I'm rescuing this nodeshell. I'd just like to say - rubbish!

If there is a God, the human race definitely needs him. If there isn't, then it doesn't. It is as simple as that. All this talk about "concepts of God" and belief and religion being something that makes one feel good gets on my nerves. You can't "act religious" yet have no belief without being the biggest hypocrite on the planet. I have much more respect for a self-proclaimed atheist than a pious church-goer with no real faith. Follow the simple instructions below:

  1. Decide whether you believe God exists or not (hint: take some time over this).
  2. Live out your life accordingly.

I'm amazed how few people give any attention to the first point, given the rather high importance of the subject.

For reference, I am a Christian.

Nay.

The creator of this nodeshell obviously meant "need" as in "instrumental to survival", which religion indeed is, among other uses.

Religion is a motivator for "good" actions (say what you say about selflessness and ethical atheism, but most people aren't capable of acting decently without threat and reward.

Religion helps enforcing laws (just look at commandments of almost any religion, without further exploration I'd guess that pretty much any developed religion has some kinds of "thou shalt not ..." orders, typically concerning inter-society murders, theft, rape, cowardice and such. Likely not all, but some.

Religion helps people as individuals survive, thus helping the society in whole. Yesterday, we had drug education (whatchacallit, "Drugs are bad, mmmkay?"). The person was member of pentecostal church, I believe, and he told his story of how he got out with aid of religion and love. As much as I resent this sort of marketing of religion to those too weak in mind to defend themselves (talk about preying on the weak and sick), I must agree that religion can help people out of all sorts of mental disorders. Afterwars, our biology teacher (unsurprisingly, apparent atheist/agnostic) told his version: "Trading one addiction to another".

So, yeah, human race still needs religion. That doesn't mean we have to like it.

IMHO, I don't think humans need religion to survive. Here are my counter arguments said above:

  1. Just because religion "helps" or is a "motivator" does not in anyway specify it is a requirement for survival. Other things can help or motivate like money.
  2. Just because religion helps one person doesn't mean it helps society as a whole. I can give money to the homeless. Sure it will help them out, but it no way will it help society because they will most likely spend it on booze. It just depends how it is used.

Now on to my personal views. Religion in my view was created in a time and place where people didn't know how things worked. Technology was of course very,very limited. Diseases, hunger and other natural things made life pretty awful. With the limited knowledge people had, I honestly don't think that people could live a sane life without some belief of a higher being. The idea of religion and God(s) was, I think, probably the best thing ever for humanity's survival. It gave a sense of who you are and reasons why you were there. It also gave peace of mind that God can change your life since you can't, and usually thought it can happen through prayer and/or sacrifice. Now look at us. Science now is proving more and more that what we thought God did actually happened by chance. Look at our lives now. Humans now literally control every aspect of their life. We rule the world. This is the reason why I don't think we need religion now. We no longer need an explaination for why things happen. We now can control the part of our lives where people once asked God for help. Now we ask the government. Even the majority of the people are not even strongly religious, and yet the quality of life is still improving.

An economist would say that we need food, water, and shelter. An economist would also say that everything else would be a want. I have to take this logical point of view. When it comes to anything besides the basic components needed to survive, only humans can determine what humans need. I don't know if God, natural law, little green men, or some other force of the universe decided this; that's beside the point.

Religion is a want, not a need. In fact, human beings lived for a very long time without religion, let alone civilization. Some would call this the time that we lived in a "state of nature". We were hunter gatherers, who knew not of cathedrals, synagogues, and holy books. Yet, we lived.

Perhaps those that would make this claim instead mean that society still needs religion. It is true that there has been an odd trend lately, a trend that some have mistaken as a desire to believe. They point to movies like The Matrix, Fight Club, and The Sixth Sense, all of which feature something that is not as it seems. However, the true desire here is to unveil the hidden secrets. The desire is not to believe, but to stop believing, to peel away the layers of secrecy, and start working towards truth. So you see, humanity nor society need religion, or even want it as a whole.

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