How important is religion in our lives? Are we better off without it? or ..

For me religion is very important to make us completely a good people. If people doesn't have religion. It will make the world worse than today because they don't have control to themselves in doing bad... Religion makes me feel safe and good man. I am a God fearing people and which makes mo not do anything bad my fellow. Because I know doing bad to someone is not a good deeds... I don't think I feel better without religion. Because as I am found real religion in my life. i feel better and feel safe with tranquility...

Religion is very important in our lives. 99 % people don't even know what religion is meant to be for, All they just know is to create fights over it. Ask those fighters if they have ever cared to follow the rules of their religion or lived their life on terms of religion ? I am sure nobody will have any correct answer other than dogmatic explanations or defensive replies. Religions are the base given to human being to reach the ultimate reality or self-realisation or say a path to workship god. If you honestly study all religions you will come to know that all of them lead to one ultimate god that is "Self Realisation or God". But nobody has time to study them and others write of wooden explanations about them being crap or things like this is the teaching or so. Without religion human beings will be like animals, The samskaras which we get in our childhood and all the life from our elders are based on religion, We learn to follow it and reach near god. But how many of you do it with ultimate faith and with total understanding of it ? I am sure none follows his own religion now a days. Saints and gods are above Religion only for one reason :- They have already achieved self-realisation. These religions form the base of workship god and getting self-realisation is not many people know. All they know is to create fight on religions keeping aside the main teaching and goals of relgions. See There is a broad difference between "CASTE and RELIGIONS". Castes were created by humans and religions by gods, the aim of later being to establish a base so that a human can walk on that path all his life, follow it, achieve self-realisation. It is only for human beings that there are religions, you will always find saints or yogis living above religions because they have achieved the self-realisation and do not need to get into any garb of religion to guide themselves through a path. They will always preach all religions and regard them as one way to reach the ultimate reality and will even have disciples of all religions simply for one reason that they have reached the high state of self-realisations and religions do not matter for them after that. But to reach that state you need one base or a path which is religion and he who follows it properly will one-day realize its real meaning.

Hi Kiran, To each his own but I prefer to follow my own path without the guidance of an organized religion. I do feel that it divides people or rather people let it divide them. Religion should be a personal spiritual journey. Unfortunately for all to many it is not. It is their excuse to be right and everyone that doesn't believe as they do is wrong. All religions have people that are like that in them and some more than others. I don't understand it and won't buy into it. So yes, I do think the world would be a better place if there were no religion. You really don't need an organized religion in order to be spiritual and believe in God or Jehova or even no one single God.

Every society needs something to guide it. People say that they have laws to guide them. So, look at the laws that each country has. They all come from the dominate religion of that society. So, what do you do when you discard religion? You get a society like North Korea where the State is basically the god. The people are kept in line through fear, but the society is dying. Now look at the different countries in the world. Look at the religions that the Laws came from and the societies that are ruled by these laws. Christian,Hindu,Islamic etc. Which societies would you prefer to be Governed by?

Hi kiran, You are absolutely right to put that in India there is nothing like religion that has impact on our day to day life. Personally religion has no meaning for me, I mean I am not a so much attached to the custom of a particular religion kind of person. If you are following yours you are welcomed and I am there sitting alongside you. And if any religion demands that I do carry out something on the spot I would not hurt others sentiment by just denying it. And you can say I am better without it.

Just like mother, home and family, school and society religion is also important for a person to be guided in a proper way. That is an easy way to guide people, specially children. That is a good tool. But some people misuse that.

Religion was designed for people who refuse to think for themselves. It has kept them docile when the fear of God overtakes and can be very vicious when the Devil pushes God aside. On the positive side, religion has made people behaves like Ladies and Gentlemen. On the negative side, religion has made people believe that prayers is the answer to everything. This is hampering development and progress in the world today

I don't really like organized religion. Nothing has been such an effective tool for justifying hate and war. I am not a religious person, though I am a very spiritual person. When I was young, I was raised to believe in the Bible and God. I was unable to understand or accept many aspects of life and the world. I have since found my own way and now I am a much better person for it.

I was brought up in a catholic religion environment...but I alway questioned a lot about the impositions that religion put up on us...not to mention all the killing done in name of religion!. Today at 65 I do not believe in religion what so ever...and yes I believe in God...but I refuse to belong to any religion because at the end of the day what religion have done is to divide people into sectors [ believers and not believers][ according to their religion] and I for one don't want any part on it!...religion was created by men [ mostly males] to suit a purpose... and what purpose was that? the one and only...to dominate the weaker class! to keep people in the dark so no one ask any question...a mystery was created about the holy trinity so the ignorants [who had no education at all] had no way of knowing any thing at all! the bible was not written by God it was written by men!and it's not the word of God...it's just the word of some delusional/ detrimental[ I can say more here but I may offend some people][ which I don't care any way] people to suit the needs of the time! Hey sorry I went off the subject here, to answer your question? well I think we are better off without religion.

