Welcome to Gaia! ::

Peaceful, calm, tranquil, unexplored stuck in the ages long past.

As for all the bad its brought (war, destruction, chaos.) it has inspired the evolution and progression of man (Galileo wanted to stud the heavens, the Egyptians gave us ingenious architecture in the name of their gods, etc. etc.).

Saying that is like saying would you go back and kill Hitler as a child?

Better or worse?

Hard to tell, really.

Fewer morals. Much less artistic development (look at all the religious art and architecture throughout the millenia). Lower literacy rate, probably. Fewer preserved records from pre-Renaissance Europe. No religious defense (i.e. Quakers free slaves for religious purpose). No religious charities.

No religious persecution. No religious war.

From a cultural point of view, religion is very important.

It seems to me that religious beliefs are an intrinsic part of the human psyche. We have an inherent desire to explain the things around us and most of us also want to believe that things happen for a reason (however far beyond our comprehension that reason may be). Yes, there are people who question or reject religion, but they usually have another way of explaining the world around them (science, for example). And ironically, a lot of them are incredibly dogmatic people. Some nihilists base their whole lives around the belief that belief is useless, and postmodernsts get frothy as hell about the 'fact' that there are no facts.

If there were no religion in the world, it would be because the human mind worked differently. So who can say whether the world would be worse or better? There'd be no religious intolerance, but we might have something else to get into tiffs about. Religious morals wouldn't keep us in check, but maybe enlightened self-interest would keep us from acting badly. Maybe there'd be less development in art and literature... but then again, maybe art and literature would have been inspired by completely different things.

i think there would be definitly less violence about the subject but then people are always lokking for something to believe in so that i think world leaders would probably become some thing like gods... burning_eyes

Our culture may have been completely different....*goes off to think about what you said*

to answer thsi question you must first separate spirituality from religion, and furthermore monotheistic religion from polytheistic religion.

now, spirituality is simply the acknowledgement of the existance of a god or gods, and the connection with the spiritual world. unfortunately, a real and true connection to spirits is not found in most monotheistic religions.

Monothesitic religion includes all religions following only one deity. this includes but is not limited to: Islam, Christianity, and Judaism, also perhaps Hinduism, but that one is arguable, seeing as hindus believe in multiple incarnations of a single god, which could be interpreted as multiple gods.

Polytheistic religion includes multiple deities. This includes but is not limited to: Celtic religion(no, not druidism. the druids are the intellectual caste of celtic society), assorted native american/canadian religions, romanism, shintoist and taoist buddhism, greek religion(not sure of the name of it)Odenism(norse religion, norsemen being better known as the vikings, who were the warrior class)and assorted neopagan religions including celtic shamanism, wicca, etc.

Now, the interesting thing about monotheism is that it almost consistently preaches that mankind is the highest and greatest species on this planet, a highly arrogant and foolish view. this simple statement is probably part of what has led mankind to feel the need to tame the earth to it's will, rather than to maintain a balance, which is what most polytheistic mindsets are. the greeks had a concept that originated in Athens, called Arrete(probably misspelt it, but it's pronounced 'a-rett-ay'), which was basically the balance of knowledge and spirituality, which included physical strength, for example. I'd rahter not turn this into a long ramble, so i'll stop there.

Would the word you are looking for be arête, or aretai (respectively; singular and plural)? I'm more used to hearing the term in reference to the Greek virtues of wisdom, courage, temperance, piety and justice.