Why Religion and God Are Not Necessary in Modern Day Society
Why religion and God are not necessary in modern day society.
88% of us claim to be religious. Religion has been around since 223,000 BCE. The world would be nothing without it. You can’t get a sense of history or the language of Britain without having to study religious texts. But is religion necessary in the 21st century? The simple answer is no. No, we don’t need to believe in religious stories to feel comforted, no we don’t need to believe in an omnipotent being, no we don’t need to believe in God to be good people and no, religion is certainly not necessary in modern day society.
As an atheist and a humanist, people often ask me how I can possibly be a good person or have moral values. This makes the erroneous assumption that the only reason they aren’t out mugging, murdering and mutilating is that they are afraid of God; that the only reason they are good is because they are scared to be bad, which is a very ignoble reason to be good. How contemptible would we be if the only reason we didn’t kill was because we were scared of getting punished? The reason we should be good is completely the opposite. Because there is no afterlife, such as heaven or hell, we have only one life here on Earth. Because of this, we should live it to the best we can, and be good people. So no, believing in a religion is emphatically not necessary to be a good person.
One thing that always crops up in a debate of this kind is that religion comforts people so why should we fight against it? The answer is simple; because it’s not true. If your father died, it would be comforting to tell you that he hadn’t died, he was away fighting against evil in a faraway land, but that doesn’t mean that we should let your mother tell you that. It’s false. Surely, as intelligent people, we should prefer the truth over something that comforts us, leaving a trail of false hope behind. Prayer, similarly, gives false hope. People all over the world are praying for loved ones in hospital, or
88% of us claim to be religious. Religion has been around since 223,000 BCE. The world would be nothing without it. You can’t get a sense of history or the language of Britain without having to study religious texts. But is religion necessary in the 21st century? The simple answer is no. No, we don’t need to believe in religious stories to feel comforted, no we don’t need to believe in an omnipotent being, no we don’t need to believe in God to be good people and no, religion is certainly not necessary in modern day society.
As an atheist and a humanist, people often ask me how I can possibly be a good person or have moral values. This makes the erroneous assumption that the only reason they aren’t out mugging, murdering and mutilating is that they are afraid of God; that the only reason they are good is because they are scared to be bad, which is a very ignoble reason to be good. How contemptible would we be if the only reason we didn’t kill was because we were scared of getting punished? The reason we should be good is completely the opposite. Because there is no afterlife, such as heaven or hell, we have only one life here on Earth. Because of this, we should live it to the best we can, and be good people. So no, believing in a religion is emphatically not necessary to be a good person.
One thing that always crops up in a debate of this kind is that religion comforts people so why should we fight against it? The answer is simple; because it’s not true. If your father died, it would be comforting to tell you that he hadn’t died, he was away fighting against evil in a faraway land, but that doesn’t mean that we should let your mother tell you that. It’s false. Surely, as intelligent people, we should prefer the truth over something that comforts us, leaving a trail of false hope behind. Prayer, similarly, gives false hope. People all over the world are praying for loved ones in hospital, or