; I apologize for this profusely), but I had no intention to bash on religion. I am actually quite fine with religion and religious belief systems. Sure, there are a few things that I dislike about them, but I also respect religions for what they have done and how they contribute to the human race, as you point out, Rosendorn. I was simply asking whether or not people could survive and cooperate without a religious system. That doesn't mean, in any way, that I think that religion is bad for society; rather, by askin these questions, I am trying to understand the importance of religion in society, and how instrumental it is to our daily lives. And, as indicated by the well-constructed arguments above, religion is important, if not essential, in society. Once again, I'm sorry for having worded my questions as poorly as I did, and I'm sorry for any inconvenience/anger/confusion that I may have caused with these questions.
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Hm, well. I would like to offer a bit of insight on this. The people that are very religious, although may be on the edge of being demented, are less likely to commit crime because they think they will go to Hell. If there was no religion, I think more people would be "sinning" because they wouldn't be suffering after death as it is known to them. But hey, at least religion has one positive outcome. Also, people may be more fake than they really are and act kind when they are actually hiding some bad things that they are doing, but still go to church on Sunday. At least these people also fear expressing whatever negative things they are doing in their public life.
To sum it up, there will be less people "sinning" and less people going out and committing crimes in fear of punishment besides in the material world. -
Ah, I guess I misinterpreted the question. But that would be an effect on people if there was no religion. I think people in general need to feel they are protected from somewhere else besides the material world so they desire religion for that. So even if there was no religion I am sure someone would come up with something or another.
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