hello kiran, religion cannot save you. i always hear those words and i get to think a lot about it. i have been raised a catholic and always thought and believed that the church bring together the whole family. it teaches humility, sacrifice for the people you love and even to friends, dedication and sharing and others. my parents try to instill these values to all of us and my siblings and i find that we grew up as better persons if goodness is the subject. yet, i am not sure if religion would save one from the "fires of hell". i guess it is attitude on everything around us would be the answer. maybe religion cannot save me, but i know my faith in God would. have a nice day. ann

Hi Kiran. Well until 2004 I knew that there was a God and have always loved God for everything in my life. But until 2004 I had never heard the true way that Gods word should be taught. I thought all kinds of things that wasn't really taught right. Heck I thought I would fly away and to find out that isn't true. And out of the blue I was pissed at my ex for waking me up at one am and then going back to bed and telling me to wake him up at 4am so he could get ready for work. So I got up and turned on the TV on a preachers show and I couldn't take my eyes off it. This man taught me the right way to study Gods word. http://www.shepherdschapel.com/index.htm Since then I have gotten a divorce and married a good man and we now study everyday of the week with this man. So our lives has made a 360 turn around we now have a lot better life since we really study the true way God wanted HIS word taught. No we couldn't and wouldn't be better off without religion .

Kiranji I agree with you fully, in india we fight on religion issues, but it is the nasty politicians who induce us, most persons follow them without going deeper in to it, we are all human beings, created by some super power, call him/her by any name, it is ok for me.. Some times i too feel, we should not follow any religion, just humanity.. Thank you so much for this wonderful discussion. Professor ‘Bhuwan’. . HAPPY NEW YEAR

I define religion as the sum of a person's beliefs about the paranormal and morality. Therefore you can't not have a religion you can just have a simple or vague one. It's like somebody who doesn't have blood type antigens still having a blood type (O Rh-ve). I think what you're objecting to is organized religion. This includes most the things people think of as religions: Christianity, Buddhism etc. However it also includes people who meet in small groups like Wiccans and atheists who meet together and sing songs to praise, er, well, whatever. People who strongly oppose organized religion and organize with each other to do so, are forming their own organized religion! If you organized people to punish those who wanted to follow organized religions and prevent them from meeting together, this would itself be an organized religion, a rather vicious and intolerant from of atheism! This was tried in many communist countries (I think it still goes on in a few, like North Korea, which will probably soon start and loose a nuclear war) and it didn't work well. Therefore trying to get rid of organized religions is probably more trouble than it's worth and you will effectively still have one. That's before you take God (or Karma, whatever) into account. I don't know much about India. I suspect most the religious conflict involves Islam. This is the most evil and dangerous of the major religions. The Koran is full of exhortations to fight, and oppress "unbelievers" and even "hypocrites" (moderate Muslims). It's basically at war with the rest of the world (and different Muslim groups are frequently fighting each other), just the rest of the world is in denial about this but that is obviously changing as people learn more about Islam. It seems likely that either Iran will get nuclear weapons soon or be stopped by an attack from the US and/or Israel (apparently the US is refusing to let Israel attack Iran to pressurize it into a "peace deal" with the Palestinians that probably prove disastrous). Wikileaks has revealed that many Muslim countries are asking the US to attack Iran to stop it's nuclear program. Therefore I think the war with Islam will become a lot more obvious very soon.

Hi kiranji Religion is part of life, i am hindu women, observe so many festivals, pujas, fastings, without them i may fell sick, same with my daughter in laws. thnks for this post happy mylotting cheers. kalyani

I do not believe in any religion myself, and I feel that the conflicts of religious differences are absolutely abhorrent. The whole "I'm right, you're wrong" mindset is arrogant and absurd. And when it goes even further into the "agree with me or perish" it just becomes ludicrous. I think the characteristic inability to accept that everyone is different and everyone has different beliefs is the core fault of all religion.

Of course, religion is very important. Religion can bring us to the right path.

Important or not religious, depending on each person's personal. Religion will lead us, to always do good, and not doing anything harmful to others.

i think religion can control our self to be better man.. sometimes many people never realize how religion works.. but believe me, religion can make you become better man...can control your anger in a good manner..

I know some people who don't have any religion and they are fine, they are doing well in their fields. But what I do not know is, what's in their heart and mind, when they are alone, what's going on in their mind, or if they are longing for some hope and care from someone like God.

Religion is actually just a guide for us humans, if we read the bible or the Quran or those other holy books. We can learn stuff from them and apply them in our daily lives. The problem is, some people take religion as a way of living and let it control their lives. Things that are no longer applicable in our day and age being done because of their beliefs. An example is this, there is a religion that does not allow blood transplant because it is considered impure and dirty. So some people of that religion would rather die of sickness than accept treatment. It is quite foolish cause they let the religion control them. And the people who made the religion or writing people follow now, have no idea about the modern day. Blood transfusion in the past was impossible and back then blood transfusion were done by blood pacts or blood drinking and so they condemned the act. So... To me, religion is a guide and should only be treated as a guide and not a way of living. Having religion control your life basically makes you lifeless. And most religions teach about valuing life. Contradiction there right?