Cancelling Religion

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Could it become possible where the whole concept of religion of any kind would ever be just completely ruled out, made illegal to the point of none existence where it's just not remembered at all. Or does there have to be religion for society to work....idk

Would that make for a better world or a worse world or do you think it just wouldn't matter one jot

Know your history. It has been tried (and has failed) many times.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_atheism

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cult_of_Reason

There have also been attempts to scapegoat one particular religion (Judaism for example) for all the ills of mankind.

Scapegoating “all religions” is simply an extension of the same idea.

1. Pick an “in crowd”
2. Define yourself as a member of the “in crowd”
3. Define your “out crowd” as anyone not in your “in crowd”
4. Blame all the problems of humanity on members of the “out crowd”
5. Exaggerate real human flaws of members of the “out crowd“.
6. Minimize any real human virtues of the “out crowd”
7. Exaggerate real human virtues of the “in crowd”
8. Minimize real human flaws of the “in crowd”
9. If minimizing and exaggerating doesn’t work, just lie.
10. Avoid taking a good hard look in the mirror.

Oh yeah I see what you mean

She seems to be asking about going beyond just banning religion...to...just forgetting that religion ever existed.

For me its hard to imagine how THAT would be possible because so much art, archetecture, literature, is rooted in Christianity, other living religions (Islam, Buddhism, etc), or in now extinct but still remembered Pagan pre Christian religions. Notre Dame Cathedral was built to Christ and the Virgin Mary, the Parthenon to the goddess Athena (no longer worshipped but still you have to know about it to know why the building exists). So you have to be aware that the concept of god or of gods is a "thing" that existed for thousands of years.

Yeah it's hard to imagine to completely eradicate the notion of any god and thank you for making my point more clearer for me naturalplastic

I'm thinking my thought is going down the 1984 route....it's a bit grim to say the least

I'm not a religious person but I like religion as a cultural thing that brings people together but then it causes so much trouble as well

There are indigenous tribes in the Amazonian rainforest who don't need god to be happy. They have no origin myths and don't care about the past, just the present. One guy came to proselytize and turn them into Christians, instead, they converted him into an atheist. They are also one of the happiest people on Earth. The question is, how long will that heaven last, since the Brazilian government is doing their best to westernize them. Luckily though, Christian missionaries have been banned in that area somewhere in the 80-ties. Not that that has stopped some of them, unfortunately.

https://ffrf.org/fttoday/april-2010/art ... thout-god/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirah%C3% ... seen%20him.

Religion is likely an evolved social behaviour. Over time, societies that drew on religion became more united, resilient. healthier and happier. Thus, the propensity for being open to a "higher power" became coded in our DNA.

It'll never happen. Humans would rather believe some 50 foot tall man with a long white beard sitting on a cloud in the sky will somehow save them when the world blows up than accept the fact that all that happens when we die is we become maggot food.

And yet religion and faith in "dieties" persisted (and still persists) during the age of enlightenment over the last 400 years despite the rise of science and age of reason.

I kind of like the idea because it's been my strong opinion for a long time that there are no deities, so it would be nice if the human race conceded that I'm right. Of course it's not going to happen. And I don't think it'd have much effect on human happiness. You get freed from divine sticks and carrots and unreasonable religious expectations, but you have to forget the option of a happy afterlife and the idea that you've got a wonderful invisible friend to talk to. And you can't take advantage of the social cohesion church thing unless you're OK with being a complete hypocrite or you can find a church that doesn't have any faith demands.

So I think the best thing is to agree to let religionists be as long as they let non-religionists be. Unfortunately there are religious fundamentalists who will never let non-religionists be.

Religion is used to balance the free market.
Religion disappeared naturally after the collapse of the market economy.But it must be very far away.

Our ancestors in the Upper Paleolithic stone age, who were hunter-gatherers, much like the Piraha, probably had similar beliefs to the Piraha about "spirits". And did not yet have 'gods'.

But as agriculture and domestication appeared and there came to be stratification in society...the supernatural world also came to be imagined as a heirarchy of beings ...giving orders to other beings. And actual 'gods' appeared, and you had polytheistic pantheons of gods which mirrored the specialized jobs and class divisions in human society.

The sometime in the late Bronze Age a few innovators, like Abraham, Zaroaster, and the Pharoah Iknation, came up with notion of a single over arching god. And gradually monotheism took hold and began to spread.

The monothesitic god could be imagined to grant immortality as a reward for good behavior...to keep folks honest, and keep the economy running well.

Native societies were traditionally animist so yes believed in spirits. Our indigenous Australians practice one of oldest continuous spiritual beliefs and they had creator spirits that existed before the dawn of humanity. Creator spirits are often elemental (sky/earth/wind etc) and create humans from clay/soil to rule over animals and plants. this seems to be a common theme. Not hard to see how creator spirits evolve to become gods when humans started forming settlements.

Of course it would be possible. Burn, delete and otherwise destroy all "holy" texts, figurines, icons etc, and reeducate religious people or separate them from society at large. Make sure children only learn about the real world in school.

It would take a lot of work, and some people would no doubt hide away all sorts of religious stuff that would keep popping up from time to time.

We'd need to eradicate all trace of religious influence and terms from our languages, songs, movies, books, games, art, etc etc etc.

Like I said, it would take a lot of work over a fairly long time, but it could be done. Religions came about at a time when people were very primitive and needed to explain and understand the world around them. They have outlived themselves to put it mildly.

It would be a very good thing to get rid of religions, and other beliefs. It's not a good thing when adults walk around believing in imaginary friends in the sky or other outlandish notions.

If people makes similar claims not rooted in religion, they'd rightfully get a diagnosis, but for some reason, if you can call it religion, then their magical thinking must be accepted. It's ridiculous!

It would be a good thing if everyone was on the same page in terms of what reality is.

Society absolutely do not need religion or other fairytails. In fact, the more secular the society is, the more advanced and civilized it is, and the freer its people. Case in point? The history of the real world.

That's not to say you can't have dictatorships without religion though.

I don't think it should be entirely illegal, but it should be illegal to force it on people and illegal to mistreat children and young adults in the name of religion. Because like sometimes girls from middle easteren countries who are living in the U.S can get taken back to those sort of countries by family to be forced into marriges they don't want or so they can do an honor killing in a place it is not illegal. So I do think it is ok for a person to personally believe in religion but they can no way force it on others even their own family.

I understand that people have strong views on this topic, but my religious beliefs are an important part of my identity. When negative comments are made about religion, it feels personal and hurtful to me. I would appreciate it if we could approach this discussion with more empathy and consideration. Respecting each other's beliefs is important, and I hope we can continue our conversation in a respectful manner.