World without religion.

[Medi]

It has come up that the world is in dire straits because of religion. My question is- What do you, as an atheist, see a world without religion like?

I'm not asking if it is possible, but just what would be the end result if it did happen?

I agree. Religious conflict accounts for a lot of conflict, but still, it isn't inherently wisdom seeking, meek, well-wishing people that start wars for profit or level villages full of women and children.

Religion's subjective to how it's taken as-well. You get everything from pacifist buddhist monks with no affiliations to a god that don't like applying labels and generally accept people as they come (the inner philosophy that says 'change yourself, what everyone else does is their business) to war-mongering western christians (join us or f*** you) and extremist islamists (f*** all of you).

The former I'd say is probably the example of what 'religion' should be about. The latter are the wider reality of it.

The world could do without this whole movement of abrahamic religions being taken far-right literalist, no doubt. Generally (not always) buddhists and hindus have a more tolerant, self-focused approach. And some abrahamic religious people are pretty awesome people too.

Not all religion is bad.

To answer your question, I think it could go a lot of different ways. The christians will say it'll be a world full of debauchery where nobody has any morals. I dunno, I guess it depends on the person/people who live on the Earth. Like 2% of the population are psychopaths, so we'll still have them. I suppose it would probably be, on the whole, a humanistic society. People would think more about being actively empathetic and good than about getting their scriptural interpretations right and who's sleeping with who.

On the other hand, the only moral guide people would have would be their own consciences. Which should be enough, but some people can have really warped moral compasses.