A World without relgion:

Neewbie_noob

Imagine a world without religion, would it be a better or worse place?

Sorry mods if this has been done already, feel free to move to Atheism thread, but I don't want it there or in the religion thread, because I want to get an equal scope from both believers and non believers.

In childhood, (especially my fathers) we were told about burning in Hell for sins and that God is watching us all the time, in my opinion this constitutes psychological torture. People who believe in religion are very often pushing their beliefs on others who don't such as anti-abortion laws and even the restriction of things like IVF in Ireland.

Religion and the Catholic Church has had a strangle hold on affairs in Ireland and indeed throughout the World.

Do you think we would be much more technologically advanced than we are now were it not for the Church and organised religion in general?

PLEASE keep this a civilized thread

franktheplank

There'd be no Father Ted.

Just Sayin

Max Power

How many fathers you got?

kfallon

And the day was going so well.......

phasers

Well we wouldn't have had the Dark Ages so in theory we'd be several hundred years more advanced

Celly Smunt

Other

you need a balance,religion keeps the lunatics occupied.

CianRyan

I am unsure about God's existence and don't like Religion

I'm not religious, infact I hate religion.
It teaches hate, intolerable and forces people to feel worthless infront of their leaders.
Without religion there would be no holy wars yet people would still be "moral" in the sense that we can be nice to each other and love each other, no matter where we're from or what we look like.

I won't attack anyone for being religious and I won't push my beliefs on anyone who's religious, unfortunately the same can't be said in reverse.

Zamboni

atari jaguar

Archeron

Imagine a world without calgon. Washing machines live longer with calgon.

im invisible

you may say i'm a dreamer

Death and Taxes

I am unsure about God's existence and don't like Religion

Archeron wrote: »

Imagine a world without calgon. Washing machines live longer with calgon.

Yea, but does it turn water into wine?

Riddle101

I am unsure about God's existence and like religion

phasers wrote: »

Well we wouldn't have had the Dark Ages so in theory we'd be several hundred years more advanced

Agreed, think about the scientific studies that were done in the past that were denounced by the church, or put down because they believe it went against god.

Also there would be a lot less wars as well. The Crusades would probably never have happened, a lot of tension between Israel and Palestine stems from a dispute over land. Palestine believes a certain patch of land(can't remember what it's called) is their land, but Israelis have built on it claiming it as their own, saying it was given to them from god.

DrumSteve

In a world without religion we'd have less religion threads in AH.

I can only work my way up to antipathy for this.

Rigol

Outlaw spirituality ...thats what I say.
And stop people with similar beliefs gathering in groups too.

hawhawhaw .... all that sentience stuff.

Ave Sodalis

I am unsure about God's existence and don't like Religion

Rigol wrote: »

Outlaw spirituality ...

Religion and spirituality are two different things though...

philologos

Using religion as a general concept is meaningless. From a personal perspective, I can see how many creeds aren't positive. I can also see how many forms of secular thinking aren't positive.

Therefore, I can't really answer this thread positively either way. It depends on what concept of god you are referring to, and it depends on what religions you are talking about.

In some respects we might agree.

Rigol

sup_dude wrote: »

Religion and spirituality are two different things though...

Religion is organised group spirituality.

krudler

I am unsure about God's existence and don't like Religion

sup_dude wrote: »

Religion and spirituality are two different things though...

"I'm spiritual" is usually the getout clause for people who believe in some of the nonsense, but not all of it.

B.A._Baracus

We all know 'I do not believe in God and do not like Religion' is going to top the polls. Alot of atheists on boards :P

For me, I believe in god. I also believe that most religions are just businesses. But hey, if someone wants to goto church every sunday, hand over a few quid and the whole lot that comes with... who am I to tell them what to do. Who is anyone of us. Each to their own.

Pilotdude5

I am unsure about God's existence and don't like Religion

I find Religion quite disturbing to be honest. Its an odd way to look at the world. Everybody is equal.

krudler

I am unsure about God's existence and don't like Religion

B.A._Baracus wrote: »

We all know 'I do not believe in God and do not like Religion' is going to top the polls. Alot of atheists on boards :P

For me, I believe in god. I also believe that most religions are just businesses. But hey, if someone wants to goto church every sunday, hand over a few quid and the whole lot that comes with... who am I to tell them what to do. Who is anyone of us. Each to their own.

believing in something isnt dangerous, organised belief is.

philologos

Pilotdude5 wrote: »

I find Religion quite disturbing to be honest. Its an odd way to look at the world. Everybody is equal.

