where would we be without religion?

[Antoine]

Many of us find plenty of flaws in every religion that exists on planet earth (mainly because they're all man-made)

However, I believed for the longest time (and I still do) that if I ever had children, I would want them to go to Catholic school and study the basic virtues and morals and then they can decide (like myself) not to associate themselves with that religion or go to church or whatever, but at least they have good morals and values to fall on.

what do you think if religions ceased to exist?

 

[G-Lexington]

Religions give people a convenient excuse or reason to do wretched things to one another. I don't think eliminating religion would eliminate those wretched things - they'd simply be given different rationales for doing them.

Lex

 

[Castix]

About 200+ ahead in science and technology. And being gay wouldn't have been an issue if the bible hadn't been invented.

I misread the OP, I think religion was a great way of forcing people to be good or else and it was also a great way of explaining complex things like lightning back then as "God did it" but now I don't really see the point of it anymore. Sure it gives comfort to people but I see a lot of hate derived from it more often than not. We can explain things now so why don't we extract the good teachings from it and just let the rest die off?
You should be teaching your own kids these good morals and values (I'm sure you would) and not leave it to the church.
I went to a catholic primary school, Its over rated and deeply conservative. It's not something you want suppressing your child's view of the world.

 

[TheOscar]

You know, religion is good. It's those people that take it to the extreme and that shut off all other people that are not associated with their religion that are bad.

Religion gives people hope in a time of stress and it gives people, often times, something to live for and a sense of community. There's SO MANY religions out there, that it's hard to just generalize "religion" as one thing. Most commonly, we'll think of Christianity, Judaism or Islam, but there are so many other religions that do not follow one same God. I think it's a great thing for people that use it correctly (as in not use it to hate on everyone else).

I myself am trying to get into Buddhism, however, Buddhism isn't exactly a religion in the conventional sense. Really curious and will probably work on that this summer! I find I'm at a time right now where I'm asking a lot of questions about who I am, who I want to be and what I expect of my life. Vegetarianism is also on the list of something to try....*cough* but that's for another topic....

But, I suppose, without religion there would be no world, because I find it hard to ever have human beings NOT have relentless faith in something.

 

[KrisHawkXXX]

Well are you just referring to spiritual religions or various religions like nationalism and currency?

 

[MoufOfKhaos]

^Those are not religions.

*ahem*

Then we'd have things like The United Atheist Alliance, the Unified Atheist League and the Allied Atheist Alliance.

I personally await our new otter overlords, as they eat your entrails on their collective tummies.

 

[KrisHawkXXX]

They are in fact religions. Religion's definition is very simplified in modern terms. It's the way we are told to think rather then how to think.

 

[MoufOfKhaos]

^That would make communism and fascism, among those things, religion. And they aren't.

Simplicity is too broad and therefore a crutch on this subject; religion requires faith as well as obedience, no matter how wavering it is from person to person.

 

[KrisHawkXXX]

Communism is a classless, border-less money-less, order-less, lawless society that is developed without force or class rather a natural process of social evolution. Social evolution is fact as it has brought us to where we are today and we are far more socialized then we were 2000 years ago. Fascism is an ideal and branch of capitalism that contains elements of currency, private property and nationalism but it goes into dominance and abusive dictatorship as well as exploitation.

Nationalism is a religion because its an imaginary belief we follow blindly. Example we need a passport to leave to another Nation. Nations/empires existed during the primitive era beyond our time, nations were created by imagination as an attempt to organize. Nations are figments of present imagination, invisible fences. People pray to their flags like people pray to superior/spiritual beings. Nationalism is very much a religion if you study certain philosopher's views extensively.

Are you familiar with existentialism?

 

[Telstra]

Many of us find plenty of flaws in every religion that exists on planet earth (mainly because they're all man-made)

However, I believed for the longest time (and I still do) that if I ever had children, I would want them to go to Catholic school and study the basic virtues and morals and then they can decide (like myself) not to associate themselves with that religion or go to church or whatever, but at least they have good morals and values to fall on.

what do you think if religions ceased to exist?

Its a well run business model. That is why parents want their kids to be in that school.
Parents don't want their kids to be in a run down school.

If there is a Harvard primary school or an Oxford primary school run by the Uni, parents would flock to these schools.

 

[RobinGoodfellow]

About 200+ ahead in science and technology. And being gay wouldn't have been an issue if the bible hadn't been invented.

Actually, we'd probably be further behind than we are now. A lot of our major advances (heliocentrism, evolution, scientific method) were due to some religious fanatics (Corpernicus, Darwin, Al Hazren) or patronage of the church.

As for communism/fascism being religions: Given the fervor that they've been approached with, I can see them being religions...

RG

 

[KrisHawkXXX]

You can't approach communism, its a process of development that takes hundreds to thousands of years. That is like a toddler approaching driving a car. Rubbish.

 

[frankfrank]

Actually, we'd probably be further behind than we are now. A lot of our major advances (heliocentrism, evolution, scientific method) were due to some religious fanatics (Corpernicus, Darwin, Al Hazren) or patronage of the church.

