You know, the memes about a world with no religion being more advanced, or libs quoting Lennon's Imagine, etc etc... well, I realized that they never question whether a world can actually be with no religion.

Now, I do not mean religion only as in organized religion like Catholicism or Islam or Buddhism, but simply as a faith shared by a group of people, a belief not grounded in "pure reason".

With this definition in mind, I don't think that Humans can exist in a world with no religion. Maybe some individuals might be able to exist in a state of complete disbelief and empiricism, but as a society as a whole, it is hard to envision.

And if we look closer to home, i.e. communist revolutions, for example the 21 years long fight in China by the CCP to take power, including the Long March, this cannot be driven by reason alone. To endure what they did, to continue for so long, these people must have had the kind of religious fervor that I doubt most "religious" people actually have.

I do not think it would be desirable for society to abandon all religion, i.e., unreasonable beliefs, which include hope, hope for something better (e.g. communism).

  • leftofthat [he/him]
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    4 years ago

    Once you accept that you can have a religion without a god or a suspension of science (i.e., faith) as still being within the definition of "religion" (and I do) -- then no I don't think it's possible to have a world without religion. Something like the Satanic Temple.

    That's because ultimately "religion" to me is just a way to manifest shared beliefs. And as long as we have society we'll have shared beliefs.

    • Ectrayn [he/him]
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      4 years ago

      I don't think you can have religion without faith though, but not necessarily a faith against science mind you. More a faith in our ability to push our understanding of the world, or simply faith about humanity being able to become a better version of itself. Transhumanism can be seen as a form of science compatible faith I think

    • mayor_pete_buttigieg [she/her]
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      4 years ago

      I don't think I would define faith as "a god or a suspension of science".

      First off, it is pretty easy to be religious without a God. Lots of Buddhists are.

      Also, science should be understood as a particular way of investigating certain questions or topics. There are lots of areas where science doesn't tell us anything useful. How can I be a good person? Am I happy? How can I become happy? What will the future hold for me? Do other people feel the same way I do? What is truth? There are all questions that science cannot answer. Probably philosophy cannot answer them either, at least not perfectly. Various world religions, however, do provide answers for some of this stuff. Perhaps a devout Christian might think that they can become a good person through worship and study of Jesus's teachings. They might also think that truth is knowledge communicated to us by God. If they described these beliefs to you, you would say that they have faith. However much you may disagree with it, you cannot use science to show that they are wrong in these beliefs, at least no without making some non-scientific assumptions first.