Would the world be better off if all theists became atheists.

[Ashendant]

[Soyouz]

Religion has served it's purpose for now, therefore I'm going to say.. yes.

It would perhaps become more boring though.

[Mong]

Yes, A more rational world with less conflicts. More money and time poured into science and useful parts of society. Less discrimination and technological advances. We're already on our way to become a dominantly atheist race, more people are converting from religion to atheism with very little going the other way. With more explanations for the previously unexplainable, this trend will continue to increase.

[DoktorZ]

I don't know if it would or not. I'm not so cheeky in my atheism that I assume the abandonment of god(s) would lead immediately to a better world, because I suspect some people who used to be religious bigots would simply slip into some other form of bigotry, since hate seems to come second nature to them.

Besides which, I don't think the goodness or badness of a world without religion and faith is relevant to the discussion of the existence of the supernatural. Morality and ontology are totally different here. Being a person with a vigorous need to "get things right," I'd support the eradication of superstition in the same way that I like to edit poor grammar from my writing, or correct my niece's math homework. It's like hammering in a slightly bent nail--you want to fix an error.

[Eternity]

Is Atheism going to stop all the people dying in the world? All the murders? They'll still be disputes between nations. Nothing would change is what I say.

[Sciencerob]

I'm probably in a minority but I think that a large population would be in despair. For instance many Christians and Muslims are poor and find solace in religion. Many people do not commit crimes because of the thought of hell. Perhaps I just don't have much faith in humanity, but I just don't see it as being better off.

[Skipper]

I'm probably in a minority but I think that a large population would be in despair. For instance many Christians and Muslims are poor and find solace in religion. Many people do not commit crimes because of the thought of hell. Perhaps I just don't have much faith in humanity, but I just don't see it as being better off.

I think your first point is valid, a lot of poorer and vulnerable people do find some comfort in religion, which is one of it's redeeming features (one it also takes advantage of by exploiting the poor and vulnerable for it's own financial and political means). However, your second point is completely unfounded. I don't think the world would be any more crime ridden than it is already. People commit crimes if they are religious or not, and in fact a higher percentage of religious people occupy the prison population than they do in the wider world.

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Is Atheism going to stop all the people dying in the world? All the murders? They'll still be disputes between nations. Nothing would change is what I say.

Religion has had a while (thousands of years) to stop all the people dying in the world and all the murders, and it doesn't seem to have had much of an effect. In fact, it just adds to it. It would be one less thing to fight over if you ask me, no doubt there would still be conflicts but a lot of the current conflicts in the world would at the very least be much easier to solve if you removed religion.