Would the world be safer without Religion?

But knowing how humans like to divide themselves up and tend towards an "Us versus Them" mentality anyway, I'd say we'd still see some of the problems we see with religion - but at least we wouldn't have to worry about witch-burnings...

Cagefighter

Not necessarily. A**holes would still find someone or something else to blame for their deeds.

AGuest

Religion is just an excuse, dear jam (peace to you!). And man will always find excuses... to oppress, dominate, overlord, take from, conquer... and anything else he can "do" to his fellowman. I realize that many believe that "most" people are good. I would agree with that; however, it's never been the majority, has it, that has led the race in oppression, domination, overlording, taking from, or conquering the less... ummmm... oppressive, dominating, overlording, taking, or conquering kind. Most of the latter are uncertain and fearful and so lack confidence and true self-esteem. Which makes them easy to lead... and mislead.

Again, peace to you!

A slave of Christ,

SA

AwareBeing

If religion wasn't able to interfer with peoples lives and the governments;

it might be a little bit like that Orwell novel "1984", with Big Brother.

Religions, and merchants don't hold power over the world; it's the military.

There would be fewer organizations looking over the authorities shoulders.

Suprisingly, the protest movement may it self push the system in that dirrection!

revelatoryawakening.wordpress.com/2011/10/10/protests-what-comes-next/#comments

XJW4EVR

Not according to this article. The author lists 16 religious wars between 1648 & 1989.

jam

Aguest; I agree that most people are good, and it,s

true that the majority has never led the race in oppression.

But what methods are used by the oppressor to dominate and

conquer the less.

We speaking about today, recent decades.

Israelis and Palestinians are killing each other by the hundreds

in Israel, the west Bank, and Gaza. Hindus and Muslims

are slaughtering each other in India. Catholics and Protestants

continue to kill each other in Northern Ireland. Sunnis and

Shias have their arms wrapped around each other,s

throats throughout the Islamic world. And we cann,t

forget 9-11. Muslims were so determined to murder

helpless Christians and Jews that they were willing

to die to shed blood of other religions.

If religion makes people want to murder each other,

maybe we need to examine our faith.

The fact that religions preach love, but here lately

it often generate violence, cannot be dismissed

as A minor imperfection.

wobble

To answer the original question, yes, I believe the World would be a safer place.

I do think too that the world would be a much better place in so many ways if it were peopled by rationalistic pragmatists. At present peoples religious beliefs are such a brake on human progress, and add to the world's problems.

I know that someone will leap in now and come out with the old rubbish about, no religion= no morals, no religion- look at the "Atheist" states/regimes that have existed etc etc but those arguments have been shown to be nonsense.

O.K, get rid of groundless religious beliefs ( not spirituality) and the world will still have immense problems to solve, but if the whole world of mankind took responsibility for its actions, and worked for solutions to the problems, it would be a better place, a much much better place.

scotoma

Religion is a necessary stage in cultural evolution. It functions as a placeholder. It is a natural outgrowth of clan morality that allows humans to form large groups with a lot of specialization. The next step is for society to understand evolution and use it as a tool. But to do that they have to move away from religion and nationalism. It would be nice if humans could get rid of religion and nationalism gradually. But it is more likely that it will be a catastrophic change midwifed by nuclear war.

PSacramento

The 20th century has shown that humans will find a way, ANY WAY and ANY excuse to kill each other and religion is just one of many.

Would the world be safer without religion?

Think about it this way, when was the last time an Amish went to war or commited a crime?