Imagine a world without religion?

[Kendodd]

Not that it never existed, just that people didn't believe in it now. No forced bans on religion, people just stopped believing on their own. So we could still look back at the culture artifacts and traditions. We could still keep and celebrate the festivals and traditions, only the good ones though.
I don't think this would suddenly lead to world peace btw. Its just one less thing to hate each other for though.

Yes it would be incredible

Or a world where we just accept people.

I wish someone had written a song about this…

I am a humanist and this is my hope.

While I would love to live in a world without oppressive, annoying religion, I can't imagine living in a world without a sense of the divine. And the festivals and traditions without the faith or community behind them would be a bit shit.

Removing, with one bloodless pull, the barb that is religion from the world. Oh that's my dream and my hope for the future.

All the most long-running and most vicious wars in the world are happening because one god said it's right to kill all the believers in that god over there.

it's easy if you try...

I don't know what a sense of the divine is, but I don't feel I'm missing anything.

I'm with Douglas Adams who said "Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?"

I can look up at the night sky and see stars and distant galaxies. Light that began travelling before humans gained the power of speech and feel awe and wonder without needing a god behind the curtain to give it meaning.

I'm not sure. There seems to be some argument that a predisposition for religiosity is baked in and in the absence of organized established religions people are vulnerable to faith based belief systems that might be more destructive with a cascade of other negative consequences for society in general.

I'm an atheist and I'm not convinced that this argument isn't built on a mistrust of non-believers more generally. But, shit, I wouldn't want to be wrong on that one.

What like Christmas?
I don't think Christmas is shit, I think it's brilliant. Part of its strength, I think, it that it welcomes all. I don't know anyone (apart from a couple of JW) who don't celebrate Christmas.

Well it wouldn't be full of athiests and humanists boring us all to death with their "beliefs" without being asked.

Even without religion, people will find things to hate about each other. Race A is thick, Race B are all thieves, Race C haven't been chosen by the aliens from planet x, etc. Religion really isn't the problem, it those who use it to hate others are.

Also I think that without religion, nearly all bank holidays and celebrations will disappear. I like having celebrations to help break up the year. Otherwise it's a monotonous continuation of life where you could never have a wider family celebration as not everyone would be able to get the same day off work.

Imagine all the people living life in peace

Why do you think that they will live in peace? What makes you think that they won't find something else to argue about and oppress other people? Humans have always been tribal. It's probably why football is so popular. It's a way of being a tribe without religion.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YkgkThdzX-8

I'm not sure, and I'm a hardline atheist!

Some people need^^ to have some metaphysical influence on their world outlook despite all the evidence that says it's nonsense. I'm sure the non-religious doubt occasionally. I'm sure the religious do too. You can lead a horse to water...

Whilst it would be wonderful if people evolved past the point of believing in religions I do agree that probably something else would fill the void for those looking for a social structure.

Sorry, I was referring to John Lennon

It'd also need to be a world without cults, which are not always openly religious.

I think the poster is cleverly quoting John Lennon 😄

We would just organise ourselves into different types of groups and start fights with the others. The issue isn't "god" it's people.

I think they'd just worship 'man'. Literally men though. It's people's men's desire for power that lead to the creation of religion in the first place.

I don't think religion needs to be replaced with any other belief system. We can just be decent people, don't need to identify as anything else

A world without organised religion which wields political influence would be great. A world completely without religion would be drab. And I'm a pretty hardcore atheist.

Religion is an excuse used by many to kill each other.
Religion/fear of divine retribution, is also the reason others don't kill each other.

Take all of it away, and those seeking an excuse to kill, will find other excuses. Those currently stopped by belief or possibility, will also go ahead then.

I think it may be a numbers game.