What would life be like w/o religion?
360103
:}\npointless\ncreated by chance ending in nothing\nvanity
622374
No, religion, for most people, is a way of explaining things that are essentially unknowable.  Does life have meaning?  What happens to us after we die?  Is there any reason to be ethical, even when we see others apparently succeed by being unethical? Why is so much of life a matter of pain and suffering? Etc., etc.  Religions attempt to provide answers to those questions, and therefore they are a comfort to their believers.
472961
Well I would probably become a gnostic. Hey, come to think of it that's exactly what happened! ;)
162235
There would be peace and tolerance?
1132354
No, unfortunately. Humans are naturally aggressive, so even without religion, we would fight over languages, color, political borders, water rights, blue-eyed people, pollution...it goes on and on and on.
407241
Life before and after death, my view:\nhttp://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-7dNzZV06cpnGmuKQRUwj0WV6Ig--?cq=1&p=1
994686
Shoud be a blast. Especially since it, god, heaven and the devil do not exist.
755326
Nothing of this kind would happen. The stranglehold of  religion is so strong on human minds that even the discovery that there are other parallel universes elsewhere would not loosen it. In fact, the findings of such a bewieldering variety of intelligent 'human beings'    would firm up their faith in God and belief in His infinite capacity of creation.Perhaps if the aliens are also religious they might be having similar ideas of their being created in the image of their god in which case there would a confluence of ideas further bolstering religion.When the monotheist and polytheist religions came into contact with each other both of them adjusted their beliefs to the new findings. The monotheists took that the many forms of god are but the multifarious manifestations of a single god. The polytheists joined in by saying that God is essentially one and only one and all others are his forms taken by him on various occasions. The Indian philosopher Shankaracharya says that even a savage performing human sacrifices is a religious person in no way inferior from the philosoher who attempts to attaain god merely through meditation.  The difference is only in degrees.The savage does not sacrifice human just for satisfying his tougue with flesh. He has an unclear and yet definitely an idea to rise above him.The clash of civilisations which is at present  much talked about is not essentially bad. It is an opportunity of evolving a deeper understanding of each other.
674427
Yes.  I would only hope that after living this life with whatever each of us experiences (good, bad, ugly), that life after death would be there for all of us and it would be glorious as God had intended for it to be.  There will be no hurt, no pain, no suffering, (no intolerable rude people :) ). There would be peace throughout and within. We may have the choice to return (reincarnate) and try again, as some say.  We may see past loved ones again.  I for one miss my dogs and my  friends & family members who have passed.
256515
That depends on your beliefs. If you're religious, some form of heaven. More specifically, if you were a buddhist, you would reincarnate back into Earth as another person or even an animal. If you were an atheist, then you don't even have a soul to begin with in that view.
943379
u might want to get religious
661194
As I said earlier, living through a system is religion, do you really think living without it would be better.
746539
It would be the greatest thing that ever happened in respect to religion all that bullshit of creationism and religious intolerance will be washed away. For that matter all forms of control on this planet will be destroyed. It will happen. People cant deny this forever.
456809
My school RI teacher when I was 11. She told me (what iv ealready printed a few times on this site, i just feel i should share it) that religion is like a mountain with God at the top. There are many paths up that mountain, each looking different, but theyre all just part of the same mountain. Hows that for influence on a developing mind?
732889
Faith is our beliefs and our beliefs define our reality. Religion is a set of beliefs. Your life is your set of beliefs. Therefore, no, without faith your life can't have meaning. You would have nothing to believe in, no existence.
752616
Whether I believed in God or not, my behavior would change very little.  I believe that life is more pleasant when we treat each other with respect, compassion and generosity, and demand the same from our leaders.  It is worse when we seek to comfort ourselves to the detriment of others.  Promises of reward and threats of punishment are not necessary.\n\nIt's not a matter to me of whether I believe God exists but whether God, as presented, makes sense.  If God created us to endure a series of tests or a rule-bound game, with an absolute reward/punishment outcome, I'd consider that God unworthy of the concept.  If God is a co-witness and fellow traveller who values experience over obedience, whose concept of justice is based on compassion rather than rules, and who would never consider abandoning one of his creatures, I could buy into that.  \n\nGod is supposed to be omniscient and omnipotent.  They say knowledge is power, then they say power, especially absolute power, corrupts.  Not quite true.  As humans, we can never have absolute knowledge or power, only "more" of each.  It is the remaining ignorance and fear that corrupts us because our grasp is tenuous.  Were someone to have absolute control of all power and knowledge in the universe, that person would be invulnerable and would understand everything.  That person would have no needs or threats, and no obligation to "settle" others' conflicts.  That person would be free to either ignore the problems or to objectively show a better way out of them.\n\nIf you are a parent, you may have had an experience of children fighting among themselves, understanding both of them perfectly while realizing that their dispute is meaningless.  Or you may have comforted a child facing a new experience, or cautioned a child incapable of recognizing a danger.  That's what it would be like for God.  Dispassion, wisdom, and patience would be God's attributes.  Anger, revenge and score-keeping just don't fit the picture.  These are the attributes of weak, fearful, childish humans.\n\nThe omniscience we lack is the reason we are in conflict, because we don't understand each other.  The omnipotence we lack means some of us will be stronger than others and we would likely exploit that for the sake of our own security.  God would transcend all that.  Absolute knowledge is understanding.  Absolute power is compassion.\n\nIf God were presented logically, as a loving creator who calls us out of fear into confidence and sympathy, I could go for it. The petty, capricious autocrat painted by Bible-thumpers doesn't make the grade.
708944
religion maybe......but not spiritual thinking.