(June 21, 2015 at 10:49 pm)paulpablo Wrote: I think the world would be a very similar place. There are too many variable to consider. I think conmen, sexism, homophobia, primitive tribal thinking, unscientific thinking and a whole list of bad things would still exist without religion but I can't predict to what extent they would exist.
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If the world were like this one, with just the minimum changed for there to be no religion, then there would be less sexism, homophobia, primitive tribal thinking, unscientific thinking, etc., because religion promotes all of those things. Just getting rid of religion would improve all of those. Of course, that does not mean that all of those things would be eliminated, but they would all be reduced.
To give one example, in my case, when I was a Christian, I was against homosexuals. Not because I had any personal interest, but because that was what my religion taught. When the religion was eliminated, so, too, was my motive to have any problems with homosexuals. I now don't give a rat's ass whether my neighbor is homosexual, heterosexual, or bisexual.
Religion is evil. If it ended, a big source of evil would be ended. Not everything bad, but a significant amount of the bad things in the world would be eliminated. Think about the conflict in the middle east, and what a difference there would be if no one there were religious. It is almost inconceivable what it would be like, because that one change would make a vast difference. The same is true of conflicts in Africa, where religion is also a great source of trouble.
The world would not be heaven without religion, but it would be dramatically better than it is now.
"A wise man ... proportions his belief to the evidence."
— David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section X, Part I.
