Poll: Would the world be a better place without religion?

[Trace2010]

I'm sure I'll regret bringing this up but I hate the term "militant atheist." Since when have athiests ever killed anyone over something as petty as beleifs? And I am aware that many athiests use the term themselves. But it's a stupid term.
The problem with religion is that people can interpret the messages it brings to suit their own needs. More often than not these needs are violet or greedy. At least atheists are honest about their evil doings.

Err...Stalin? Mao?

Actually NO. Stalin or Mao didn't really do state sponsored killings based on ATHEISM.

They did it based on political agendas, and those crimes were not directed at theists either, that's like saying that the Babi Yar massacre was exclusively directed at the jewish population of Kiev when in reality it was a mass atrocity against everyone in there.

Oh, I don't know, maybe they had a political agenda "RELIGION IS EVILS! OMG LOL send to Siberia."

As far as I know, they didn't give leniency to atheists - which, if an anti-religon regime was their agenda, would have surely been the case.

I need to throw my two cents in on this....
Adoption of any religion forces people to believe in things higher than government. In a dictatorship (which is what all communist countries become because human nature rears its ugly head), the threat of a being higher than the ruler of a nation is one that cannot be allowed to perpetuate in the people. In a monarchy, of course, kings justified their rule by "divine right". However, this is impossible to do in today's society because we have have already debunked divine right.

 

[karn3]

Yes, the world would be a better place without religion.

Billions of poeple have been slaughtered in the name of religion, and not just slaughtered, tortured. Unimaginable acts of cruelty have been perpertrated in the name of god and not just christianity, although it is one of the most prominant. This isn't just in the past either, I'm right up to modern day. The war in Afghanistan is a prime example.
Also why do we need religion to provide us with morals. half of you make it sound like without religion everyone would be out murdering raping and pillaging because nobody told us it was bad. I'm an atheist and i have my own set of morals, that isn't dictated by the bible and i haven't even stolen a mars bar becuase my friends said so. The world would not fall apart because of that
Scientific progress has been hindered greatly by religion aswell, but i don't really want to go into that otherwise this will turn into more of a rant than it already is,sorry.

 

[sneakypenguin]

Yes, the world would be a better place without religion.

Billions of poeple have been slaughtered in the name of religion, and not just slaughtered, tortured. Unimaginable acts of cruelty have been perpertrated in the name of god and not just christianity, although it is one of the most prominant. This isn't just in the past either, I'm right up to modern day. The war in Afghanistan is a prime example.
Also why do we need religion to provide us with morals. half of you make it sound like without religion everyone would be out murdering raping and pillaging because nobody told us it was bad. I'm an atheist and i have my own set of morals, that isn't dictated by the bible and i haven't even stolen a mars bar becuase my friends said so. The world would not fall apart because of that
Scientific progress has been hindered greatly by religion aswell, but i don't really want to go into that otherwise this will turn into more of a rant than it already is,sorry.

Billions of people slaughtered in the name of religion? I doubt that(at least in the last 150 years).As far as torture and all that I don't think there is any group out there that condones it in the name of religion.(except maybe muslim extremist what with their treatment of women and beheading an such. What war in Afghanistan are you talking about that was started by religion?
Yes it is possible to have morals without religion but religion does do a good job of providing a set of morals that is acceptable. IE most religions say don't lie,steal,kill all that jazz that is generally found in modern society .

 

[thest3alth]

Religion is not the problem. It's the number of them. If there was one religion, everything would be fine, and the world would be a great place to live.

 

[Gunhammer]

Well if humans invented the religious laws on which our current laws are apparently based, then we don't need religion. Besides, most people don't even get their morality from the religious texts they advocate. For instance, the bible tells you to stone gays and disobedient children (Leviticus 20 While I accept that belief in some sort of horrible punishment/divine praise is the basis for some people's behavoir (Or at least, that they think it is) atheists seem to be as morally upstanding as the average joe (Although in my case, depressed and cynical.) The majority of genocide and war is carried out by religious people, but that may merely be because the majority of people are religious, just as there are minor groups of "Bad" atheistic people because the minority of people are atheistic. I think issues of poverty and education are much more important than religion and do much more to influence one's behavior.

