[KatieCruel]

I'm interested to know people's opinions on this.

Would the world be a better, more peaceful place without religion?

I was brought up as a Christian but as I grew up I formed my own ideas but about faith and how live my life. No doubt these are based to some extent on how I was brought up, but do we need religion do provide this kind of moral compass on how we live?

I truely believe that kindness is key to everything. Yes, we will all **** up from time to time, but if we lived our lives trying to do no harm to others etc, then surely if there is a God he would see that such people were good and they would be embraced anyway. And if that is the situation when I die and 'God' is not one of peace and goodwill to all men, then I wouldn't really want to be part of that.

I'm not necessarliy talking about altruism. I suppose its a sort of humanist idea of kindness ennobling the human condition.

So surely with we all lived our lives as decent human beings and try to show kindness towards our fellow man the world would be better for it. Yes this all sounds very idealistic but think about it. If you were working in a shop and someone spoke to you, someone from amongst the many that couldn't really give a ****, but this one person makes an effort to be pleasant and kind towards you, it brightens your day just that little bit. And don't we all feel good when we do something nice for someone else?

So do we need religion and religious leaders telling us how we should live and coexist?

[cgraham15]

Religion is a good thing, when it is kept at home. When it is put out into public then yes, it causes problems. But at the end of the day, without religion people would find the next best thing to conflict about, so it wouldn't made any odds if religion didn't exist.

And true. I'm a Christian, but I would rather go to Hell than go to a Heaven which rewards evil people.

We don't need religion to tell us how to live, we have morals naturally.

[Agenda Suicide]

Quite frankly no.

Religion was fantastic in the early ages in helping everybody be a bit nicer and kickstarting the morals train when people were just killing everybody else because they could.

This si the 21st century and it does more harm than good. I'm not saying this speaks on behalf of all religious people but look at the hate towards gays, certain aspects of science, atheists, people of other religions, those who like anal sex, those who use contraception. It creates more unnecessary problems that it solves.

Coupled with this is the idea that many people now have high morals, we live in a 21st century society which is very much well civilised and people do good for the sake of doing it, not to impress somebody who may or may not exist and is currently lacking sufficient evidence to prove the first.

[Aspiringlawstudent]

Absolutely.

There is not a soupçon of doubt in my mind that we would be far better off without it.

[Aspiringlawstudent]

(Original post by Agenda Suicide)
Quite frankly no.

Religion was fantastic in the early ages in helping everybody be a bit nicer and kickstarting the morals train when people were just killing everybody else because they could.

This si the 21st century and it does more harm than good. I'm not saying this speaks on behalf of all religious people but look at the hate towards gays, certain aspects of science, atheists, people of other religions, those who like anal sex, those who use contraception. It creates more unnecessary problems that it solves.

Coupled with this is the idea that many people now have high morals, we live in a 21st century society which is very much well civilised and people do good for the sake of doing it, not to impress somebody who may or may not exist and is currently lacking sufficient evidence to prove the first.

Eh? I don't understand. You say that we wouldn't be better off without it, and then straight away admit it does more harm than good?

[Aspiringlawstudent]

(Original post by cgraham15)
Religion is a good thing, when it is kept at home. When it is put out into public then yes, it causes problems. But at the end of the day, without religion people would find the next best thing to conflict about, so it wouldn't made any odds if religion didn't exist.

And true. I'm a Christian, but I would rather go to Hell than go to a Heaven which rewards evil people.

We don't need religion to tell us how to live, we have morals naturally.

Why?

I don't think it's good that gullible people fall victim to deliberately mendacious organisations.

[KatieCruel]

(Original post by Agenda Suicide)

Coupled with this is the idea that many people now have high morals, we live in a 21st century society which is very much well civilised and people do good for the sake of doing it, not to impress somebody who may or may not exist and is currently lacking sufficient evidence to prove the first.

Some people may do good for the sake of doing good, but these people are few and far between. For the most part people do not care about the strangers we walk past everyday. For example... I few months ago I was walking along a very busy street in London and I looked across the road and saw a man lying on the opposite pavement having a fit. I stopped my friend and we watched for a few seconds as a man walked around this guy staring at him and doing nothing. Needless to say we when straight over there, I helped the guy while me friend phoned an ambulance. There must have been at least two hundred walk by so there is no way that I was the only one to see him, yet no one else stopped. Of course when we were helping this guy a crowd starts to form because then it becomes something to gawk at. This is the sad and unfortunate state of todays society. No one else there could had cared less about that man lying on his face on the street, people are to busy and selfobsessed.

[Id and Ego seek]

(Original post by Agenda Suicide)
Quite frankly no.

Religion was fantastic in the early ages in helping everybody be a bit nicer and kickstarting the morals train when people were just killing everybody else because they could.

