Do you think the wolrd would be a better place without religion? I am talking overall. Since the beginning of time we have had religion most of which say there is a God and he will punish you for eternity in a fire if you do things like lie, cheat or steal. That fear does scare the majority of people into not committing heinous crimes, but then again one could argue many wars were based on religion which more than makes up for the lives it has saved. Please do not turn this into an atheism or a thread about Islam. There are other threads you can post in if that's what feel like discussing.
Please don't talk about atheism in a thread about whether or not religion is an anchor on humanity? Good luck with that.
Committing sins like killing and stealing....i dont know. When i walk outside random people with pamphlets, guys that knock on your door. They exist man.
So you're asking if there would be more or less violent crime without religion? I say there would be the same amount. People who do that are going to do it regardless; if not for religious reasons, then because of politics or land or race or lifestyle or money or nation/tribal loyalties or anything else. ****ty people will find a way to be ****ty.
This is not a very hard concept to understand. Much like those who think legalizing mar1juana will stop the cartels.
How do you measure whether religion is a good thing or not if you can't compare it to the alternatives? I personally don't care if God exists or not - it wouldn't change how I behave or how I view this world either way. But I think a lot of people are far too glib about religion and the consequences of eroding it. A collective ethic as powerful as religion possesses value in and of itself, regardless of how much good or bad it does.
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No because if you think god doesn't exist, there's an obvious net social negative to having large chunks of societal resources siphoned off in pursuit of a fiction.
We find ourselves as sentient beings on a planet founded on the evolutionary basis of kill or be killed; beset with unanswerable questions, unjustifiable horrors and a certain end. There is no sanity to be found in an insane world, just varying coping strategies and degrees of denial . But have a nice day
If Jesus is truly the Son of God, the world is probably a better place with Christianity in it. If Allah is the one true god and Muhammed his prophet, the world is probably better off with Islam in it. And so on. I think it's not so clear if we're better off without religion if there is no God. We might actually be better off deceiving ourselves in that scenario. It seems the implicit assumption here, though, is that there is no God, and you're asking from that starting point if religion is worth having given that there's no God. You also assume utilitarianism -- that the world is a better place if you have the most good for the most number of people. Pretty sensible in a secular framework, but not so much for people who actually believe in God. If there is a god, truth likely trumps utilitarianism. I point all this out because I don't think it's possible to have a fruitful conversation if people are starting on different axioms. And finally, to say most people are not committing heinous crimes because they are afraid of god isn't true and isn't a very sophisticated understanding of religious faith. But, to speak to the point: assuming there is no God, I don't think (1) it's possible for people to not have religion, and (2) it wouldn't be better anyway. The problem is not that religions are evil -- it's that people are evil.
Scaring people to behave never works longterm.. In our universal future ppl will understand inherent spirituality and find new ever evolving common ground
I believe they are all mythos, but not all are bad, and some are a lot worse than others due to their inflexibility and myth that it came straight from God. DD
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Not all religiosts are fundamentalists. I don't see why atheists and such cannot enjoy the morality of religious teachings. Certainly most people ignore the mysticism and spirituality in order to separate fact from fiction.
"Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion." - Steven Weinberg
Religion is a trascendental, beautiful thing when seen with a certain light. I believe as the centuries have progressed, we've seen less and less repressive and savage acts from most all religions because of the availability of information growing up and kids who are able to think for themselves. People don't live and die by the book anymore - I don't and no one in my congregation does either. Let's be honest, Islam is the only one that has not been able to adapt and will not be able to unless it concedes that life in the 21st century is different than 2 millennia ago. Not enough intelligent people on their side with a social or moral compass to make a change.
