Would the world be a better place if there were no religion? If everyone was an “atheist”, or better yet, completely unfamiliar with the concept of “god”. Would the planet we inhabit be more peaceful and prosperous without the concept of the supernatural?

All of the wars, throughout history with each side declaring “god” on their side, or some god. All of the disease and death because everything was “god’s will” or some such nonsense. Imagine a world where none of that existed and our friends and enemies weren’t determined by any religious ideology. Where people didn’t not just divide countries, but families as well due to some ancient myth passed along by their forebears.

Even though it seems that religion has played a major role in the misery of history, would life really be better without those believers? Don’t we still have a thing known as “ego”, and isn’t that part of the puzzle as well? Power as well ego have caused the deaths of millions, just in the twentieth century (Hitler, Stalin, Mao, for a start). We see it ll the time on the device that gives us the world, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. We sit around and feel bad for the hundred’s of thousands massacred in a country or even a leader poisoning his own people and burying them in mass graves (I saw these in Iraq).

It’s the human condition and even without religion, I don’t think there’d be much change in society. I mean, think about it: I have something you want (land, resources) and instead of negotiating a way for me to get these, you’ll just invade my territory and take what you want. You may even use the “we’re doing god’s will” excuse to mollify the public, but that would be the extent of any involvement by any god.

So we can all dream of the day when religion will be be gone or just not important enough anymore to have an influence over our daily lives, but does anyone truly believe life would change significantly without religion? Finally, I think someone, somewhere, would invent a religion if none existed. It all has to do with ego and power.