Imagine a world without religion

What do you think it would be like? What kind of a place do you think the world would be today if religion had never excisted?

 

I don't really think of religion shaping people. The world shaped religion out of itself, so if it didn't exist we would just create it again. But imagining the world totally without it - for good - would mean imagining a vastly different form of human existence, since I see that as an essential precondition. People would probably be kinder to each other, not so selfish. Less wars, violence. You see this kind of analysis is about as meaningful as imagining we all had wings.

 

It would be a completely different world.
There would have been a lot less wars in the medieval ages...
chances are there would be less politics in the world, as I reckon there would be less countries, we'd all be one people, as a major factor that contributed to the creation of countries was different belief system.
Much much friendlier people.
Science could progress uninterrupted the entire way and we'd probably be around 1000 years more advanced than we are now, as there would have been no Dark Ages where science was considered the work of the devil!

 

kind of depends on what you mean by religion. i think if there were no "revealed" religions, people would look for and find other things to "believe in".

with any luck they might not use them as excuses for as much collective self destructiveness. though there's really no guarantee of that either.

 

there would be less war and no religion to blame on existing wars...or for the cure for thigns or the good in people etc....people may actually start to realize personal responsibility and the creation of their own personal devinity

 

i don't think there's any guarantee of that. but i certainly like the thought.

 

Imagine there's no Heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace

eace:

 

I can see why, how some people find solace in Religion - though the doctrine of teachings written and not practiced seems; not so much hypocritical, but can be contradictory.
For me I 'm a great believer in 'Faith' - I don't need a book or to be preached to
For I have conviction that we should all find inner peace in a world united in harmony, with tolerance of others views without judgment and criticism. I have to believe we all have some good in us - (it's just must can be hidden deeper in some than others)
- Though I wish ... to each their own

 

It depends on what you mean by religion. I'm used to drawing a distinction between religion and spirituality. I associate religion with doctrines, rituals, and group participation. I associate spirituality with a feeling of higher purpose or meaning to my life. I could probably do without the former, but life without the latter would be hard.

 

I make the same distinction, although I feel that the former in this instance often serves as a conceptual framework for experiencing the latter for a lot of people.
In fact I was just on the phone with a friend discussing how I've felt myself to be in a spiritual death for the past couple of years, and how the only cause I can identify for this is that I no longer have any foundation to build upon. Words like dogma and rituals are often said with a negative connotation, but I feel that the sort of authority and discipline that comes with organized religion can serve as a great guidance in its genuine instances.

To more broadly answer the thread, I believe that a hypothetical world without religion is impossible to speculate about in a way that concretely links it to the real world, simply because religion itself is so expansive, and the people that participate in religion are even more expansive still.