A World Without Islam - Opinions?

This thread is NOT bashing Islam. I am just curious to see what the masses of ATS believe the world would be like in such a situation.

If there was no Islam - yet all other religions remained - do you think the world would be a much more peaceful place? It seems to me, although I could be wrong, that most international "problems" are due to radical Islamic groups. Also, in the case of the teacher who named her teddy bear, it seems that in general Islam is detrimental to the health of the worlds population.

I would love to hear your opinions on this matter, and please be respectful in your posts.

reply to post by deadline527


If it wasn't Islam it would be some other faith or enemy (or at least alleged enemy)... I hear people say all the time how warlike humans are, and I truly think we are actually peaceful at our core, but a lot of crap seems to go down where different tribes and nations end up resorting to violence to 'solve' some sort of conflict...

As long as people continue to force their religion and try to "convert" others there will be issues in this world. If there was no Islam, I'm sure the Christians would be calling the Hindus their enemies. And if there were no Hindus, it would be the pagans and atheists that were the enemy.

I believe even if there were NO religions, Humans would still find something to war about.

Originally posted by deadline527
This thread is NOT bashing Islam. I am just curious to see what the masses of ATS believe the world would be like in such a situation.

If there was no Islam - yet all other religions remained - do you think the world would be a much more peaceful place? It seems to me, although I could be wrong, that most international "problems" are due to radical Islamic groups. Also, in the case of the teacher who named her teddy bear, it seems that in general Islam is detrimental to the health of the worlds population.

I would love to hear your opinions on this matter, and please be respectful in your posts.

Maybe you should rephrase your question " A world without radical Islam" That is what you are asking, right? A world without Islam would be a sad place.

I'm feeling an urge to quote an artist:

Imagine
John Lennon

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today...

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one

A world without Islam would mean that those countries that are here now would either be communist or Christian democracy based and I guess it would be Christian based with democracy. It would only make Christianity stronger if the Muslim world never was due to Biblical historical places being made illegal to investigate these days and artifacts destroyed or never looked in properly. Either islam takes over the Christian world or the Christian world takes over it and both suggest and end time war, only one can be right.

Seriously, I agree with Lennon. Take your religion, throw it out the window, and realize we're all one planet Earth. How about a world without ANY religion!!! Any dogmas!

A world without Islam wouldn't be any different. Patriotism and faith in other religions would just take it's place.

Possibly Raelians would take it's place. They all seem just as crazy...meaning religion in general.

If I make somebody mad that I've upset their religious beliefs, GOOD. You religious people meed to be shaken severely because it's CRAZY!!!!



Alright, I'm calm, I'm calm. Serenity now.
No... religion will upset me until it's gone from this world.

EDIT:

Patriotism is just another form of religion, flag wavers. Sorry to disappoint.
As long as people blindly follow these cults, we will be a war torn hell hole, and our planet will die.

[edit on 1-12-2007 by indierockalien]

Man will be his own religion in the end and everyone will want to be kind of the law and the on going battles would be tribal in form and greater making a society to live become like a jungle. Hence the rise in street crime because they think they rule and have no concious of a God or law to abide to. God is a middle ground it works, it's better to have a common ground in the masses than everyone being against each other with their own methods.

The world would be better off if all forms of religion ceased to exist. To answer the question though, yes, we would all benefit from seeing Islam erased.

I cant really see a downside to getting rid of it.

Frankly, it's a violent religion from what I've seen of it, which should tell peaceful Moslems something about their fellows.

I agree with an earlier poster that man would find something else to make war over even if religion was eliminated. I don't want to admit that. It would be nice to be able to say "if we eliminate such-and-such, there will be no more killing", but one must be realistic.

It doesn't seem like there's any hope for our species.

It's a what if that can't be answered. Probably some other religion or ideology would take it's place. One thing that does seem to be a problem with much of today's Islam is a lack of tolerance of other religions. It gives lip service to it but in practice works to disallow other religions in places of Muslim majorities. Just my observation.

[edit on 1-12-2007 by pavil]

Originally posted by 123143
Frankly, it's a violent religion from what I've seen of it, which should tell peaceful Moslems something about their fellows.

Please don't perceive this reply as confrontational. I'm curious what you have "seen" of Islam? Have you been to a muslim country? Do you have muslim friends? Have you been to a mosque?

reply to post by deadline527


To ask what you have, is like asking what the world would be like, if say white people didn't exist, or any particular race or group for that matter. As with any group that contains people for whatever reasons, there is always a few who can spoil the whole lot. To say that the whole of Islam is not good for the world is very sad, and reminds me of someone "throwing the baby out with the bath water."

Originally posted by x-phile
Please don't perceive this reply as confrontational. I'm curious what you have "seen" of Islam? Have you been to a muslim country? Do you have muslim friends? Have you been to a mosque?

What I know of Islam is what I've seen on TV and my interactions with young Muslims in my work environment. I recognize that the view we're presented via the media is skewed, but there still is some truth to the violence.

My hope for the future is that peaceful Muslims will rein in their radical brethren so that we can all live in peace. Unfortunately, I don't have high hopes for that as long as the US continues to bang the battle drum.

I freely confess that Bush is a huge part of the problem.

Islam-related violence eclipses any other religious-related violence. So I would say the level of religious violence across the globe would drop significantly.

If Islam had never existed...

We would have the Twin Towers...

Millions of people would have not been put to death...

Science would have grown better in the Middle East

There would be more freedom in the Middle East

Originally posted by arpgme
If Islam had never existed...

We would have the Twin Towers...

Millions of people would have not been put to death...

Science would have grown better in the Middle East

There would be more freedom in the Middle East

Politics politics politics, lets not confuse religion with these crazy people who USE religion for their own needs, mostly politics and personal gains.

Basically, the TRUE cause of the problem, the humans, not the actual religion, but the humans, with or without religion, they would always figure out bad things, man maybe it would be even worse without religon, at least it keeps some crazy people under control.


[edit on 2-12-2007 by _Phoenix_]

reply to post by deadline527
without benefit of even reading any of the other responses id like to reply with a question of my own which is simply this...what if they all became jehovass whitnesses or something...think about it

reply to post by deadline527


you'd have a good start... but you'd need to get rid of the other religions too.
then you'd have to make sure we have a well educated populace so that they wouldn't delve back into superstitious ignorance

Originally posted by arpgme
If Islam had never existed...

We would have the Twin Towers...

Millions of people would have not been put to death...

Science would have grown better in the Middle East

There would be more freedom in the Middle East

I'll give you the first one, 9/11 wouldn't have happened.

They rest, however are not probably accurate.

Millions still would be dead from other conflicts in the area.

Science flourished under the the early and mid stages of Islam, it was in fact a leader in the field. It has only been in the modern era that they have lagged behind.

Hard to tell about freedom, that region has never really experienced rule by the "people". Democracy needs the people behind it for it to take root and thrive, other freedoms follow from that, not vice versa. Much of the Moselm world has always been ruled by a strong leader or Empire imposing it's rule on it ie, Ottoman and British Empires.

The biggest misconception to to lump Islam and the Arab world in the same basket. Not all or even a majority of Islam is Arab.