Can the world be a better place without religion?

[bestcandy]

The world is encapsulated with so many religion embedded with different doctrines, teaching and belief which have affected our sense of reasoning in different ways. Religion has raised serious concern to mankind especially in terms of sociopolitical and economic coexistence. The major cause of insecurity in most part of the world today is the problem of economic and religion supremacy where everyone seen to uphold their religion with virtue and in a high esteem and even considered it to be the only true region and the only way to salvation and internity thereby condemning or seeing other religion as fake. So therefore, considering the problem associated with religion differences in world today, I think the world would have be a better place without religion.

[kotajikikox]

Even if the world would be a better place without religion there is no way to know whether that can be true anymore. Religion is too engrained into our history and culture that we can no longer remove it.

Removing it would be complex and create a shift in so many worlds. Many countries are led by churches and their religion, I can't possibly imagine a world that has no religion.

Even if we go back to history, a lot of what we have now wouldn't have happened without religion. Many countries back then invaded and colonized countries under the guise of spreading religion. If religion didn't exist, what would have happened back then and how could it affect the today of our world?

[0xpragma]

Thinking about a world without religion is interesting, but it’s like trying to imagine people without emotions... it’s pretty much impossible. Religion is a big part of what makes us human. It's about feelings and faith, kind of like being in love.

The main issue isn't religion itself but how people use it. Often, the problems start when people twist religious teachings to fit their own goals, which can lead to actions that totally go against what the religion is actually about. For instance, most religions preach peace, but sometimes, people do violent things in the name of religion.
 So, the real challenge isn't to get rid of religion but to understand it better and respect different beliefs. We need more education and open conversations to prevent the extrem stuff that happens when people take religion too far.

In short, religion itself isn’t the bad guy here. It’s about how people interpret and act on it. We should focus on the good parts of faith—like community and moral guidance—and deal with the misunderstandings and misuse that lead to trouble.

[Fiatless]

The world is encapsulated with so many religion embedded with different doctrines, teaching and belief which have affected our sense of reasoning in different ways. Religion has raised serious concern to mankind especially in terms of sociopolitical and economic coexistence. The major cause of insecurity in most part of the world today is the problem of economic and religion supremacy where everyone seen to uphold their religion with virtue and in a high esteem and even considered it to be the only true region and the only way to salvation and internity thereby condemning or seeing other religion as fake. So therefore, considering the problem associated with religion differences in world today, I think the world would have be a better place without religion.

The world wouldn't have been a better place without religion because most of them have a good doctrine that promotes peaceful coexistence, equity, and selflessness. The problem we are having is religious fanaticism and religious intolerance. Some people think that their religion is superior to others and have gone to the extent of forcing people to convert to theirs. People have been intimidated, beaten, and in some cases killed because they refused to convert to a religion. It is these fanatics that have caused conflicts and religious wars. With this superior mentality, some religious faithful wouldn't want it live peacefully with others. They think they should have the best while others should be treated like slaves.

Politically religion is affecting the quality of leadership. Most citizens vote for incompetent candidates because they belong to the same religious creed when they have more competent candidates. Religious fanaticism has also led to favoritism and partiality in the appointment of political officeholders and even the allocation of resources. Let me conclude by saying that from my observation, most religion has good intentions, but the problem is that followers misinterpret and wrongly apply most religious teachings.

[PhillipDe78]

A world without religion would be a different world. Social and cultural norms, moral values, and historical events would all develop differently. There might be fewer conflicts based on religious beliefs, but a significant part of our cultural heritage and sense of identity would be lost. It would be fascinating to imagine what such a world would be like.

[Yucky]

Do you want to know the excesses religion has helped to control in the society? Looking at a society without religion is almost the same as assuming we can cope without the government. Apart from certain religious views that looks at killing as obedience to what they believe in, religious people generally have a good moral view about humanity which has helped to reduce crime in the society.

[0xpragma]

bestcandy you should check out the book "Big Gods" by Ara Norenzayan. It's all about how beliefs in all-knowing gods have helped people work together throughout history, even when they weren’t directly connected. While religion can bring people together, it can also split them apart. Norenzayan’s book gets into both sides – how it can lead to cooperation or conflict. This duality is super relevant when thinking about how we can build a better world.
That why I shared the Lumitarian Manifest in this Forum https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5500768.0. It's sort of like a modern take on how we can get along on a big scale without the usual religious divides. Think of it as a rational approach to what religions often aim to do – bring people together around shared values but without the downsides like conflict.

