World without religion.

[Polaris]

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?

Didn't we see the most deaths in history when religion was supplanted in the previous century?

Atheists need to learn that the world is in dire straits because of the selfishness of humanity.

[Freedom of thought]

A world without religion?:

-Less vice.
-More virtue.
-Less pseudo science.
-More science.
-Less distrust in science.
-More trust in science.
-Less intolerant of others.
-More tolerance of others.
-Less violence against each other (religious based violence is very common).
-Less oppression of women.
-Less oppression of those with same sex sexual orientation.
-More charity.
-More real empathy towards other humans (instead of fake orders from god to do charity).
-Less hate.
-More love.
-Cherishing our lives, and this Earth like it's the only place we'll ever have.
-Less oppression.
-More freedom and liberation.
-A world with less dogma, irrational thinking, and non evidence based views.
-A world dominated by critical, logical thinking, and evidence based views.
-Less division.
-More unification.
-Less judgement.
-More acceptance.
-Less damnation (like to hell).
-More blessing.

The day religion dies, will be the next step in human evolution. If we are to survive, we must shed our chains of the past.

[MindForgedManacle]

Didn't we see the most deaths in history when religion was supplanted in the previous century?

Atheists need to learn that the world is in dire straits because of the selfishness of humanity.

But of course, it had nothing to do with increased technological prowess. Give 1940s level technology to, say, the Crusades and you'll get something similar, maybe even worse given it then becomes enhanced as a war for souls, sacred land and God.

---

Anyway, I have doubts religion will ever go away. And even then, many of our problems would remain. Now sure, there'd be one big avenue lost that allowed for many of these problems, but the thing about trying to idiot-proof something is that we end up finding a better class of idiot.

[Lion IRC]

More self confidence and higher self esteem.

Yes, we would be like gods.
7 billion little gods. Crawling around on a tiny little spec of a planet for a meaningless nano second of conscious mortality.

You can be Piggy and I will be Ralph.

[feeling]

More self confidence and higher self esteem.

Yes, we would be like gods.
7 billion little gods. Crawling around on a tiny little spec of a planet for a meaningless nano second of conscious mortality.

You can be Piggy and I will be Ralph.

Does religion make you sound so negative? Try to find good things in life.

[Esquilax]

More hopelessness, dispare and tyranny.

Ah yes, such hopelessness, to be living on a planet that isn't just a pit-stop on the way to eternity, a test by a capricious entity that has put itself above us for no other reason than that it has more power. Such despair, to not believe ourselves to be facing the specter of hell at every last transgression. Such tyranny, to... not believe there's an invisible super-tyrant watching us masturbate and preparing his eternal gulag in return.

I swear, every time you sink to this petty shit stirring, your words are always the exact opposite of the reality, Chad.

Yes, we would be like gods.
7 billion little gods. Crawling around on a tiny little spec of a planet for a meaningless nano second of conscious mortality.

I always find the christian assertion that without god we'd all want to be gods quite amusing, seeing as I don't share in it myself. It's really more of a peek into the megalomania of your average christian, actually; I've never seen an atheist say they want to be a god, but I've seen plenty of christians leap to it the moment it's suggested that their magic man might not be capable of keeping us all down.

I don't want to be a god, Lion. Unlike you, I'm quite happy just being a human.

[Ksa]

Bhagwan Rajneesh is funny lol:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQFUpOOINd8

[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.