Would the world be better off without Religion?

Well let's think about it.

There are basically 3 parts to almost every religion (almost).

- You have the Bible thumper types that try and live their life by the 'book'. These people may try and impose their religion on you, try and convert you, but at the same time they have tried to better their life some way or another, which is great. This is the most positive side to religion, but with everything good there will swing a bad side to things.

-The middle group. I believe Agnostics can fall into this category, it's also people that follow a good set of morals, try and live a decent life, but don't get involved too much, they're basically the people that don't care too much or may not display it very much, a majority of the populus in the world fall into this category.

-Now, we have the 3rd category, the extremists. The opposite side of the spectrum, these are the groups/people that try and justify killing in the name of their religion, by saying their God has told them to. This side almost out-weighs any specific religion when they use their religion as an excuse for hatred (ex: Muslims, the Jews fighting over holy land, etc.. Hell even the Christians had crusades back in the day) There are hardly any religions out there these days that are guilt-free of having violence put in place by their name. Except maybe, Mormons?

But that's besides the point, does the Good outweight the Bad, or the opposite? I personally feel that Religion is a good thing for this world, it really does help people live their lives better more-so than the extreme side that has taken it out of context and the wrong way, but that is just my opinion. Some say that religion isn't a good thing (mj) and that the world would be a better place without it, doing so would create somewhat of a utopia, but that in fact would be a roman case scenario, and would end up turning into it's own form of religion with it's own mini-evolution... Just an opinion, though.

Religion is for the weak.

It gives people something to believe and put faith in, hoping that there is something better than reality. In all honesty, it works. Like you said, people 'converting' or just practicing a good Christian lifestyle can better their lives. I've seen it happen. Just think of all the ex-cons that come out of prison reformed, preaching, and end up turning their life around.

I don't really think their can be a definite answer to your question. If there weren't any religions in this world, what/who would people look to? There are natural instincts in humans to be leaders/followers, and if there weren't any religions in this world, you'd probably have a high number of sects and/or cults that believe in a common goal.

There will always be a greater power out there..

I feel that religion can have positive effects on individuals and on small groups of people. However, the effect of religion on the world is war. The good does not outweigh the bad, in my opinion.

People feel so strongly about religion that when someone else disagrees with them, it doesn't take much to start a war.

Religion is for those who have nothing else to believe in. The world would deffinetly be better off without it.

It's hard to tell. Religion is often times an excuse to make other reasons a little more sexy to wage war. It's a way of okaying it with the masses. Without religion we could have had many of the same wars just for different reasoning.

But let's say we all have one religion? We go back to that theory of Utopia, which in essence, would be the perfect thing we would need to evolve as a species.

Nope. If there wasn't religion, many misguided people would have nothing to turn to and then do whatever they damn well please because they have nothing to live for.

religion is very important in this world, it gives people something to put faith in and do their best (ie christianism etc) and make their lives as model citizens, which both helps people turn their lifes around AND makes society better.

I mean, when there's trouble arounda community, or something or the other, religious people (category 1) would try to help which is great way to make the economy and the political system improve much, since democracy is dependent on the people (dont' correct me) as such if the people are like, goodie toshoes, then we won't have much problems :P

Kyeruu, do you think atheists are unhappy? Immoral? Negligent of social responsibilities? Is there any tangible thing a theist can do that an atheist can't? Atheists are not necessarily devoid of all faith. We can have faith in people. We can have faith in the tangible, in the here and now rather than in an alleged afterlife. We can even be spiritual people. Admittedly, I am not, however I don't speak for all atheists either.

Just because I don't belive in God doesn't mean I'm not going to try and help an old lady getting mugged. I have morals.

Just because I don't belive in God doesn't mean I'm not going to try and help an old lady getting mugged. I have morals.

Why would you help the person you're mugging? You make no sense.

I think religion gets worse backlash than it should. There will be divides until we've fucked each other out of diversity.

Faith is an undesirable thing for any thinking person to posess. If the world was based on fact, and people actually tried to scientifically ascertain not a mere belief - but a theory on the subject of a Godhead supported by theories tested extensively (such as gravity) - and did not approach anything dogmatically or be willingly ignorant - the world would indeed be a utopia.

That will never happen.

I am saddened that humanity can't see that their man-made stories explaining existence are at fault compared to factual evidence. Factual evidence is really all we can use in determining the existence of a god. I really hate calling it god, but it seems that term is powerful in the world we live in, so I'll use it.

I can write a work of fiction containing believable physics of this world and use the identities of individuals to make it sound true - but does that make it less fictitious?

Alternatively, I am capable of acting out a series of events and arrive at the same path that I could have written, but it actually happened.

See how a story differs from fact? The problem is, all religions find some way to excuse themselves from being tested in one way or another. The reason is too much resides on faith.

50 Atheism Quotes

I'm currently reading a book by Christopher Hitchens titled God Is Not Great - How Religion Poisons everything, anyone interested on how religion has held back society as a whole should give it a read

I'm currently reading a book by Christopher Hitchens titled God Is Not Great - How Religion Poisons everything, anyone interested on how religion has held back society as a whole should give it a read

That book was great, though I personally prefer the God Delusion by Dawkins.

I might have to give that one a look after I finish this one