A world without religion

[alanon]

I have your paper written for you already:

Since Religion is based on the premise of a Supreme Being/Creator, one could logically deduce that if there were no religion, then chances are there is an abscence of a Creator, which means that this World, it's history, it's people and everything on it would never have existed.

Please turn that paper in and let me know what happens.

In all seriousness, Religion in and of itself is not bad. In it's purest form it is a wonderful and glorious thing. The problem is is that it relies heavily on man and man has twisted it and used it for less than honorable purposes.

 

[Halifirien]

In all seriousness, Religion in and of itself is not bad. In it's purest form it is a wonderful and glorious thing.

Here's the problem, though: how do you define religion "in its purest form" and what is it about your definition that automatically makes it wonderful? Those are entirely subjective. One person's wonderful may be another person's nonsense.

I also have to question your logic. It doesn't necessarily follow that we have religions because gods actually exist or have ever existed. We have the concepts for unicorns, centaurs, manticores and fire-breathing dragons without believing they're real.

There are a lot of Buddhists who would disagree that religion requires a god.

 

[Neisan]

That would devolve again into an older argument about what can be considered a created ideal, as technically dragons ,unicorns, centaurs and manticores are just chimeras of existing creatures/objects/ideas. Yes, you can imagine a pink elephant, but 'Pink' and 'Elephant' already exist. I'm more in agreement with what Skaw said to an extent; in my opinion, having a belief in itself isn't necessarily evil, but currently religion - or precisely, the christian one for example - isn't anywhere near what it was intended to be, and that is what causes people to be disillusioned.

Humanity itself can qualify as a 'god' for a religion. I'm sure there's at least one in existence that believes that, I just don't remember which. Religion doesn't need a 'god', whether the 'god' is real or not.

 

[Tok]

There are a lot of Buddhists who would disagree that religion requires a god.

being a Buddhist myself I can agree with this statement, sure i have fat buddha statues and i wear a charm of Sidartha around my neck but I don't activly worship him on a day to day basis, and to go deeper into this buddha isn't a god, he was a man who just acheived enlightenment which is the goal of all buddhists, to be free of all suffering and obtain enlightenment.

I myself think that if people would try to live their lives through the lessons taught by religion rather than take literal meaning to the stories in their books then i think the system would work.

i think your question right now is flawed, only because religion as a whole is a way for an uncivilized people to explain this thing we call life and all of it's mysteries. i think that without religion to scare our more primative anscestors we might not be where we are right now, cause lets face it, most religions were formed to control the general populace.

i think that as a whole religion works, it's just those select fucktards who shove their beliefs down your throat and use the bible to do whatever they want that ruin it for everyone else...i myself don't believe that "god" exists and that he created everything as we know it, but whatever helps you live your life and be the best person you can be from day to day is perfect for you

 

[Uzor]

I wouldn't really say Buddhism is a religion, I would say it is a way of living.

 

[Elemmire]

Here's the problem, though: how do you define religion "in its purest form" and what is it about your definition that automatically makes it wonderful? Those are entirely subjective. One person's wonderful may be another person's nonsense.

I also have to question your logic. It doesn't necessarily follow that we have religions because gods actually exist or have ever existed. We have the concepts for unicorns, centaurs, manticores and fire-breathing dragons without believing they're real.

There are a lot of Buddhists who would disagree that religion requires a god.

"If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him" <3 reading your post made me think of that fun quote. Yay Voltaire.

 

[Tok]

I wouldn't really say Buddhism is a religion, I would say it is a way of living.

exactly, which is the way all other religions should be