Imagine A World Without Religion.

[Polaris]

We had a microcosm of what a world would be without religion in the 20th century. Half the violent deaths in history arose from that, but then again 75% of violent deaths happened in that century as well.

[DeistPaladin]

We had a microcosm of what a world would be without religion in the 20th century. Half the violent deaths in history arose from that, but then again 75% of violent deaths happened in that century as well.

Communism was a religion as far as I'm concerned.

You had your prophecy, sacred scripture, holy mission, struggle of good vs. evil, iconic figures revered as saints, end-justifies-means ideological crusade, indoctrination, etc. In short, all the trappings of religion.

By contrast, in these despotic and bloody regimes, you had no encouragement of rational inquiry and freedom of thought, valued most highly by any atheist movement I'm aware of.

[Polaris]

We had a microcosm of what a world would be without religion in the 20th century. Half the violent deaths in history arose from that, but then again 75% of violent deaths happened in that century as well.

Communism was a religion as far as I'm concerned.

You had your prophecy, sacred scripture, holy mission, struggle of good vs. evil, iconic figures revered as saints, end-justifies-means ideological crusade, indoctrination, etc. In short, all the trappings of religion.

By contrast, in these despotic and bloody regimes, you had no encouragement of rational inquiry and freedom of thought, valued most highly by any atheist movement I'm aware of.

I actually argued for it being a religion in a college course titled Religion, Myth, and Magic based on the fact people sacrificed their lives for the ideals of Communism and it is a religion per one of the tertiary definitions of religion, which basically states setting supreme importance on an idea or way of living. In many ways, I see Atheism (capitalized to differentiate from just a lack of belief in a god or gods) moving towards that in the United States and the Commonwealth nations....not so much in the rest of the world though.

[Tempus]

We had a microcosm of what a world would be without religion in the 20th century.

Weren't those regimes more enforced atheism in addition to a world without religion? A world without religion could be all atheistic, atheistic and theistic*, or even totally theistic. I certainly wouldn't look at a period of history (or even countries today) where religion was forced onto people and say that is the world with religion. Also, while not accounting for the entire population, levels of irreligion in countries like Japan and Sweden are quite high and they're not despotic hell holes.

*or deistic, pantheistic, etc.

Half the violent deaths in history arose from that, but then again 75% of violent deaths happened in that century as well.

I'm not sure where you're getting these figures (though I'm not disputing them). Do they take into account population growth? Steven Pinker, who argues that violence is actually in decline, says the following:

• "If the wars of the twentieth century had killed the same proportion of the population that die in the wars of a typical tribal society, there would have been two billion deaths, not 100 million." - A History of Violence
  

[Polaris]

They take into account all the wars fought throughout human history and just the sheer number of people killed violently during the 20th century, which had seen rapid growth in population. I think it came from a guy disputing religion as the chief cause of violent deaths (I studied international affairs and we also came to the same conclusion, but that had more to do with the actual cause of wars and not using excuses such as religious/ethnic differences), but his research was pretty academically grounded.

The 20th century just saw extremely destructive ways of killing one another that were not seen in prior wars. A tribe here or there being wiped out is small. I live in a small city in San Diego (population 23,000), and you could wipe out tens thousands of tribes given our population.

[Phish]

2 christians voted no,well no surprise there.

Atheist wins again!!

[Tempus]

They take into account all the wars fought throughout human history and just the sheer number of people killed violently during the 20th century, which had seen rapid growth in population. I think it came from a guy disputing religion as the chief cause of violent deaths (I studied international affairs and we also came to the same conclusion, but that had more to do with the actual cause of wars and not using excuses such as religious/ethnic differences), but his research was pretty academically grounded.

Yeah, religion hardly seems to be the main cause of war from what I know of history. Certainly it's been used as an excuse and other times enabled conflict which might have otherwise not manifested, but things like territory, resources and political disputes (especially combined) surely outstrip religion as a cause. I'd consider our own psychology as a species a fundamental cause - we're often biased and ignorant of it, accepting of in groups and hostile toward out groups, etc.

[CBA222]

I don't really see how religion is bad thing? Does it affect you? The Christians I know are perfectly fine people.

[DeistPaladin]

I don't really see how religion is bad thing? Does it affect you? The Christians I know are perfectly fine people.

If it stopped with your own beliefs, we would all get along fine. Too bad so many Christians have their sacred duty for force their religion on all the rest of us. When Islamo-Christianity has the power to do as it wills, the choices for the rest of us are to find ourselves on our knees or in the ground.

[jonb]

I don't really see how religion is bad thing? Does it affect you? The Christians I know are perfectly fine people.

You (christain) impose your set of morals, on other philosophies, but because you are a 'religion' any one criticising your morals is supposedly criticising your deity, and as such working against religious freedom.

Your very existence is harmful to free thought. Because your kind choose the path of intellectual suicide, that is an adherence to a set of unprovable beliefs, you are anathema to those of us who choose life, and as your kind seek to spread your death cults you force us to fight your pollution.