What do you find "disturbing" and which beliefs are you discussing?

mattjack

pmcmahon wrote: »

you need a balance,religion keeps the lunatics occupied.

We'll see who'se a lunatic when I collect my 76 virgins.

B.A._Baracus

krudler wrote: »

believing in something isnt dangerous, organised belief is.

Alot of organised belief is this world. Not just with religions.

For me it isnt religion that is wrong in the world. its people. So lets say we live in a world without religion (as per the thread title :pac:) ... still be wars. Still be racism...

Red Pepper

I am unsure about God's existence and don't like Religion

B.A._Baracus wrote: »

Alot of organised belief is this world. Not just with religions.

It's dangerous when you make the 'belief' up as you go along and when the belief is utterly without proof.

Rigol

People confusing tribalism with religion.

You don't need religion for massacres, money, monarchy, land or outward appearance will all do fine.

Mr. CooL ICE

Gods. A grand bunch of deities

bb1234567

I believe in God and dislike Religion

Surprised by the amount of atheists on here. Are there as high numbers of athesists in real life? I only know of a few....anyways religion is important to me. I full believe in god, I'd get really depressed without religion or if it was proven there was no god or afterlife. I really dislike the catholic church though.

EmptyTree

Family Guys take on the world before religion:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IprePwGGXI


On a more serious note, a lot of people seem to be saying there would be a lot less wars if religion didn't exist. I'm not so sure about this, I think religion has very often been used as a convenient smoke screen to kick something off when in fact the real reason was land or resources.

Liveforrugby

I believe in God and dislike Religion

People think they are too smart for religion

Pilotdude5

I am unsure about God's existence and don't like Religion

philologos wrote: »

What do you find "disturbing" and which beliefs are you discussing?

All current beliefs really. Its simply too early in human history to jump to conclusions. I'm not going to stop people believing anything as it would be hypocritical but I just wish people would be more open minded and acknowledge that we are all the same. We have only been traveling into space since to 60's. Our 'world' is not this planet, its the entire universe. I would like to explore and find answers instead of believing texts that were written when had limited sources of information.
Its fine to have guidance for trying to live morally initially but there comes a point where you should do it yourself. Like taking off the stabilizers on a bike i guess.
I'm not giving a very structured answer but you get the gist of what I'm saying.

gobnaitolunacy

I am unsure about God's existence and like religion

The basic tenets of most religions are admirable, its the hardliners that observe the letter rather than the spirit of religion tend to be cnuts.

There's not many atheistic civilisations, everyone seems to want some sort of continued existance after you pop your clogs.

sixty

if there was no relegion we would not be haven this conversation, !!!

Neewbie_noob

sixty wrote: »

if there was no relegion we would not be haven this conversation, !!!

Then we'd be talking about a World with Religion

There would be a war over whether to call the group the Unified Atheist League or the Allied Atheist Alliance.

ToddyDoody

I do not believe in God but like Religion and it makes us better people

Berry finteresting thread. 5 times more people don't believe in gawd but like religion than believe in gawd and dislike religion en ce moment (these views are opposites) which makes me wonder what tha peeps believe gawd to bee.

GarIT

I am unsure about God's existence and don't like Religion

Poll is a bit biased no? Theres no option for "I know there is no God and religion makes people worse".

GarIT

I am unsure about God's existence and don't like Religion

mattjack wrote: »

We'll see who'se a lunatic when I collect my 76 virgins.

How do you know the age/gender of the virgins, they could be a gender you dont like and all really young or old for all you know :P

GarIT

I am unsure about God's existence and don't like Religion

gobnaitolunacy wrote: »

The basic tenets of most religions are admirable, its the hardliners that observe the letter rather than the spirit of religion tend to be cnuts.

There's not many atheistic civilisations, everyone seems to want some sort of continued existance after you pop your clogs.

Which religion are you talking about, a basic part of nearly every religion is kill non believers. If farily early on in the bible, presuming you are talking from a catholic point of view, religious leaders tend to hide that every major religious text talks about killing non believers.