Both "Big Gods" and the Lumitarian Manifest could give you some relevant insights into making cooperation work better in our connected world.

[Marvell1]

... I think the world would have be a better place without religion.

I come from a country with many different religions and everyone has their own beliefs. And one thing I feel is that most religions have the purpose of doing good deeds, advising people to help each other, teaching people to become good people, useful to society...In addition, there are also many people who do not follow any religion and I see that they are not much better. So how can you say that religion is destabilizing many parts of the world?

Today's conflicts stem from the greed for power of politicians, the bloodlust of many eccentrics who always want to control the entire world. To be more precise, human greed is creating instability in our world, not any other cause.

[Zoomic]

I do not think the would would have been a better place without religion. Religion has given rise to some social communities that encourages people from all walks of life to live in harmony, uniting people from all races and giving people a reason to live. The few good people we have in the world are been influenced by religion to do good. Religion is all about showing love for humanity, no religion encourages one to hate the other simply because they do not have same beliefs. Anyone who hates the other for having a different belief or ideology is only demonstrating his/her own inbuilt human nature of conquering his/her environment and acting superior to the others.

Religion teaches love, peace and unity yet people practice otherwise, will a world without religion be better?

[darkangel11]

I'd say yes, because religions are the root of superstition, fear, hate towards others... but there's also the other side of the coin.
Some people need reassurance because they're weak-minded and lonely. They need to know someone cares for them and watches over them. That's where religion comes in, as guidance where there's none.
Imagine you have no parents or they're addicts who don't care about you and don't teach you anything. I'd rather see that person turn to God as safe haven, than be lost and eventually give up.

[Miles2006]

People just lack morals and blame their religion because each religion has their own way of doing things. Despite the fact religion rules have impacted some negative thought on people mindset doesn’t necessarily mean religion is the problem. Humans just have a unique way of thinking and doing things because no religion will state negative words but humans can easily develop negative thoughts without thinking twice. From my opinion different religions are meant to live peacefully with zero hate and war, I believe the concept of religion should not be channeled to hate.

[Falaku pere]

People just lack morals and blame their religion because each religion has their own way of doing things. Despite the fact religion rules have impacted some negative thought on people mindset doesn’t necessarily mean religion is the problem. Humans just have a unique way of thinking and doing things because no religion will state negative words but humans can easily develop negative thoughts without thinking twice. From my opinion different religions are meant to live peacefully with zero hate and war, I believe the concept of religion should not be channeled to hate.

Religion has brought about negative impact on the society, it has divided so many countries into groups, where one feast on the other just because the other person believes on something outside what he/she believes. People now no longer live by integrity or good deeds but whatever their religion tells them to do, be it to kill or any of their believes.

[mu_enrico]

Since this is a hypothetical question, the answers will be speculative and contain a lot of "ifs"...
- This world will most likely have one or more religions, so it's improbable that we would have none. People need religion for their mental health and to explain things they don't understand.
- If there's only one religion, I believe people will still kill and go to war with each other for various reasons. It's just in our nature.
- If there's no religion, I believe people will still kill and go to war with each other for various reasons. It's just in our nature.

So, no, religion isn't the only cause of bad things, and the world wouldn't necessarily be a better place without religion. There are many other reasons people do stupid things, for example, skin color or even your dick size.

[Dunamisx]

The world can be a better place only when we realized our individual contributions towards achieving a peaceful and coordinate society to all live in, this is not about religion, its about the way we all happens to see life and what it mean to us, now that we have religion, are people not still behaving the way they like, we also have leaders governing over the affairs of human beings, are people not still found behaving the way they like, cheating on each other, a religion is expected to be a means whereby people can understand the needs on why they have to live a good life worthy of emulation, but many have taken it so common that they don't even regards it as much as it is being expected.

[o48o]

The world is encapsulated with so many religion embedded with different doctrines, teaching and belief which have affected our sense of reasoning in different ways. Religion has raised serious concern to mankind especially in terms of sociopolitical and economic coexistence. The major cause of insecurity in most part of the world today is the problem of economic and religion supremacy where everyone seen to uphold their religion with virtue and in a high esteem and even considered it to be the only true region and the only way to salvation and internity thereby condemning or seeing other religion as fake. So therefore, considering the problem associated with religion differences in world today, I think the world would have be a better place without religion.

