A World Without Religion

"Imagine, for a moment, a world where religion never existed, for whatever reason. Its citizens go about their lives having never heard of any religion. In your mind, what would the world be like -- worse, better? Why?"1.

I think that a world without religion would be a much better world. Imagine no 911. Imagine no terror-threats from Islam. No suicide bombs. Imagine no pedophile priests or money-hungry televangelists. Imagine no Roman Catholic Crusades against innocent people or torturous Inquisitions against those who denied their religion.

Imagine no religious nuts carrying signs at soldiers funerals saying that it’s good that they died or that "God hates fags." Imagine no religious hypocrisy, and no trail of human blood down through history through the mass of religious wars. No witch burnings, no hindrances to science . . . imagine.

The Bible only mentions "religion" five times. Three times the Apostle Paul uses the word in reference to his pre-Christian life. The other references are in the context of religious hypocrisy (see James 1:26-27). I try and distance myself as far as possible from those religious folks who insist that salvation comes from religious works. I don’t believe that, I don’t practice that, and I don’t want to have anything to do with that.

Man has always used religion for his own political or economic gain. Hitler did it. America does it. Iran does it. The Pharisees in the time of Christ did it.

Religion is very grimy and murky bathwater, and those who don’t look carefully can easily miss the baby. A world without religion…how wonderful that would be. May God hasten the day.

1. Adapted from, scienceforums.net interview