Would the world without religion be a better place to live in?
I don’t think we would ever get to a stage where we could rid ourselves of “religion” because even if you removed all mention of Gods and deities, did away with places of religious worship, made praying illegal and punished anybody caught praising their lord…..you still couldn’t make them all think the same and believe the same things, you would soon find that something else replaced religion….oh wait we already have it….politics!
Well, I think religion has a place. But the current crop of religions is a mixed bag — there’s a lot of voodoo and ugly stuff mixed in with the good stuff… it can be hard to say whether a particular faith does more harm than good in the current state. I think “just one religion” is very unlikely to occur, and it’s easy to imagine that going badly if it did. I think “no religion” is equally unlikely, but probably less dangerous if we’re just going to sit and speculate. But, if you have no religion, there’s a new problem that needs to be solved… what are you going to do about ethics, morality, and meaning in life? How is an individual going to get grounded in something transcendent to their ego, so that they can contribute and inspire others, rather than just “look out for #1”? That has been the traditional legitimate role of religion, so something else needs to step up. I think the more practical approach is for those who see clearly to speak out for specific reforms of specific re
