What do you think of the attempt of eliminating religion altogether from the planet?

Attempting to eliminate religion will probably be as successful as attempting to eliminate prejudice.

It ain’t gonna happen.

It would be akin to eliminating taxes. Both are useful in their own way and both can also be harmful, but neither are useless.

It appears that spirituality is hardwired into the human psyche. Chances of eliminating virtually any aspect of it has the proverbial snowball’s chance in hell.

I was unaware there was a formal attempt to do so.

If there is such a thing, I would not view it any differently than the attempt to convert all people to “your” religion. We could talk about the burden of proof and what has what logical merits and what has what phylosofical value all day long, but at the end of the day it boils down to team 1 vs team 2.

It probably is just some survival instinct. “more like me, less like them” an idea that has filtered down over the years in to everything, from religion to politics to sport and even fashion.

“as productive as dry land swimming”

Futile.

Who’s heading this attempt? It’s just as bad as attempting to make everyone religious – pretty arrogant.

But don’t most religions have the implicit goal of eliminating all others through evangelism? Atheists would just go one step further. ;)

Just as insane as murdering in the name of God.

Never gonna happen, never. Nor should it. Live and let live.

It kind of bothered me that the Star Trek TNG universe basically stated that a highly civilized culture would eventually abandon religion altogether and eventually have only one planetary government. Even the weather was tamed. I thought the world would be a very dull place if it actually turned into the Star Trek world. I’m a big fan of all the series, but I always thought the characters (especially Riker) could get pretty smug with themselves about how great Earth turned out to be once you got rid of all that pesky religion, nationalism and weather.

Eliminating religion on this Earth would be like playing bowling. You may strike the pins down but you know when you turn around and look again, the pins will be standing right there, daring you.

As long as there are pin setting machines, religion will never leave the scene.

This reminds me of this blog…apparently a study says religion is human nature I think religion is akin to mental illness.

I don’t think religion is the problem. It’s the people who mis-practice their doctrines, misconstrue them to fit them into their warped belief systems, and use them against their own fellow man and start wars and instigate hatred with them. It’s sort of like guns. Guns aren’t the real problem, it’s the deranged people out there and the violent, hateful nuts out there bent on using them for evil intentions. In an ideal world, it would be great if there were no religion and guns. However, I’m sure if there was no religion, human beings on earth would “still” find some purpose to instigate hatred and wars against their fellow men. Just like if there were no guns. People would still find a way to kill and maim others, unfortunately.

Thomas Paine wanted to do something similar to what you are thinking about and this was Benjamin Franklin’s response:

http://www.wallbuilders.com/LIBissuesArticles.asp?id=58

Is there really such an attempt being made? I’ve never heard of it.

Honestly, I’d like humanity to be free of religion and superstition someday. I don’t think any organized attempt to force it will ever work, though. If it happens, it’ll be because it’s a natural progression in the course of human civilization.

As per @augustlan and other responders – I too am in favor of it eventually disappearing. But the method—well let’s just say that we should make it indirectly irrelevant by working together on common issues: environment, poverty, inequality for starters.

To me, this is like the abortion question and all of the others that people debate, fight, argue and discuss ad nauseum, just mind your own business and don’t try to force your beliefs on others.

I truly dislike religious fanatics, all the 72 virgins, no meat on Friday, can’t eat pork, to me it is all silly but the same is true of the atheist fanatics. Unless your god tells you to start bombing buildings, or try to make me see it your way, I don’t care what you choose to believe.

What do you think of the attempt of eliminating freedom of thought altogether from the planet?

Answer one: It’s a very effective approach to eliminate religion altogether.

Answer two: It’s a horrible idea to tell people what to think.

Take your pick. Either way, the answer also answers your Fluther question.

I don’t really see anyone arguing here, so the troll attempt failed. Is it really a troll if people react to it in a civil manner and respectfully disagree with the original poster and go on their merry way?

Sounds like an impossible (an asinine) idea, and I despise religion.

impossible, unless we grasp the truth on creation of the universe and hundreds of other unanswerable questions.

@keobooks – No trolling involved. Real trolls are different.

@mattbrowne real trolls are also indifferent.

I’m game for eradicating religion but lets include the biggest of all the religions which is of course the monetary system otherwise were not doing the job properly :)

Good point @phoebusg !

Here’s a thought-provoking hypothesis: Diminishing or eliminating religion will further increase the depression epidemic. See

http://www.fluther.com/119949/thought-provoking-hypothesis-diminishing-or-eliminating-religion-will-further-increase-the-depression/

Food for thought: perhaps the attempt to eliminate religion altogether is a grave risk to our societies.

Everyone:
I got a lot of answers thank you. I haven’t read the loger answers yet. But some of the shorter answers caught my eye. I suspected some might think I like the idea of eliminating it. And I suspeted the concept of forcing people might occur to some after I posted. Anyway, I direct everyone esp. the ones who mentioned the word ”troll” (@keobooks et al) to the thread that inspired my question:
http://www.fluther.com/119498/what-imagery-calls-to-mind-freedom-from-religion/
Please read my 3 answers.

@Pandora I meant the attempt to eliminate religion, not religion itself.

Anyway, it is only the bad side effects of various religions that need to be gone. Something about someone’s right ends where someone else’s nose begins?

Yeah, banning religion would be as horrific as mandating a particular religion.

@mattbrowne I wish I had seen that OP in your last posting above, I would have saved myself some time.

The Russian Communists hated religion and tried to eliminate it from society. Stalin in particular promoted atheism and mounted a terror campaign against religious believers. The Society of the Godless was founded to promote atheism and carried on this work in Russia until the Second World War.

Wasn’t it Stalin who compared religion to a nail. The harder you hit it the more firmly embedded it becomes.

The last part of @phoebusg‘s answer: ”...make it indirectly irrelevant by working together on common issues: environment, poverty, inequality for starters.” One of the many answers that resonate.