Question What difference would it make, if the world were Atheist?

[Rapier]

War and corruption would still exist even without religion. It can be easy to find something to fight about and we would still have greedy people.

People's relationships would be another thing. Maybe people would not be getting married, who knows really because people were getting married even before Christ.

Science would have progressed much further I think because at times religion held them back. I'm not saying necessarily for the good.

People wouldn't be getting stoned to death for adultery and other such crimes against Islam and I doubt people would have been burnt at the stake for witchcraft. I'm sure something else would have taken its place though.

Without the bible as a guide some archeology discoveries might not have been made like the city of Troy. Then again there might have still been a record of it.

Getting stoned would be a walk in the park since morality would be COMPLETELY the whim of those currently in power. Look at what has happened to the USA on the world's stage, IN SPITE OF CHRISTIANITY, since the unelected, warmongering neoconservatives have been in power.

 

[Rapier]

One big difference would be that men and women would be more equal. Anywhere you look in the world where women are treated worse than men it's because of religion. I'm talking about forced marriages of children, female genital mutilation, being kept out of school while boys go to school etc. Almost in every corner of the world to varying degrees throughout history women have been treated as less than men all due to religion.

"
This view that women are somehow inferior to men is not restricted to one religion or belief. Women are prevented from playing a full and equal role in many faiths. Nor, tragically, does its influence stop at the walls of the church, mosque, synagogue or temple. This discrimination, unjustifiably attributed to a Higher Authority, has provided a reason or excuse for the deprivation of women's equal rights across the world for centuries.

At its most repugnant, the belief that women must be subjugated to the wishes of men excuses slavery, violence, forced prostitution, genital mutilation and national laws that omit rape as a crime. But it also costs many millions of girls and women control over their own bodies and lives, and continues to deny them fair access to education, health, employment and influence within their own communities."


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-polit...for-equality-20090714-dk0v.html#ixzz3fjJJbBCR"

Women would be in deep doodoo without religion, pretty much no matter how strict a current religion's rules seem. Peer pressure to adhere to moral codes of religions would be out the window. Just reflect back to the filthy times of the Middle Ages when everything was thrown out the window. Mayor XX of La has a set of ethics as would San Diego and SF, La., and Sacramento. Morality laws would have to be written and rewritten if the new guy got a bug up her or his butt. Or they might just whim it. Men would become enforcers of their own morality on others weaker than themselves because no one would know what the current brutality, I mean morality, limit was.

 

[Rapier]

Yes and no. Morality would still exist on some level, but it wouldn't be a lifestyle. As an Atheist, I do hold some values, but some are far from traditional. The values society expects are rooted in old world belief systems, and although progress has been made, much of the secular world still comes from religion. I believe, as a species, we have reached the edge of our evolution. Religion offers a way to continue civilization. But no, we would not defeat our nature. The sermon is of survival, not of salvation.

Yes, hate and violence would exist, but not on the same scale. What you have to realize, though, is that our perspective s on things like murder would be entirely different. We may still deem it wrong, but not for the same reasons. Following a law because a god told you to and following a law for the good of humanity are two different things. But much of the extremism we see in the world today wouldn't exist if religious documents weren't there to misinterpret.

What would temper authority?

 

[NewGamePlus]

Topics like these are amusing. Instead of titling it "What difference would it make, if the world were atheist?" it should be "What difference would it make, if the world were (INSERT ANY ONE BELIEF SYSTEM HERE)?"

Nomatter what answer is inserted in there, the result would be bad. Even if you're like me and you think that it's ridiculous for anyone to still believe or put up with the mere idea of anyone not believing in some form of "God" or entity that is somehow originally responsible for existing without being itself created by something else and in turn creating everything we know, I'd still say that atheists are somewhat "needed" to balance out the many many OVER-religious in the world.

So then the question becomes, "Is there really any reason at all why the world should all be one belief system over the other?", to which I would say... no. You wouldn't want the whole world to be Catholic just like you wouldn't want them to be atheist just like you wouldn't want everyone to be buddist just like you wouldn't want the whole world to be any one individual thing.

It's also laughable how the people who usually entertain such concepts are the ones who are more responding to the bad examples set by the over-religious of the world (which, granted are a LARGE amount, but not the fault of God or religion in an of themselves) and the people who oppose are often the ones that base their sole source of morality on there being a God when that's not even NEEDED in order to have a basic moral sense.

So in other words... as long and complicated as these things get drawn out... it's silly when it comes down to it.

 

[Major]

Instead of titling it "What difference would it make, if the world were atheist?" it should be "What difference would it make, if the world were (INSERT ANY ONE BELIEF SYSTEM HERE)?"

Nomatter what answer is inserted in there, the result would be bad.

Agree, 100%.

I believe that the world is a better place when there is freedom of thought, people choosing their own beliefs and challenging others' ideas rather than conforming to them.

Without differences of opinion there would be no need or desire to search for answers to philosophical questions or to further our understanding of nature, our place in the cosmos, etc. We would just be taught one set of beliefs, accept them, and there would never be any advancement of our knowledge. We would probably still believe the Earth is flat and that separate gods control the sun, the moon, war, love, and everything else.

 

[Crypticshock]

I just find believing in an entity that can just create everything and not believing in Aliens is laughable. Wouldn't God, in an essence, be an Alien? Or I guess a Cloudien since he's not from this planet and doesn't necessarily come from space well unless he created all of those other planets and stars and needed to be there to create them too.