The Student Room Group

Do you think this world would be better or worse without religion?

Scroll to see replies

I think the faith aspect of religion is good- as in the concept of having faith. But the fact that religious books eg Quran are taken so literally by people of that religion demonstrates the real negative aspect of religion today.

People are free to believe what they want about the origin of life and the afterlife. However, to prohibit free will and cause loss of life and suffering using religion as justification is the biggest threat to civilisation today.
(edited 8 years ago)
Better.

That said, I absolutely love the hippy dippy liberal Christians. They give me strength. But religious people are not like them for the most part. If they were, I'd have said "worse". With the kind of religious people we now have and always had, we're better off without.
Original post by Blondie987
You're the best! :biggrin:


No, I'm not having it. You're the best and I won't take no for an answer. :colonhash:

Original post by chosenone93
It would be exactly the same, humans are crafty beings and would create another mechanism to be at war with eachother. This of course does and has happened, see racism.


I couldn't agree with this more. We - as humans - seem to always have to have something to motivate hate. If you rid the world of one thing to motivate hate, we seek out another.

It never ends, no matter how much I'm sure many of us wish it would.
(edited 8 years ago)
It depends on what you consider religion. The world would probably be less developed than it is today, but by far less violent.

Religion helped enforce slavery, a class system and order in society. Without these things, no matter how negatively we see them now, economies and countries would have been slow to expand and develop. It promoted competition between countries and was a launch pad for civilization in ancient times all over the world.

Even today, science can be considered a religion due to the premise that we 'believe' (accept) what we see at face value. It could all simply be an illusion, even if we seem to invent a logical explanation for everything.

For the future however, society has outgrown religion and would probably be better with humanist ethics.
Original post by acupofgreentea
No, I'm not having it. You're the best and I won't take no for an answer. :colonhash:



I couldn't agree with this more. We - as humans - seem to always have to have something to motivate hate. If you rid the world of one thing to motivate hate, we seek out another.

It never ends, no matter how much I'm sure many of us wish it would.

Spoiler

Equally as bad. As long as humans exist, there will be war and there is always an excuse for war.
Original post by slade p
There would be chaos, anarchy and moral decedance without religion. Religion is the foundation of healthy families, communities and societies. Religion is where our basic notions of morality come from.


I'm an atheist, I have never gone out on the streets and caused chaos. I have normal morality. Therefore morality is not from religion as if it was, I would be immoral.

I personally think it would be better off without. The suffering religion has caused though the ages outweighs the good it has done. Although most religious organisations do not have malicious intent, they cause suffering though preaching ignorant and untrue statements. For example, contraception WAS banned by the catholic church for many years, causing an unnecessary spread of STD's.

Furthermore, religion restricts the progress of science and engineering. Our world would be a much more advanced place if it was not for religion claiming science is blasphemous and therefore is condemned. Even recently, stem cell research had its progress slowed by movements from the religious. Even though it has recently found a cure for some MS patients.

If religion was proved to be incorrect tomorrow, our world would be a better place for it.
Original post by Blondie987

Spoiler



You're both equal best.

I win.
Original post by EtherealNymph22
You're both equal best.

I win.


Hahaha you're the best as well :u:
Reply 29
Avatar for areh
areh
the fact people need a fairy tale to give their lives 'hope' and 'meaning' shows how pathetic and infantile us humans really are.
As an atheist, I think if religious people did religion right, the world might be an ok place. Religion brings so much (false) hope to many people especially in developing countries (America etc), if people weren't so obsessed with trying to convert everyone else and just kept to their beliefs, all this fighting and strife wouldn't be happening.

Then again, probably not. If its not religion, these groups of people (i.e. Daesh) would fight over something else, religion is just an easy scapegoat to use.
Original post by Noodlzzz
I think religion gets blamed a lot for a lot if terrible things. But maybe it's a certain part of the human condition that's behind those who seek religion as justification for the immoral?


Original post by Blondie987
The world would be better without hate which would exist with or without the existence of religion unfortunately


I agree with both of these. (agnostic btw) I doubt that if religion didn't exist, the people in ISIS would just be good people. They do the things they do because of who they are, not because of religion. People are always going to find a reason to do evil things. If it's not religion then it'll be something else.
Original post by Barney6262
I'm an atheist, I have never gone out on the streets and caused chaos. I have normal morality. Therefore morality is not from religion as if it was, I would be immoral.


Well, some religions may consider you a godless immoral.

I personally think it would be better off without. The suffering religion has caused though the ages outweighs the good it has done. Although most religious organisations do not have malicious intent, they cause suffering though preaching ignorant and untrue statements. For example, contraception WAS banned by the catholic church for many years, causing an unnecessary spread of STD's.


