No Christianity, No Islam. Would The World Be Better If They Never Existed?

[david small]

Your thoughts.

[Old_Geezer]

Where there is a gap something evolves to fill it. So there'd be little difference save the names have been changed.

[davebro3]

//Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion, too//

RIP John Lennon

[Peter Pedant]

but they do, david, they do   ( exist)

( thx to whatever happened to baby jane)

[Old_Geezer]

Yeah, but a daft song though dave. One about having no possessions so no incentive and many leaching of the efforts of the few. Must've been written while very high.

[10ClarionSt]

As dave said, John Lennon thought so!

[Untitled]

yes

[naomi24]

Yes, the world would have been a better place particularly in the case of Islam.  That is a blight on this planet.

[Ellipsis]

What about the other ~4000 religions?

The problem isn't religion, it's people ...

[naomi24]

//The problem isn't religion, it's people ...//

Religion guides people.

[royfromaus]

The problem is what your religion teaches you.

I don't have time for any religion but Islam...I hate Islam.

[Ellipsis]

> Religion guides people

Religion is a human construction.  So people (humans) are the problem.  Nobody is born a Christian (for example), they are made a Christian by other people.

[naomi24]

Which means people are guided by religion, albeit a concept of human construction.

[Ellipsis]

Yes, so religion is a vehicle to get people to do what they want to do anyway. Getting religion abolished won't get people to stop doing bad (or good) things, they'll do it anyway.  If religion was abolished, it would be probably be created again in a few years.  You can see how some cults are embryonic religions ...

What we want is people to be better people - whether that's inside or outside the constructs of a religion.

[naomi24]

//Yes, so religion is a vehicle to get people to do what they want to do//

 

Which leads us back to the question.

[andy-hughes]

Man has needed something to explain the things he doesn't understand  - the sun, the moon, thunder, whatever. 

As Man has become more sophisticated, the constructs have become equally sophisticated - Greek and Roman gods - one of each for everything, through to 'God', and for the modern superstitious sophisticated- Scientology.

The sinister thread that runs through every single one, is the potential fir exploitation and power spotted the clever few, and developed into complex hierarchical bodies which use their power for their benefit, to the detriment of their followers, leading them into ever more restrictive and damaging practices as time goes on.

Yes life would be better without worship, rather than religion, but then we as a species would not be what we are, good and bad.

[Untitled]

 christianity and islam both absorbed or extirpated thousands of religions that came before them... the difference is that lots of small religions is much better than a few very very big ones! 
 

a bit like capitalism... we all like local shops or small chains... giant multinationals tend to be quite destructive and evil. 

[Old_Geezer]

It's a cycle. The culture (religious or other) moulds the individual, then the individual supports and moulds the religion. And round it goes again.

 

I doubt worship does much. It's the imperfect rules that go with it that causes issues. Plus the way proven to expand a religion in the past being violence and threats.

[Ellipsis]

How can I put it this way? If Christianity and Islam never existed then they would have to be created by people, and that's exactly what happened ... QED.

[Khandro]

The last time any aggresive act was undertaken purely in the name of Christianity was the 13th century crusades (to free Jerusalem from Muslims).

War and aggression has never stopped taking place since then in the name of Islam, and is happening at this moment as I write this, in the Middle East & all around you.

Go figure!

[Ellipsis]

I invoke Godwin's Law ...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religious_views_of_Adolf_Hitler