If everyone was atheist

[Tonus]

Do you think the world would be a better place if everyone was atheist?

Please explain your answer below.

Possibly.

Religion is just a form of tribalism, which is something that we take part in as a social species. We form groups of "us" and define those outside of it as "them." We see this in the way we identify as being a particular race, or from a particular country, or from a particular state, or city, or neighborhood, or street. We see it in the way we form groups to follow particular performers (actors, singers, writers) and organizations (sports teams, businesses). We see it in good-natured ribbing between the members of such groups (sports trash-talk). We see it in ugly behavior in those circumstances (crass comments, insults, violent acts). A world without religion would still have tribes, and we'd still see the good and bad from those.

Where religion differs from those other forms is that it introduces a powerful guiding force that demands unquestioning obedience and may excuse otherwise horrible behavior on the part of its adherents. This puts such behavior outside of the reach of reason: if every utterance from god is good and god asks you to do something pretty extreme, there is no question that you must do it because your eternal future is at stake. This can lead people to do some pretty terrifying things while feeling justified in doing so, or even righteous. So without religion perhaps we take the most dangerous edge off of tribalism. And that would open the path to allowing reason to count more often, and that could be a very good thing overall.