Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it? No religious bigotry. No “righteous” judgment. No cruelty “in the name of God,” no holy wars, no honor killings. No shame in just being yourself.
A world free from dogma, from guilt, from rules written in ancient tongues for ancient tribes. Surely, the world would be a better place without religion, right?
Well, let’s explore that idea. Let’s truly imagine what a world without religion might look like.
But there’s one important condition: if we are to remove religion from the world, we must also erase everything that came with it, the good and the bad. Religion is not a buffet where we keep the compassion and discard the commandments. If we’re pulling it out by the roots, we must take the fruit along with it.
So let’s say we erased Christianity, or any major religion, from history entirely. Every scripture, every parable, every hymn and moral teaching. Gone. What, then, would we lose?
We’d lose more than we might first imagine.
The artwork of Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Rembrandt, Botticelli, and so many others would vanish, paintings and sculptures that have defined civilizations. Powerful hymns and oratorios that shaped the heart of Western music would fall silent. The writings of Shakespeare, Hawthorne, Dickens, Blake, Milton, and others would be stripped of their religious themes, references, and philosophical depth.
Our political history, too, would be transformed. Foundational documents and speeches that drew from religious ideals, of dignity, liberty, justice, would lose their spiritual resonance. The command to “love thy neighbor as thyself,” simple yet revolutionary, would no longer echo through humanitarian movements or inspire acts of kindness.
Of course, these are the visible losses. The deeper impact lies in what we don’t see. The countless people who turned from addiction because of faith. The marriages held together by shared spiritual commitment. The moral lines we each might not cross, not because of fear, but because we believe in something higher, something sacred.
And yes, religion has been misused. History is full of examples where it became a banner under which people justified war, oppression, or hatred. But when we rage against those atrocities, are we truly angry at religion itself? Or are we angry at the people who corrupted it?
Religion, in such cases, becomes like a surgical tool in the hands of a reckless doctor. The harm lies not in the scalpel, but in the malpractice. People, not the faith itself, must bear responsibility for how they use it.
Still, skepticism is understandable. Religion is complicated. At times it comforts, and at others it divides. At its best, it uplifts. At its worst, it has been used to wound. But to discard it entirely is to erase not just what has harmed, but also what has healed.
I know this because I once stood on the side of rejection. For years, I fought against faith. I was bitter. Angry. But in one quiet moment, that bitterness faded when I finally saw what religion had brought to my life, not just rules, but restoration. Not just beliefs, but beauty, discipline, and peace.
So yes, some say the world is bad with religion. But before you decide, try to fully imagine a world without it.
You may find that in trying to erase the darkness, you might also be erasing a great deal of light.
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