Nearly 93% of the world’s population are theists or people who believe in one/many God(s). Therefore, being theistic is a norm in each and every society of the world. Theists believe in a spiritual entity that supposedly is omnipotent and offers protection in exchange for worship. While this concept is not scientifically backed, it has billions of followers across the globe. One of the main arguments that theistic philosophers have put forth in response to the growing atheistic tenet that religion is unnecessary is that the concept of God, whether real or not, acts as the Almighty, watching over good and bad deeds, thus enforcing morals and ethics in a society.
Listening to this argument, one may perceive that religion is a guarantee of peace and harmony, but before one gets carried away, we must also look at the various violent acts that were religiously motivated, ISIS, KKK, RSS are all religious groups that have wreaked havoc in the name of religion.
Now we come to understand that religion is not always a peaceful option, multiple hate crimes, terrorist attacks and the like are religiously motivated. Suicide bombings are popular with Islamist terror groups, who believe that by bombing themselves and their victims, they can have their very own space reserved in heaven.
Is such a system necessary? Now some may argue that atheistic societies lack morale as they do not believe in any higher power to watch over them. This holds only partly true. While atheistic societies like Communist ones in Russia and Maoist China are not non-violent in any way. So this beats the atheistic argument as well.
Famous scientist Richard Dawkins and author, Sam Harris have argued that given the number of terrorist activities motivated by religion, it is more of a moral obligation for atheists to eradicate the concept of religion from the world. Is he right in saying so? There may be a number of terrorist groups associated with religion, but not all terrorist groups are religious. For instance, the LTTE, in Sri Lanka was not religiously motivated explicitly. So religion is not the only factor provoking terrorism.
Violence happens irrespective of one’s religion or irreligion. But violence can decrease substantially if religion were to be eradicated.
Looking at the economical aspects, atheistic countries are clearly much more developed than their theistic counterparts, China, Sweden, South Korea, and Russia, all developed countries are the most irreligious in the world. Is this merely a coincidence or are development and irreligion interlinked? Well, we here at Improfane refuse to believe that it is mere coincidence and believe strongly that atheism promotes development.
Is it high time humans stopped attributing their discoveries and successes to imaginary deities? Or should humans continue to believe in a deity, whether real or not, to uphold morals?
What are your thoughts on this? Are you theistic or atheistic? Comment down below and let us know.
Blog by Ron Savio
Improfane India
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