Re: Would we be Better off without Religion?
Date: December 06, 2011 07:02PM
Its not really a viable question. People take to religious beliefs as they fulfil a very human need for certainty in an uncertain world. So whether or not we would be better off without it doesn't answer the real everyday needs of humanity as a whole.
Humanity is made up of a bunch of individuals always, and each individual has varying needs that change over time as circumstances dictate, so there can never be a simple prescriptive answer to the question.
Religious belief--of all stripes--- can be a great comfort in times of need. There is an old saying that there are no atheists in the trenches, ie. when facing one's own possible death.
When my sister (a 'humanist') was slowly dying at a young age, my brother (an atheist) asked me (an agnostic) what I was doing to try to keep going, as it was a harrowing time for everybody. I told him the truth, that I was praying to a god I had never believed in as there was nothing else that I could do.
We are a weird lot, humans, and not half as powerful as we would sometimes like to think.