But it led to more catastrophic blood shed;

I wonder how the development of morality would have gone without religious doctrine.

[The_Lonely_Goatherd]

I don't think we need to do away with religion altogether. On the other hand, we DO need to do something about fundamentalism across all faiths, as well as closely monitoring what faith schools of all religions teach and how they teach it

[Aspiringlawstudent]

(Original post by KatieCruel)
Some people may do good for the sake of doing good, but these people are few and far between. For the most part people do not care about the strangers we walk past everyday. For example... I few months ago I was walking along a very busy street in London and I looked across the road and saw a man lying on the opposite pavement having a fit. I stopped my friend and we watched for a few seconds as a man walked around this guy staring at him and doing nothing. Needless to say we when straight over there, I helped the guy while me friend phoned an ambulance. There must have been at least two hundred walk by so there is no way that I was the only one to see him, yet no one else stopped. Of course when we were helping this guy a crowd starts to form because then it becomes something to gawk at. This is the sad and unfortunate state of todays society. No one else there could had cared less about that man lying on his face on the street, people are to busy and selfobsessed.

Should people not be free to carry out their daily business? What is so wrong about wanting to make your own life about yourself?

[Aspiringlawstudent]

(Original post by The_Lonely_Goatherd)
I don't think we need to do away with religion altogether. On the other hand, we DO need to do something about fundamentalism across all faiths, as well as closely monitoring what faith schools of all religions teach and how they teach it

What good reason is there for keeping something that is demonstrably false?

[Agenda Suicide]

(Original post by Aspiringlawstudent)
Eh? I don't understand. You say that we wouldn't be better off without it, and then straight away admit it does more harm than good?

I meant yes, my bad.

[KatieCruel]

(Original post by Aspiringlawstudent)
Should people not be free to carry out their daily business? What is so wrong about wanting to make your own life about yourself?

There is nothing wrong with caring about your own life. But there is something very wrong with not helping someone who is clearly in need of medical attention.

[cgraham15]

(Original post by Aspiringlawstudent)
Why?

I don't think it's good that gullible people fall victim to deliberately mendacious organisations.

What gives you the right to say what people should believe in. It's either religion or atheism, and when it's not atheism athiests always (well your type) no nuts. Doesn't affect you so I don't see why your opinion matters.

[AFE95]

I feel there's nothing wrong with religion, its just intolerance that ruins stuff. Whether you are a theist, atheist or agnostic, just because you disagree with something doesn't mean you have to disrespect it.

[Clare~Bear]

Religions give people rules and morals and obviously some religious people do good deeds/ avoid sins so they can egt into heaven etc.

But I'm an atheist, that doesn't make me immoral.

There would be a hell of a lot less wars and genocides etc though if it wasn't for religion though.

[Aspiringlawstudent]

(Original post by KatieCruel)
There is nothing wrong with caring about your own life. But there is something very wrong with not helping someone who is clearly in need of medical attention.

What if they're busy? Places to go, people to meet.

[Ape Gone Insane]

(Original post by Agenda Suicide)
Religion was fantastic in the early ages in helping everybody be a bit nicer and kickstarting the morals train when people were just killing everybody else because they could.

Coupled with this is the idea that many people now have high morals, we live in a 21st century society which is very much well civilised and people do good for the sake of doing it, not to impress somebody who may or may not exist and is currently lacking sufficient evidence to prove the first.

I think this is a good point. I'd rather live in a world where people did good because they chose to rather than to please a deity under the promise of securing their place in an afterlife. Not that I'm implying religious people don't do good things because they want to.

[Xotol]

(Original post by Aspiringlawstudent)
Absolutely.

There is not a soupçon of doubt in my mind that we would be far better off without it.

Unfounded statement. We could be better off with religion, but we might not be. We simply don't know.

(Original post by Aspiringlawstudent)
What good reason is there for keeping something that is demonstrably false?

You seem to be conflating a literal interpration of the Bible (or any other Holy Book that contains contradictory/provably wrong statements) with the belief in a supernatural being (which is religion itself). The former is demonstrably false; the latter is not.

[iwantcurlyhairtoo]

(Original post by cgraham15)
Religion is a good thing, when it is kept at home. When it is put out into public then yes, it causes problems. But at the end of the day, without religion people would find the next best thing to conflict about, so it wouldn't made any odds if religion didn't exist.

And true. I'm a Christian, but I would rather go to Hell than go to a Heaven which rewards evil people.

We don't need religion to tell us how to live, we have morals naturally.

Why should it be kept at home?

You make it sound like some dirty little secret that they should be ashamed of.

I agree it shouldn't influence politics etc like it does in America, but to say it should be 'kept at home' is ridiculous.