It would be a lot more barbaric and not nearly as technologically advanced. While I don't need religion to justify acting like a good person or having a reason to live, a lot of people (especially in the early ages of humanity) can't say the same thing. Christianity definitely propelled us forward in a lot of ways.

Probably would be more barbaric and less advanced if I am being honest

Like everyone said

more barbaric, less advanced, etc etc

People's lives back in the early days were MUCH harder too, so having that greater power/faith and thinking life would be better when you died, probably carried a lot of them forward. Especially during the Dark Ages.

>Implying there is no afterlife

We'd all be Joe Biden

We'd all be Joe Biden

Goddamnit that .gif made me lol

Nothing would change up until the 20th century. You see, everything would play out the same exact way, except we'd all be Hassidic Jews.

Empathy is pretty strong.  Nomadic groups seemed to get along just fine without religion.

There would be more religions probably based out of the Pagan variety... Since you know Christianity stole most of the pagan holidays in order to "help" with conversion, and then said it was theirs when it wasn't... However as far as politics it would be nice to see people not mention their religions as a reason for election, and I doubt there would have been less wars...

What basis are you guys using that Christianity was a beneficial force throughout history? Just curious, because a lot of this just seems to be conjecture and speculation.

Work by social psychologists like Jonathan Haidt.

Descriptively, at least, morality is a social force that predates religion among humans. It's essentially the way we self-domesticated ourselves, by killing those who would threaten the group. Group loyalty is a central part of human psychology; we have essentially evolved to be religious. To make something sacred, and use it to bind us together.

I don't think religion is necessary now because certain aspects of art and culture can make up for the gap in sacredness. But prior to our development something like a strong religious influence was necessary. If the counter-factual is that humans remain secular and utterly non-religious--while being totally the same in every other way--I doubt we would've made it very far.

The common man needed something like religion to dictate his limited understanding of morality.

lol slash thinks he's anything but a common man

Probably we'd be praying to the Roman pantheon. It was Constatine's conversion to Christianity that spread the religion, not anything inherent in Christianity. So, if he hadn't, then the original Roman religion would be the predominant one. The driving factor was Rome.

Quote from: MyNameIsCharlie on October 22, 2015, 10:42:34 AM

Probably we'd be praying to the Roman pantheon. It was Constatine's conversion to Christianity that spread the religion, not anything inherent in Christianity. So, if he hadn't, then the original Roman religion would be the predominant one. The driving factor was Rome.

IIRC pagan Romans weren't into the whole forced conversion thing like Christians and Muslims.

Still, Constatine set Christianity as the state religion. The Roman Empire still exists, it's called the Catholic Church now. Rome, even in the decline, was still emulated in the higher classes. Even if it was just lip service, they still worshipped the pantheon. The exceptions were, of course the Jews and Arabs.

Quote from: Endork on October 22, 2015, 09:13:11 AM

It would also be pretty different because we wouldn't have had the crusades.

Maybe we wouldn't have left the dark ages until a lot later.

Maybe the dark ages never started then.

Dark Ages were because of the fall of Rome, not Christianity  (primarily, in any case).

I know, I'm just saying even really small things can change a lot.