We would have to define your word "religion" as it's a complex and a wide subject and it's covering a lot of harmless religions, personal beliefs and organized churches to cults.
Need for religion is pretty much build into us and being used as a tool to control by some entities.

So i guess getting rid of religion would require replacing that in some way, because for some people religion doesn't differ from any other form of believing, as they don't have capacity or can't question authorities.

And are you offering scientific method and listening to auctorities of different fields as an alternative way? Because we can't really enforce that in personal level. We can and have been enforcing it for secular governments, but populists have also been using pseudo science to convince people against the experts opinion. But as an answer to your question, religion shouldn't be a big part of governmental decision making, because coming back to democracy from that can be difficult if not impossible.

[LTU_btc]

Don't really like to answer such rhetorical or ''what if'' questions. Too many factors and unknowns to know answer. I can't say that world without religion would be better place, but I tend to think that at least it wouldn't be worse place to live

Do you want to know the excesses religion has helped to control in the society? Looking at a society without religion is almost the same as assuming we can cope without the government. Apart from certain religious views that looks at killing as obedience to what they believe in, religious people generally have a good moral view about humanity which has helped to reduce crime in the society.

I'm wondering what reasons makes you to think that religion is needed as much as governments. We're living in XXI century with very advanced science and religion already don't play big role in peoples life like it used to do few centuries back.

[Wakate]

The world is encapsulated with so many religion embedded with different doctrines, teaching and belief which have affected our sense of reasoning in different ways. Religion has raised serious concern to mankind especially in terms of sociopolitical and economic coexistence. The major cause of insecurity in most part of the world today is the problem of economic and religion supremacy where everyone seen to uphold their religion with virtue and in a high esteem and even considered it to be the only true region and the only way to salvation and internity thereby condemning or seeing other religion as fake. So therefore, considering the problem associated with religion differences in world today, I think the world would have be a better place without religion.

The world would never be a better place without religion. Region has been one thing that have brought people together in unity and make us love one another. If there was no religious in the world, I don't think people would be able to share the love that is always preached to others to bring them together in unity.

Religion has been the backbone for our peaceful living which makes a person to see that other person as their brother and love. Although it has been seen that religious competition and hatred for other people of different religions is the problem we are facing in the world that would make a person to see another person that is not from their religion has their enemy. This is not meant to be and love need to be shared around into people of different doctrines.

[Hispo]

I dont think the world would be a better place without religion.
Actually, while it is true there are many conflicts which have something to do with the system of beliefs of different groups of people, most religions are based in a collection of rules or moral codes which encourage values like selfishness, kindness, justice, among other values.
As others have already say, if there was no religion, we would still have racism, classism, xenophobia, homophobia and other geopolitical issues countries which could turn countries against one another easily.
One could even take as example the ten commandments, given by God to the people of Israel. The commandment on murder is a good example on how religion is supposed to be a starting point for us to become a better society, instead a more divided one. Though, there will always be people who twist the meaning of the sacred words for them to convince others to do their bidding.

[_Miracle]

The world would be a better place if people acted like devouts of the religions they claimed to be and allowed others to peacefully worship their own religion.
Take a step further and keep your religion out of policy, and remove their tax exempt statuses.

Be religious but also just mind ya business.

[Roseline492]

The world wouldn't have been a better place without religion because most of them have a good doctrine that promotes peaceful coexistence, equity, and selflessness. The problem we are having is religious fanaticism and religious intolerance. Some people think that their religion is superior to others

Politically religion is affecting the quality of leadership. Most citizens vote for incompetent candidates because they belong to the same religious creed when they have more competent candidates.

Religion is very important so I wouldn't say is bad because it has prevented a lot of bad things from happening because just like you said there are some religion that promote peace among people and it will be very difficult to see someone who abide by the religion to venture into things that would go contrary to there believe and there are also doctrine that spoke about helping the less privileges but is very unfortunate that people are abusing it all in the name of claiming that a certain religion is the best and from there discrimination started that if you don't belong to a certain religion it will very difficult for other religion to help you, and like you said the government is even the worst because if you don't belongs to there circle it becomes difficult to succeed, so actually religion is not the problem but instead people are the ones making it look that way.