STD's are spread by a person, with a condition, sleeping around with other people and thus passing the condition onto others.

The Church's position has been very clear in relation to sex and marriage in the sense that it considers it fornication and therefore a sin. It advocates sex within a marital relationship only.

You can't blame the Church for the fact that people were choosing to sleep with each other outside of a marital relationship, thus spreading the risk of catching STD's.

Arguably, the Church's position would have limited the spread of STD's for it would have only be "contained" within a two person relationship.

Furthermore, religion restricts the progress of science and engineering. Our world would be a much more advanced place if it was not for religion claiming science is blasphemous and therefore is condemned. Even recently, stem cell research had its progress slowed by movements from the religious. Even though it has recently found a cure for some MS patients.


No it does not. It merely affects the pace, similar to the laws that we have currently.

In an ideal world, one in which if there had been no laws, science would undoubtedly been even more advanced than it is today.

If religion was proved to be incorrect tomorrow, our world would be a better place for it.


Not really.
I think that religion gets a bad rap. The 20th century saw the rise of several atheist states. The death toll and human rights violations of these first Humanist states were grossly high.

Stalin's Soviet Union killed 30 million people in purges and starved 10 million people in Ukraine. Mao's China crushed millions under their bootheel and sent countless to re-education camps. Both were ostensibly Atheist states based upon Communism and Humanism. Both were far more inhuman than other similar nations.

That said: The question of whether religion itself is good or bad is a bit of a red herring - Religion is, ostensibly, like its cousin Philosophy. People have started to think you should believe something because it makes you feel good or because it agrees with what you want or because your parents believed it. That's obviously false - You should believe something because it's true.

If religion is false, we simply shouldn't believe it. We should instead search for the truth. If it's true, we should find joy in it and live it to the best of our ability. I am religious and I believe. I think I have found the truth but I blame no one for thinking differently.
Original post by ♥Samantha♥
I agree with both of these. (agnostic btw) I doubt that if religion didn't exist, the people in ISIS would just be good people. They do the things they do because of who they are, not because of religion. People are always going to find a reason to do evil things. If it's not religion then it'll be something else.


Atleast there wouldn't be this cloud cover that religion is providing people with a reason to commit wrong and we would be able to differentiate people who are psychos and people who just following religion brainwashed into thinking what they were doing is right. There would be a lot less discriminatory allegations based on a person's religion then and more allegations based on morality, constitution and law.

Posted from TSR Mobile
Original post by ThatOldGuy
I think that religion gets a bad rap. The 20th century saw the rise of several atheist states. The death toll and human rights violations of these first Humanist states were grossly high.

Stalin's Soviet Union killed 30 million people in purges and starved 10 million people in Ukraine. Mao's China crushed millions under their bootheel and sent countless to re-education camps. Both were ostensibly Atheist states based upon Communism and Humanism. Both were far more inhuman than other similar nations.


The cause of these events was not that the state was based on atheism. Nazi Germany was based on Christianity, does that mean Christianity was to blame for what they did? No. obviously not.
Wouldn't change much. There will still be wars, still poverty etc.
Original post by ♥Samantha♥
I agree with both of these. (agnostic btw) I doubt that if religion didn't exist, the people in ISIS would just be good people. They do the things they do because of who they are, not because of religion. People are always going to find a reason to do evil things. If it's not religion then it'll be something else.


As I have already pointed out, if that's the case then people who seek religion as a justification for their doings is not the same as people who commit morally wrong actions without practising religion. You would be correct only in latter case because that would explain why people would commit those acts without being rewarded.
Original post by Barney6262
The cause of these events was not that the state was based on atheism. Nazi Germany was based on Christianity, does that mean Christianity was to blame for what they did? No. obviously not.


Sure. But the Crusades weren't even caused by States that were Christian. It was caused by greed and expansionism combined with opportunism.

Religion influences individuals greatly and States not at all.
Original post by AmazingArry
Atleast there wouldn't be this cloud cover that religion is providing people with a reason to commit wrong and we would be able to differentiate people who are psychos and people who just following religion brainwashed into thinking what they were doing is right. There would be a lot less discriminatory allegations based on a person's religion then and more allegations based on morality, constitution and law.

Posted from TSR Mobile


Well I guess. But I still thing bad people will find a different cause. and then we'd just be in the same situation and we don't know who is genuine or not. And there are some good things religion can bring. Faith can help people in bad situations and helps people not give up hope. Faith itself isn't bad, though obviously faith and organised religion are different things.

Though I'm saying the world wouldn't be better off without religion I don't necessarily think it would be worse either.

Quick Reply

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you