SecularFuture

Would the world be a better place if there were no religion, or belief in a god(s) concept? Without religion or theism there would only be secular humanism, a realistic belief in the power of humanity without the dependence on magical concepts or magical thinking. Secular humanism promotes realistic thinking, through the power of human ingenuity, in hopes of reaching realistic solutions to our everyday problems.

Can we continue to develop while holding to a belief in a god concept that is without evidence and reason? Should religion, or a belief in god, be considered sufficient or rational? I believe the world would be much better off if we replaced groundless religious concepts with the realistic concepts promoted through secular humanism. What do you think?

Jayjay

I tend to think we might still be hunter-gatherers if it wasn't for religion. In order to for agriculture to kick off you need to apply coercion to get the peasants working, so that your higher-ups can develop society and science and other goodies. Religion is an extremely powerful tool for this purpose... you don't raise the largest armies with secular humanism, or convince people that they have to toil their asses off for a guy with a fake goatee instead of a god.

Naturally, we have no need for religion now... but the reality of the situation is that it's rather difficult to get rid of. It was built that way.

Gregg

Not necessarily. Religion and theism can be replaced by political philosophies, including irrational political philosphies. Unless, of course, you want to argue that political philosophies like Nazism, Fascism, Communism, etc. are actually religions. Sounds good! Now how do you propose we do it? Have a big meeting with the fundies, the Vatican, the Muslims and whatnot and tell them their beliefs are destroying people and threatening world peace and it's time to let them go?

I'm not trying to be a jerk. It's just that you're not going to get many people to give up their beliefs willingly, and there's no guarantee they won't replace those beliefs with other beliefs just as irrational. Unfortunately, the only thing that seems to persuade large numbers of people to change their religious beliefs in favor of reason (or, for that matter for an athieistic political philosophy like Communism) is LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of suffering. It took WW2 to make Europeans largely secular. It took the Russian and Chinese communists lots of huge political purges, "re-education camps," gulags, and the like to make their populations change their beliefs.

And now, with the fate of the world hanging in the balance, people are clinging to their beliefs more fiercely than ever, even though fanatical belief is what brought us to this point in the first place.

So, good luck.

Gregg

Vorkosigan

religion -- I must think more on, theism, yes.

Marduk

It’s impossible to say, since religion and civilization have gone hand in hand for 7000 years we have nothing to compare life without religion to. From Egypt to Babylon humans have built huge advanced societies on religion. Even if we think we know better now there are still secular demigods like Hitler and non religious totalitarian regimes to worry about.

Bumble Bee Tuna

I think the world would be better off if religion suddenly disappeared. I can't say how it would have effected the past, though, if it never existed, so I decline to answer about if it never existed.

-B

Aerik Von

It would be entirely better if we could regain a sense of the value of life and it's fragile nature instead of hoping for "a future in heaven" while you piss your life away and try to piss others lives away.

Rusting Car Bumper

In a nutshell, its almost a nonsense question.

Reflecting marduck's position, all cultures have religion(s) intertwined in them. If these is a case where a civilization did not then its an exception.

For example, Greek religion obviously is one reason that the ancient Greek civilization flourished and one reason why ways of Western philosophy lead to modern science.

I think the phrasing of the question comes from an incorrect belief that religion equals superstition. While this has often been the case it is definately not always the case as rational portions of Buddhism and parts of Unitarianism can attest to. Those two examples are by no means the only reasons we can state.

The real question is, "Would Our Earth Be Better Without Superstition?"

DC

philechat

I would probably say that some religions are actually not harmful to human societies and thoughts. However, many organized religions in modern days tend to practice an exclusivistic and dogmatic worldview and discourages individuals from thinking differently from the rest. Many secular political dogmas followed the same line of thought and leads to quite a lot of sufferings in the people's part.

Eudaimonist

That depends on what replaces these.

Not so. There are many different secular moralities, not just secular humanism. (For instance, radical environmentalist moralities that view the ecosystem, not human well-being, as the ultimate value.)

I agree that moralities that are both secular and humanistic would make at least a reasonably good replacement for religions. In many cases a lot better.

I don't always agree with secular humanist organizations about morality, but I agree that they are more reality-oriented than religious organizations, and are therefore likely to be an improvement.