What if there were no religions other than Humanity?

Humanism is older than all religions combined.

There have been humanists since the beginning of recorded history, all over the world, though the word "Humanism" has only been used to describe our beliefs and values since the 19th century. These ideas have been recorded in Europe, from the 6th century BCE to about the 6th century CE, in China from the 6th century BCE onward, in India from the 6th century CE onward, in the Arab world from the 12th century CE, and in the Western world from the 17th century CE to the present day.

If there was no religion, the world would be something other than it is today. But who can say what it would be like? While looking at this sentence, several questions come to our mind. Even if we are not brainstorming at the time.

These questions will keep disturbing you;

• How would a world without religion have been born?
• How could the caveman have explained the meaning of life without religion?
• How would the cultures of Greece or India have flourished without religion?
• What story would the leader of a group of people have told his people, when a tsunami destroyed their homes?
• Have you thought about the difference between organized religion and religion as it is practiced as a personal devotion?
• Religion, what is it good for?
• But what if, religion never existed?
• What if we never had a religion—or religions—to fight with or against?
• Would the world (and the people who inhabit it) be a better place?
• Would there be something important missing?
• On balance, and ultimately, has religion been a "good" thing or a "bad" thing?

People of religion usually inherit their beliefs from their families, depending on their culture. Humanists have always worked things out for themselves, and we’re still doing it now. For this reason, we’re sometimes called “freethinkers” because that’s what we do – we think freely, rather than believing.

The symbol of humanism is the Happy Human. Many people hear this list and say "well, I guess I'm a humanist." Maybe it's you as well. Most humanists don't believe in God or belong to any religion but call themselves humanists because they share these values.

Humanists believe that:

• We can gain knowledge through scientific research and by looking at the natural world-what is real, what we can see and touch.
• This one life is all we know we have.
• Our morality (our sense of right and wrong) comes from our human nature and culture.
• What is right is what promotes human welfare and fulfillment.
• We can and should create meaning and purpose in life.

Religion satisfies a deep-seated need in humans, the need to feel that there is a purpose to their existence. It is only in the past few years that we have understood the mechanics behind tsunamis. There is a whole lot of history before that, and I don't see how humans could have passed through those times without building a religion to see them through.

Hitler did not come into power because people thought he had God behind him. Some people might have thought that, but that was not the reason that people gave Hitler adulation and power. Hitler was loved and supported because he emanated a feeling of being able to fix things for Germany. Make the world right. That is a human need that is often filled by religion, and the power given that way is often wielded by religious organizations. Without religion, the way would be open for people to exploit that need from other points of view. For instance, the power of science to make the world better was a great argument for Hitler and many others in that era. Did it work better than religion?

Without religion, it would be much harder to control society—for good or evil. Because religion is a way of sharing morals within a society. It is a way of telling parents which teachings are important to pass on to their children. It is a way of building a common lifestyle. Without religion, something else would need to take that place.

Without religion, there would still be morals and good people. There would still be those good people who want the best for everybody. There would also be bad people, and people who think they are good but are only out to get "their own". Quite often, human selfishness is the greatest evil of all...

A world without religion would be very different, but it would be different because for humans to not have religion, we would have to be very different beings. And I just don't know what that could be like. Or then a world without religion would be just like the world of today, except we wouldn't have things called religion... We'd have other ways of hating people different from us and being nice to people in our culture.

But, if we look back to the roots of history—during the times of our evolution, when the first two creatures of God landed on Earth— Did they have any religion? Because they are the source of humanity and the human race on Earth. If not them, then why us?

Religion does divide people. That is true. However, I prefer the word separate rather than divide. Religion does group people into different sects. Jews, Christians, Muslims, Hindus. These differences sometimes can cause disagreements and hostility between people of different religious backgrounds. Wars have been waged in the past and present in the name of religion and often times the resentment follows through generations to come.

And if religion is deemed necessary for the identification of caste and creed of the large population, then it should be kept in mind that it should not be mingled with terrorism. The statement is so that what we actually see, is mostly the Islamic States are involved in the clutches of terror-related activities.

A group of people whose behavior, together, results in their own self-destruction... not even animals would do this. So to say that humans "would behave' like this (without religion) is insulting and arrogant on so many (ignorant) levels.

Religion takes away from us the very thing that makes us human: critical thought, and the ability to make value judgments for ourselves. So, what would happen if humans could interact by using that ability? That, unfortunately, is an experiment that has yet to reach any conclusion.

Now, the question arises, particularly with the religion of Islam, that if the messages of religions aren’t the root cause of conflict, they are simply a justification for it. Then, why is a Muslim family, in a Hindu locality, especially, denied a home to live in, or in some cases, not allowed to stay as PG?

Why it is so?

That means the mainstream society considers the religion of Islam and its followers to be the followers of “Terrorism” as a whole. But, the problem is that no one even tries to accept the fact that terrorism doesn’t fall under any category of religion.

It’s a sorry state of affairs to see that Muslims are looked down as an Offended class of religions. There is no quick fix to the human condition.

The irony is: we would probably have fewer wars, and fewer people would die. We would still have on earth some destroyed cultures and populations, and people would have been more educated in using their own judgment to discern right from wrong. Science would be more advanced due to fewer obstacles. Populations would be more united, having one barrier less from their neighbors.

The negativity we see today and falsely attribute to religion is totally a false misconception. People who do wrong do not belong to a specific religion that requires them to do wrong. They do it for money, power, greed, etc.

Unless, of course, we accept religions to mean ideologies like capitalism, socialism, communism, etc., then yes, the world would be totally different without them.

But restricting religion to the common definition of Christianity, Islam, Judaism, etc., would make no substantial non-negative difference if they would not exist.

The Crusades fought in the name of religion to gain political power and expand empires, which would have found another excuse for the war if religion had not existed. After all, Hitler did not need Christianity to wage empire-wide expansion. Bush did not need religion to launch a crusade in the Middle East; the IRA does not need religion to carry out bomb attacks. All these are political causes that may use religion as a front for some sinister end.

The "No" arguments basically say that not all wars are based on religion. But the further you dig into the layers of the reasoning behind war, religion always ends up showing its ugly face. Religion is war; the people who say otherwise are more following idiots that will defend it in fear of going to "hell". The world would be a much more peaceful place without religion. There is less fear, less crime, and less hate in a world without religion. Everyone would be accepted and or eventually, be accepted as with religion, they (we) will never evolve because of them. For now, we are stuck in the dark ages, a world of war until the religions die off.

If a person follows any religion strictly, he/she will always do everything according to his/her religion. And there arises the real problem as other religions' act isn't bearable to him/her. It is against his/her religion. So the way the two people see each other is different because no religion matches the other religion completely.

Some people just take their beliefs too far. They get upset that not everyone thinks as they do. They think they feel this inner peace and they want everyone to feel it too. That is, until people do things that go against their beliefs. Then, they get enraged and start doing things that go against what they say they believe. They tell other people who believe what they do and get them riled up. The groups of people then take to the streets, causing chaos everywhere they go. That is how wars start. The world would be a much better place if people would just accept that we all have different beliefs.

The world would not be more peaceful if there were no religions. In order to feel peaceful, a society and its people need to feel secure. Religion, in and of itself, works to give its people a sense of security and peacefulness that they would not otherwise have if they did not have religion.