Will the world be a better place if religion is abolished?

When I was 18, I believed in science. I thought the truth would set people free. I thought it would allow them to see things that I had admittedly only recently been taught and that I later came to doubt. I believed understanding would make a better world and I tried to engage people to follow what I had learned. I tried to make people happy by explaining why things happened.

When I was 18, my mother became a Methodist (still is) and she found peace in the words of a Methodist minister who became a family friend. He thought the truth would set people free. He wanted to tell people things that he believed but admitted he doubted. He believed his faith made him a better person and believed it could make a better world and he tried very hard to engage people and to make people happy.

He and I are tied together because it's always going to be his signature on my passport application, vouching for me. But he and I are tied together because we want the same thing, regardless of our belief.

The words are different, the outcome is the same. If you want to do the right thing, it doesn't matter why. It only matters that you do.

Dappled be writting the longest deepest answers ever.

If something destroys it deserves to be destroyed. I do think 99% of the world's religions are destructive but it also extends to ideas.

Things like Nazism, Racism, Communism, Anarchy, Islam, and other religions have divided us for thousands of years and caused those who could have been brothers to kill one another in embittered conflict.

But in a practical sense it could almost never be done. To destroy ideas, you must birth a new one.

This world would do just fine without religion. It's faith that people need.

Nah. The United Atheist Alliance would try to take control. The only thing I believe is that man is "the retarded offspring of five monkeys who had butt-sex with a fish-squirrel".

Simply put, yes.

I am not religious, nor spiritual, nor do I have faith, or anything else related to the metaphysical. What I've come to acknowledge from this vantage point is that religion is neither helpful nor detrimental to humanity, without it war still will exist like the USSR displayed. Without it greed and other vices will still exist. But things like morality would still exist. And it is because all of these "good" and "bad" things are not caused by religion nor exist because of it. Instead people use religion to convey these messages of hatred and destruction, or, of peace and love. But it is not the only way these messages, can be conveyed.

In short, if religion ceased to exist the world will not be a better or worst place.

Less segregation would happen as a result, peace and nature would be left alone.

yes, religions control government nullify religions and you nullify government and it ends in perfect anarchy

i dont think you really can abolish religion. its impossible to police what people think in their minds, and their is nothing that can stop them from praying in their houses, etc.

I honestly dont kno, if not religious extremist than it would just be something else.

My stress level would get cut straight in half if I didn't have to worry about religious things and religion.

Are you trying to say that religion is going to be all gone, right now, from this point onwards or is the concept you are suggesting that we try to imagine the world if religion never existed?

I am going to answer your question using the first concept, because the way you worded this question gives that impression.

First all of, there is no way to enforce this abolition of religion. Even if the world were to be ruled by a single totalitarian government, perhaps similar to the one in effect during the Nazi régime people would still practice their faith in secret. Maybe on the outside they would say they did not believe in any religion but they would ask God's forgiveness in their hearts. The same applies for whatever other religion any human being wishes to follow.

Another question I have, is what do you consider to be a religion? Are people allowed to hold beliefs in math and science? Are they allowed to be spiritual in any form?

Yes. Even though everyone else seems to be answering this question in a general sense, trying to debate with one another about the big idea, no concept is without each of the minuscule pieces that make up the larger whole.

Still, I will continue. I don't often get into debate or lengthy discussion about anything but all of my favorite users have jumped on board so I wanted to also voice my opinion.

Somehow, every country in the entire world, or we have now delved into an alternate reality and this other world is going to enforce and oppress the people that live there so they are not able to practice religion. There is not a single thing that every part of the world is able to oppress another human being

I'm religious- I believe in what I want- don't have other people say, "that's not aloud!" and be dicks about it is all I'm saying... Though abolishing religion completely wouldn't be possible even if people tried.

I believe religion is a good thing, though some people take it too far. It's always good to believe in something. It gives us a sense of purpose and direction. I don't think some people would live as happy as they are without religion being around.

Religion teaches rights and wrongs. Though I don't believe in heaven or hell, I do believe in the sense of it in your own mind. Most religions teach you to keep yourself in your own sort of heaven. I don't think people could achieve that without being taught it through the heaven and hell context.

In short, religion helps people become better people. Without it, I can almost guarantee there will be a lot of lost people with no sense of purpose walking around. That will only lead to bad.

This is why the first amendment is so good... it prevents something like this from happening.

Abolishing religion wouldn't work. It would only drive it underground and potentially even strengthen it. Where levels of education and standard of living are improved, however, religiousness tends to decrease drastically. That's why socially advanced countries like Norway have the highest rates of atheism. It would be interesting to see if in these uncertain economic times, more people will turn to religions and pseudosciences like astrology for hope and comfort.

I don't think so. I'm pretty sure they tried doing something like it in Mongolia back when it was a communist state, without any positive results.

I'm not religious myself, but in the same way that religion may drive some people to be hateful and evil, it also drives some people to love and do good, for fear of their God.

Think about all the uneducated people in the world who have known little of earthly happiness in their lives. Presuming that they have no access to education or differing opinions, religion is all that they have to tell them to be good, not do any harm, and ultimately promise them a better life in the next world. Ripping away this hope from someone like that would be cruel. It's the only thing that they have.

I personally need religion to survive. I rely on faith, through practices and self realizations. I know many people who need religion as well.

Think about centuries ago, and even today in some places, when people were persecuted for practicing certain religions- how did that go?