A claim was made in a recent thread that atheists believe the eradication of all relgions would result in a utopian world. It was also suggested that the destruction of religion would create a vacuum that would be filled by something even worse.

So I'd like to propose a debate on what the world will be like when religion is finally gone (I see that as a certainty), and perhaps how we want it to be.

We could also talk about what the world might have been like if the world had recoiled in horror after the Crusades and rejected religion several hundred years ago.

I think that without religion (and the afterlife fantasy), people will start to place a higher value on this life and this world. In addition, all of the money and minds squandered on religious nonsense could be channeled into more productive enterprises, such as the eradication of poverty. There would certaintly be a big new source of educated minds and talent when the religions that ban education for girls are finally flushed down the sewer of history. I see rapid progress in many fields, including science, technology, medicine, and international relations.

And I hope, perhaps fondly, that once all the priests have gone, we can then turn our attention to the politicians.