For Atheists only, Do you actually believe without religion we would be better off?

First, you cannot prove there is no God. There is no logic in the world that can do this. Second, you cannot prove religion is necessary for humans. To do so you would have to remove religion from the population and prove it couldn't survive, which is not possible. However, since I am atheist, I can show that humans can survive without religion. Also, many so called "Christians" are not church goers, but are instead "Armchair Christians" who accept that they are going to Heaven simply because they believe there is a God and they haven't killed anyone.

Next, there are many great works of art of a religious nature. In at least a few cases it is reasonable to assume that the artist would not have been inspired to create art without religion. I think the world would survive just fine without these works, however. Things such as the Sistine Chapel wouldn't exist, the artists and architects who created it would still have created other works.

There are many places in the world which would benefit from lack of religion, the Middle East chief among them. These days, as has been the case throughout history, religion is used as an excuse to kill. Now, while people would likely still find excuses to kill without religion it is almost certain that some of those people would not and, thus, lives would likely be saved. I see no need for religion in the world today, no benefit that it gives mankind whatsoever. The Catholic church allows the victimization of hundreds, maybe thousands of children to save face rather than protect those same children, for instance. Without religion those priests could have just gone about their lives as gay men rather than becoming priests in an attempt to avoid the temptation of the "sin" of homosexuality resulting only in the temptation switching from sex with consenting adults to molestation of children who can't fight back and aren't likely to tell.

Then we have cults which result in suicides and the victimization of women in general and young girls in particular. We'd all definitely be better off without that.

Next, hate groups in America are only legal if they are religious in nature. You can't spread hate speech unless you have special protection under the law which allows you to do so with immunity.

So, yes, I would have to say that, on the whole, the world would be better off without religion. I can see no positive benefit other than it helps some people cope. I am sure those people would find other ways to cope without religion, though. There are plenty of detriments to religion.

Ah utilitarian argument.

While religion may have been useful in the past. We have recently found that reasonable people 9/11 all terrorists involved were emotionally stable, has university educations, were reasonably wealthy. Had no history of mental instability. One hijacker was excluded because he was emotionally unstable. They did this because the idea of life after death seemed reasonable, they obviously believe this stuff.

Delusions are not generally a good idea.

Religion was probably useful in the past because it provided some law and social services, while also being self sufficient. People would willingly buy into it. Currently we have far better forms of these. Our law system is far better, our charities are more efficient. So the abuses (ie rape of children for one) outweigh any current modern benefit of religion.

Religion may have been useful in the past, but we can do everything relgion does socially more effectively through secular organizations, without the problem of delusional thinking, lying to children, manipulation, indoctrination, etc.

So IMO the utilitarian argument fails horribly in the year 2009.

Society without religion would have done fine in instilling moral values. Without religion, science would probably have advanced faster, allowing society as a whole to advance faster. These are just two basic points. So no, you would not be able to prove, as you claim, that religion is necessary for humans.

You can prove there is no god? Really?

You can prove religion is necessary for humans?

I suspect that you're stretching the definition of the word "prove". Using your standards anybody can prove anything merely by saying that it's proven.....travel that path and you've created a new religion. And I believe we have quite enough of those already, thank you very much.

To answer your question, it's quite possible we'd be better off without religion but one cannot prove a hypothetical scenario.

religion is not necessary- if you believe that, you are a moron. And whether or not religion can be useful is of no matter, considering it is simply a game of make believe. We're ready to grow up and accept the real world and wake up out of the deception. Now that we are in an age where information can so easily be spread, it's time to put the past fantasy aside and seek what is really out there in the far reaches of the universe.

No, I don't see that.

There may indeed be some "useful" aspects of some religions.

There are also without a doubt some destructive aspects of some religions.

The simple fact is that we don't know what WOULD have happened without religion -- and we can't rewind the past and run it again without it to find out.

I am perfectly willing, though, to *see* what will happen as we go forward without religion. Given how badly religion has performed in the past, it seems a worthwhile experiment to conduct to me...

Peace.

I agree with you to a point. Religion was a necessary part of human development - it helped control the masses enough for us to organize into complex societies. Religion was rather like training wheels on a small child's bicycle. But now that we're in our adolescence as a species, it's quite ridiculous for us to keep clinging to our training wheels - they've become a major hindrance and it's time to remove them.

Yes. Yes we would

All religion has done is control people and give them false hope.

Religion is a plague. There is no reason to have faith in a nonexistent entity. People don't go around worshiping Santa Clause and the Loch Ness Monster yet they have a perfectly easy time believing there is a man in the sky who listens to 4 billion people murmuring to him at once.

no person can thoroughly get rid of faith from the international. human beings will nonetheless have self belief in a god, basically like Nasa nonetheless believes in a collection of craters on the different area of the moon.faith might have brought about deaths, yet so has water. might the international be extra valuable off devoid of water? What are examples of those atheist international locations, and do those international locations nonetheless have philosophies that have self belief in karma, consisting of Taoism and Confucius and Buddhism? in case you pay interest to what a faith consisting of Christianity teaches, you will possibly think of that the Christian international locations may be maximum non violent, yet their delight of their faith reasons it to no longer be so. Why no longer purely end threatening religions? there is not any backing to assist your claims.

Right ...and all the progress we've made since then is only due to religion?

or

Do you not think we're a bit more evolved now then when we were "cave men"?

BTW; Early man certainly did have religion and superstition, which ar basically one and the same.

You fail like the failiest fail that ever failed a fail.