From what I understand, the Church, over a period of many centuries, did nothing but make sure that human knowledge did NOT proceed at all, but was entirely limited to The Bible.

Who was responsible for burning the Library at Alexandria (which was the finest repository of ancient human history)? Was religion responsible for that? Honestly I don't know.

From a Yahoo search:

Of course, Copernicus waited until he was dying to publish this so he could escape the sure punishment from the Catholic Church. It took the encouragement of George ...

Renaissance Astronomers

Some of the people who made these huge advances just HAPPENED TO be deeply religious, which was extremely common in those days. Copernicus waited 36 years to publish his treatise, because of fear of religious persecution.

Does anybody know whether the visions of Leonardo daVinci were hushed up or suppressed at the time because of the dominance of religion and its disparagement of anything scientific? If so, it's possible that human progress was set back 300 or more years.

Another example, same source:

when Galileo published papers that said that the universe is heliocentric (centered on the Sun), he was brought up against the Inquisition. He was accused of being a heretic (in 1616) for opposing the Church's teachings.

Truly, The Church was the SWORN ENEMY of human progress.

 

[The_Reaper]

I don't think you need religion to establish values; my moral centre was impacted much more by parents than it ever was attending Catholic School...But, as a young reader, I knew more than I should have for my age and I don't think I swallowed a lot of the pablum they force fed in my elementary years; since I had access to alternative sources.

There is not a doubt in my mind that this world would be a better place without religion. I don't think we'd have world peace, because people would still attack each other over race, nationality, and stuff like that; but there'd be one less thing to kill people over. Not to mention an end to the moralizing talking heads who try and tell everyone else how to live their lives, while attending to a thousand different hypocrisies on the very thing they talk about...

 

[looseliam]

^Those are not religions.

*ahem*

Then we'd have things like The United Atheist Alliance, the Unified Atheist League and the Allied Atheist Alliance.

I personally await our new otter overlords, as they eat your entrails on their collective tummies.

sorry, I've been wanting to use this pic for ages and I guess now is as good a time than ever ;)

 

[Antoine]

Why ask the church to teach your children virtues and morals, thats your job.

not the church, but when I was younger, my parents put me into like a ... bible school/bible camp, but it wasn't all about religion and stuff.. it had activities and we went camping and trips and I made a lot of good friends there and we also learned about God and the bible and all that... but I grew up & still stick to my values and morals, but I don't believe in religion anymore.

 

[Britguy]

We would all be better off without "religion". It stinks, it causes wars, it causes hatred. I'm a buddhist and I love everyone. Way to go

 

[JJ-Klein]

I don't think that making them go to Catholic school and then letting them decide for themselves whether to associate with that religion or not is the best approach. A child is extremely impressionable and years of social indoctrination and conditioning are not going to be easy to let go of, just ask the millions of people who feel burdened with catholic guilt!

In my opnion, if you really wanted to let your child be free to chose his/her religion or lack of it, raise them outside of a church. Religion is not required for good morals and values, good parenting is. Then once they've reached a certain age where they have somewhat of an eduated, independent mind, expose them to different religions and they can freely, and fairly decide what to believe.

 

[Musik2400]

Ok, first of all, a lot of people would still call Buddhism a religion. Second, if it's true that a philosophy can make you "love everyone" as you claim, then what's to say that a religion like Christianity or Islam can't do the same?

Because unlike Buddhism, Christianity and Islam are centered around worshiping and devoting yourself to a supernatural being of other-worldly power (God, Allah). Buddhism does not fit the dictionary definition of religion, nor did its creator view it as a religion. it is a philosophy, and a way of looking at the world, not an indoctrinated set of beliefs to be followed. Buddha is not a god. He is not a supernatural being with amazing powers. He is simply an ordinary man who has (basically) discovered the meaning of life, and reached enlightenment. Any person can become a Buddha themselves. This is not true in religion. If a priest were to stand in front of his sermon and say he has now become a God, he would be labeled a blasphemer.

 

[RobinGoodfellow]

Would we have had a more tolerant and less sexually oppressive world if it wasn't for the influence of Christianity (for example)?

Actually, most of the oppression we see in Western society is due to the Black Plague. Just prior to it the lady of the castle was assumed to take over leadership when the lord was away, and she was definitely a force to deal with even in normal day-to-day work. Women in several fields, usually nursing and childcare, were starting to publish major papers; some of those papers are still mandatory reading today. It's been theorized that woman equality would have happened within a few centuries if one little thing hadn't happened.

That one thing was the Black Plague, which ushered in the Renaissance and chivalry. Given the amount of people that died, women were all of a sudden put on a protected status to ensure that the survival of the human race (or at least the European portion). Because there was an immediate advantage, it was widespread quickly. Combine with some serious chauvinism, and you have something that ensured women being oppressed for a long period of time. Interestingly, any time you see women being oppressed, you can see a combination of survival issues, women benefiting from protection, and chauvinism; this applies just as much to atheist cultures as religious ones.

So I'm not really sure if oppression of women can really be laid at the footsteps of religion.

RG