You seem to think aswell, believe the general idea but don't listen to the only book that ever made a suggestion that whatever religion could be true.

philologos

GarIT wrote: »

Poll is a bit biased no? Theres no option for "I know there is no God and religion makes people worse".

The poll is limited in many ways. I can't really vote.

I'm confident that God exists, but the concept of "religion" is extremely vague in the OP.

I don't believe that all "religion" makes us better, I don't like all "religion". I don't dislike all "religion".

What religion is it referring to Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Judaism, Jainism, Bahai'ism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Christianity etc.

My answer differs depending on the specific "religion".

paddy147

Fcuk religion...Imagine a world without lawyers.....:D

GarIT

I am unsure about God's existence and don't like Religion

philologos wrote: »

The poll is limited in many ways. I can't really vote.

I'm confident that God exists, but the concept of "religion" is extremely vague in the OP.

I don't believe that all "religion" makes us better, I don't like all "religion". I don't dislike all "religion".

What religion is it referring to Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Judaism, Jainism, Bahai'ism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Christianity etc.

My answer differs depending on the specific "religion".

I don't think I'll ever convince you that there is no god, and you will never convince me that there is one, so I'm not going to go there, but just take the poll as religion means groups of people that believe one thing which has some relation to the meaning of life, the afterlife, or the spirit/soul etc.

The Bishop!

To make a huge generalisation - religions have good and bad aspects. So if you're in favour of getting rid of all of them, you're sort of throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

With a few exceptions, they seem to be getting better with each other these days anyway.
London is a shining example of this, everyone existing happily together for the most part. All the major religions: Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, Atheists - living together peacefully.

Duckworth_Luas

Other

The Bishop! wrote: »

London is a shining example of this, everyone existing happily together for the most part. All the major religions: Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, Atheists - living together peacefully.

Except for West Ham Utd supporters apparently!

GarIT

I am unsure about God's existence and don't like Religion

The Bishop! wrote: »

To make a huge generalisation - religions have good and bad aspects. So if you're in favour of getting rid of all of them, you're sort of throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

Yeah holy war is fine once you do a collection for Africa every now and again.

Ush1

I just think it's a massive waste of time.

B.A._Baracus

GarIT wrote: »

Which religion are you talking about, a basic part of nearly every religion is kill non believers. If farily early on in the bible, presuming you are talking from a catholic point of view, religious leaders tend to hide that every major religious text talks about killing non believers.

You seem to think aswell, believe the general idea but don't listen to the only book that ever made a suggestion that whatever religion could be true.

erm... yeah because thousands of catholics killed non-believers last month in Ireland. its shocking isnt it!

those religious people all want to kill non believers.

Duckworth_Luas

Other

B.A._Baracus wrote: »

erm... yeah because thousands of catholics killed non-believers last month in Ireland. its shocking isnt it!

those religious people all want to kill non believers.

I was killed by a Hare Krishna yesterday!

GarIT

I am unsure about God's existence and don't like Religion

B.A._Baracus wrote: »

erm... yeah because thousands of catholics killed non-believers last month in Ireland. its shocking isnt it!

those religious people all want to kill non believers.

I never said that people are doing it in Ireland. I'm just saying that they are supposed to.

So you have a book where a being says "Love thy neighbour" and "Kill the non believers" and for some reason one part is considered to be true but the other isnt.

Most believers are basically saying I believe in a god and I believe this book proves him to be true, but the book lies about what he really said.

Something christians tend to deny is that the bible spesifically says the commandments only apply to people from your own group, you can do whatever to anyone outside of it.

Wiggles88

I am unsure about God's existence and don't like Religion

gobnaitolunacy wrote: »

The basic tenets of most religions are admirable, its the hardliners that observe the letter rather than the spirit of religion tend to be cnuts.

Not so, many basic tenets of most religions take very hostile views of people of opposing religions, teach the advancment of the "true" religion by force etc. Its just many ordinary people (thankfully) forget about these parts of their religion and only remember the lovey dovey stuff.

nozzferrahhtoo

I am unsure about God's existence and don't like Religion

Neewbie_noob wrote: »

Imagine a world without religion, would it be a better or worse place?

I am going to go with "better". I am aware of many bad things in this world directly caused by religion. It would be nice to see the back of them.

I am however not aware of a single good _directly_ caused by religion and what things people generally try to peg to it are all things that occur without it too which shows that whatever else people might like to fantasize about... religion is entirely superfluous to requirements.