What evidence is there that the world would be better off without religion?

Well, there is the fact that secular countries have lower crime rates than religious countries, among other things where secular societies perform better.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/our-humanity-naturally/201103/misinformation-and-facts-about-secularism-and-religion

I wouldn’t even say that the planet would be better without any of it, but that we need to drop the institution as a political and monetary force.

@ragingloli is correct: there are multiple countries with leaders and citizens that actually act like they live in the 21st century.

Edit: I’m on my phone now, but to tackle this problem, it would help to look at what religious institutions and people are doing and how they’re affecting others around them. Obviously, if you remove these people or prevent them from negatively impacting people, that will solve many problems.

What you cite is evidence for the downside of religion, but not evidence that atheism or agnosticism would serve mankind any better. We can point to all the religious wars, purges, convert-or-die proselytizing and inquisitions as evidence of the harm religions wreak. But the Pope or Grand Mufti could fire back that Godless Communists have more blood on their hands than all the major religions.

I would argue that communism as practiced by Stalin and Moa (the two greatest killers of all time) were not really Atheists of Agnostics but rather Statists, making the Almighty State their god. Of course, those defending religion would rightly claim that my rebuttal sounds like a “no true Scotsman” fallacy. I would counter that not all “no true Scotsman statements are falacious. And so the argument would go. So far, the only evidence I can think of to support my strong suspicion we’d be better off without belief in things lacking supporting evidence is what @ragingloli has provided.

Logically, I think that some religions encourage their followers not to worry about all the wrongs of this world, instead placing all their hope in a prefect world they believe is to come. If they remained unconvinced that anything comes after death till evidence proved it, they might logically devote more concern for making the life they know they have a good one for themselves and others.

@ragingloli I’d say that makes perfect sense. God, perhaps, goes where he is needed most.

This question reminds me of one that was asked a little while ago along the lines of “Can anyone name a war that did not have to do with religion”. There are a lot of generalizations and misconceptions when it comes to religion. Lumping them all together and tossing them in the compost and hoping for a better world seems silly. =)

Humans would also have likely colonised space by now
And it is not just Europe where Religion suppressed and killed scientific advancement:
The islamic golden age of scientific discovery was single handedly strangled by religious fundamentalism. They have not recovered since.
And the same is now likely to happen in the US.

Oh with all these questions. We get it, you like it, okay? It’s okay to like it, it’s ok to be religious, it’s okay to think there’s a god, I absolve you and whoever in your family does as well. Geez.

How could anyone answer this question? How could anyone say what the world would be without something so influential? What if I asked whether the world would be better off without men? Or Nutella? I mean, let’s be serious here.

@ragingloli How is he defining “secular”? Not particularly religious? No state church or religion (a criteria Sweden, Norway, and others wouldn’t technically qualify for)?

@Simone_De_Beauvoir With all due respect, Simone, I think it’s a pretty valid question. If we replace religion with another random thing like the relationship between money and politics, or domestic violence etc. It’s ok to wonder what our society would be like without various notions, ideologies, or groups.

Crusades,Spanish Inquisition,jihad, intifada,cross burnings,Hindus vs Muslims [India/Pakistan]

I am not religious…BUT…the world needs a helluva lot more of the golden rule mentality…no denying this truth. I’d rather see people worshiping a god than money or politics or porn stars any day of the week. I agree with @Simone_De_Beauvoir silly question.

Was it truly that men were trying to prove their religion was the only one? Or was it just a bunch of guys throughout history trying to prove their is bigger?

Like many have stated above, we have all kinds of non-religious “religions” in the U.S. (consumerism, entertainment, sports, etc). If traditional theistic religions disappeared tomorrow, I suspect we’d still have a whole host of other troubles. It’s quite possible that the features of humans that have been co-opted by religious memes can – and will be – used by other ideologies and unjustified belief.

I’d love to see everyone move towards an understanding that it is valuable to hold as many false beliefs as possible. And towards that goal, everything is eligible to put under the microscope. Nothing is sacred.

Churches smell of bearded men & copious amounts of hairspray, demolish them & poof…aroma eradicated.

@tom_g You wrote, “it is valuable to hold as many false beliefs as possible.” Your next sentence leads me to suspect that you meant the exact opposite of that?

LOL ^

@ETpro – Thanks. Yes, this is a typo. It should have read, ”[enter something actually meaningful and typo-free here]”.

what evidence is there that it wouldn’t?

[although, in earlier centuries, I would have said it’s worth keeping around for the art, architecture, and literature created in service of it. But this no longer seems the case in the 20th and 21st, maybe even 19th, centuries common era.]