WHAT IF THE IDEA OF RELIGION NEVER EXISTED

“The greatest religion is to be true to your own nature” - Swami Vivekananda

The idea of a Religion is quite intriguing. Despite being controversial, Religion has always encompassed humans right from the 16th and 17th centuries. 

But what if the idea of a Religion never existed? How the world would have been today without religions? Did we, as humans, would have been civilized to the extent as we are now?

These are some of the questions to ponder upon.

Religion is basically a social belief to pursue a system of tradition and organization with reverence. There are about 4200 religions existing in the world. Religion has several ethics, prophecies, morals, places of sanctity and practices which relate human to preternatural elements.

Religious beliefs have existed to assist mankind in a certain way. But if religions were never created at first, the world would have encountered both beneficial and detrimental circumstances.

Religion- at its positive aspect- is the driving force of the nature of survival. It gives a purpose to the life of humans. In the absence of Religion, the moral values pursued would have been tentative and people may lead an unorganized, self-centered way of life. The sense of belonging would have been lost and insecurity of hope and support would have prevailed.

Religion had also played an important role in the upliftment of the society by tempting individuals to choose a righteous way of life which appears due to fear of an incognizant presence of a supreme divine judge. So, without Religion, there would be no fear of 'wrath of God' and civilization would have been at stake.

But, despite its possibility of creating chaos and randomness, the 'Religion-less world' might also have been destined to become a world of peace and harmony.

According to the ‘Encyclopedia of wars’ - out of 1763 known historical conflicts, 123 (6.98%) of the conflicts have originated from a Religious cause.

Accounting for some numbers from excerpts,

• 1.5 million people during Crusades
• 7,000,000 during Saracen slaughter in Spain
• 1,000,000 in Holy wars
• 2,000,000 to 4,000,000 deaths during French Religious wars
• 8,000,000 during the 30 years war

These are just a few numbers from a million numbers to showcase the intolerance among people of different religious ideologies that have led to major Religious conflicts.

Also, the history of the opposition of Galileo's Heliocentric model of the galaxy by Catholic churches depicts that excluding Religion, scientific discoveries could have been flourished at a greater rate. The dogma of religion imparts leading a way of life governed by ethics and ideologies of others, rather than being of one's own choice.

Therefore, as a whole, without Religion, the world, on one hand, would have seen fewer conflicts, dominance, and free way of living one's own life, while on the other hand may lead to a less sensible way of living. Whichever the way, Humanity still would have, and would be surviving.

As a conclusion, quoting HH Yonus Algohar,

“Humanity is the biggest Religion”.

Author : Srijita Maity