I am proposing this argument specifically to be the devils advocate. I think the best way to address this question is to understand what we mean by 'without' religion. It is my understanding that if our world was completely without religion, then it would never have surfaced at all in history. That is when we would truly have no idea what religion was and could also never study it, therefore preventing faith all together. With this approach to the question, we can then ask why religion was excogitated and if it has served its purpose. Religion was undoubtedly thought up to explain natural phenomena and the human condition, which refers to our natural curiosity and ability of critical thinkng and reasoning. The Gods were there to solve the mysteries of the wolrd that the people of the time could not explain. Religion gave way to contemplation and analyzation of human beings and their existence. Religion gave way to curious people thinking and thinking, which then led to Philosophy and Science, because our natural curiosity provokes us to know everything we can. A world in which Religion is not created to explain things can lead to 2 worlds. A world in which our curiosity is provoked or one in which people don't care at all. To me, religion done its job and propelled us into the state we are currently in; We are advanced enough to the point where we trust observation and Science, but still want the security of 'knowing' what happens when we die. The ultimate question. We as a system have done what no other organism can do, and it was all because of our curiosity. Without it, we would have not had religion, philosophy, or science. A world without religion is ignorant, and while it has put a veil over reality and at times causes war, we would still not be the advanced civilization we are without it. Religion is naturally the first step on the staircase that is existence. While we don't need religion anymore, we still should understand that without it, we probably would have never been provoked to understand actuality.

This reminds me of a very good South Park Episode. The Episode was about the world, and how there was no religion, just a bunch of atheists, and instead of people killing each other over which religion was right or wrong, they killed each other over what atheists should call themselves, the point being that no matter what people will find gratuitous reasons to kill each other and stir up trouble, so i would have to say the world really wouldn't be that much different without religion.

You can know that almost anyone claiming that religion has been more harmful to the world at large than beneficial is ill-informed of the subject since, if he'd done the research necessary to credibly make that claim, he'd have too much respect for the institution to make it.

The discount-store atheism usually used to argue the affirmative is something of a strawman: there is a long Judeo-Christian theological tradition that bears no resemblance to the caricatures of religion found in antitheist discourse, which range from crude distortions to outright idolatry. Monotheism has offered an invaluable code of conduct to western society, brought us up out of barbarism and into civilization. Yes, you can find historical atrocities and modern, comfortable bourgeoisie feeling constrained by disapproval of Bible-quoting parents--but all that's insignificant in comparison to those limits placed on potentially primitive behavior by religious mores.

And that's to say nothing of the Jains and Buddhists and Quakers making up a significant portion of the religious population about whom antitheists have little to complain.

WWII was cause by religion, Hitler himself genuinely believed that God wanted him to kill the Jews and he also saw "visions" of Jesus telling him to conquer Europe.

it wouldnt because religion gives people morality i mean whats the point of living if theres no reward at the end kinda thing. now im a atheist who does NOT believe in being good for a reward but most people do, without morality or a belief in god you get nihlism.

No it wouldn't..........................................................................................

Religion, in itself, a set of morals / spiritual beliefs isn't bad. It's positive to believe that some things are inherently good or sacred and should be protected, and some things are evil and should be avoided.

What is not good is when these things are justified by saying they are divinely inspired. Any statement can be argued to be divinely supported, and the general belief in whether it was has more to do with cultural links than actual spiritual ones.

'Abolishing' religion would be very negative, but a world where religion is solely because people want it to exist and not because they 'know' that it's true would be considerably more positive than one which has no religion, or has religions which the adherents believe as unquestionable, unalterable fact.

I have to strongly agree with this side. I don't know if people understand but if there would be no religion a world would be with out churches ,love,kindness,and forgiveness etc. religion is everything good. I don't understand why someone would want the opposite. Like for meh I would never want anything else in my life but religion . This about this with out good nothing good that happened to you would of happened. I don't understand why someone would disagree with meh on this. Only those Fhucken up teens out there that do nothing with there life but drink Fuck and smoke.

Religion can make people feel good about themselves when they help others.