 

[mipegg]

Just, one thing that no one has ever managed to explain to me, how can you believe something that is so blatantly just there as a control method? Read the bible over then read much of nazi propaganda, you will see many contrasts (maybe not in the actual content but the methods it uses). It just clearly is trying to control you and provide some people power and money.

Also, why believe (in the Christian context) a book which was written 400 years after events and has been periodically altered to suit whoever wants it throughout the ages with no set text ever being made? Its going to have been altered and messed up beyond whatever it was originally meant to be. Why believe any of that over logical science?

 

[astaldodhol]

Many people have probably said this.
But no, it won't. People won't have anything to hold on to. There would be no more morals. Millions of people live by these rules, without them the world would descent into chaos.
Fear of death would become more, no-one would care what they do because they won't have to think about what would happen when they die, etc.
I'm to think to write a 50 page essay. My IQ drops between midnight-7am. Right now it's 00:16 here.

 

[mipegg]

Yay for blanket uniformed opinions!

Also, i dont see the correlation between religion and morals? I have no religion, I utterly despise the idea of it yet I still have morals.

 

[Madaxeman101]

yes because religion just causes wars

 

[sirdanrhodes]

Yes or no, a bit one sided isn't it. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, but anyone like Islamic fundamentalists take it too far. I believe (hippy crap follows) everyone is a human.

 

[Serious_Stalin]

yes because religion just causes wars

the hardest religion to defend: Islam, the people who are instigating the war never really had to try as they did it in such war torn countries, and I think as usual the realy cause behind it is land and resources as terrorists manage to control a lot of resources making their leaders powerful. Religion was the best tool to begin the war but it might not have been neccesary. I think i've already said this but I really do believe religion is just one of the best ways to use people. Now its all kicked off I think that the leaders don't have to do much but profit off the consequences.

 

[TheDean]

sad face. no one replied to my "all 200 of them" thing. oh well, if you want to know, there are like 200 commandments in teh bible. Strange ones about not boiling a goat in its mothers milk or nailing your servants ear ot a door post.

 

[mipegg]

I really wish people would stop pointing to Islam and saying 'they cause terrorism' simple fact is there are more Christian terrorist acts than Islam. Think about all those doctors and such who are murdered for providing abortions etc?

Simple fact is this, all religions are just kidding themselves so if they really want to believe the nonsense let them, just protect the extremely impressionable kids from it.

 

[Dudemeister]

If religion wasn't around as an excuse for violence, people would just find another reason to kill each other.
Some people are just nasty like that.

 

[Nazulu]

I just read this whole thread and everyone has been saying the same thing over and over again.

Some people need religion and that's fine with me however my friend has got some prophecy from his church about a WW3 at the end of this year and he has been so worried he actually got sick! I can't convince him that it is not true and it seems every topic is just as negative, they talk about when the bible has been removed from schools and that society's going to hell aslong as they believe in Jesus and everything.

I thought religion was just meant to make peoples lives easier but now I have realised the dark truth. I just wish he wasn't so sick from worrying all the time so I could see him.

 

[videonerd250]

Religion is not the problem. It's the number of them. If there was one religion, everything would be fine, and the world would be a great place to live.

NO!

 

[Vivaldi]

No, and here is why:

People flock to an idea that joins them, that gives them a certain warmth or meaning in their lives. Religion is the ultimate supplier of these feelings. Humans have to have a clan or pack of some kind, it is our mentality as animals so we feel safe and loved. God (or whatever it is you kids worship nowadays) gives this love, this care that people need to functuion, to be proactive and compatent members of society. Religion is and has always been a necessary pillar of any succesful comunity or civilization. At no point in history has any major group of people not followed some kind of religion for guidance. From the hundreds of thousands of gods of Mesopotamia to the monotheistic superpowers of today, they all give at least one thing. All forms of religion give an answer. They all answer the big questions like "why are we here" or "what happens when we die?". These answers give humans warmth and security so they can go about their lives so they can function in a society.


If at all curious, I do not follow any realigion and am purely atheistic.