What if you don have a religion

Almost all humanists are secularists, but religious believers may also take a secularist position which calls for freedom of belief, including the right to change belief and not to believe. Secularists seek to ensure that persons and organisations are neither privileged nor disadvantaged by virtue of their religion or lack of it.

They believe secular laws — those that apply to all citizens — should be the product of a democratic process, and should not be determined, or unduly influenced, by religious leaders or religious texts. Sign up as a supporter and we'll keep you up to date by email about all of our work for a fair and equal society. Click here to see our Privacy Policy.

How Humanist Are You? Who are humanists? Remember me. More in this section. Our campaigns ». Faith schools. We want pupils from all different backgrounds educated together in a shared environment, rather than separated according to the religious beliefs of their parents. Find out more. We want a country where institutions such as Parliament are separate from religious organisations, and everyone is treated equally, regardless of their beliefs.

Human rights and equality. While atheists certainly are not the majority, could it be that these figures are a harbinger of things to come? Assuming global trends continue might religion someday disappear entirely? Scholars are still trying to tease out the complex factors that drive an individual or a nation toward atheism, but there are a few commonalities.

So not surprisingly, nations that report the highest rates of atheism tend to be those that provide their citizens with relatively high economic, political and existential stability.

Capitalism, access to technology and education also seems to correlate with a corrosion of religiosity in some populations, he adds. Japan, the UK, Canada, South Korea, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, France and Uruguay where the majority of citizens have European roots are all places where religion was important just a century or so ago, but that now report some of the lowest belief rates in the world.

These countries feature strong educational and social security systems, low inequality and are all relatively wealthy. Yemeni girls show their hands decorated with traditional henna designs as they celebrate the end of Ramadan Getty Images. Yet decline in belief seems to be occurring across the board, including in places that are still strongly religious, such as Brazil, Jamaica and Ireland.

The US, too, is an outlier in that it is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, but also has high rates of religiosity. Still, a recent Pew survey revealed that, between and , the proportion of Americans who said they are atheist rose from 1.

Decline, however, does not mean disappearance, says Ara Norenzayan, a social psychologist at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, and author of Big Gods.

Existential security is more fallible than it seems. In a moment, everything can change: a drunk driver can kill a loved one; a tornado can destroy a town; a doctor can issue a terminal diagnosis.

As climate change wreaks havoc on the world in coming years and natural resources potentially grow scarce, then suffering and hardship could fuel religiosity. This phenomenon constantly plays out in hospital rooms and disaster zones around the world. In , for example, a massive earthquake struck Christchurch, New Zealand — a highly secular society.

There was a sudden spike of religiosity in the people who experienced that event, but the rest of the country remained as secular as ever. While exceptions to this rule do exist — religion in Japan plummeted following World War II, for instance — for the most part, Zuckerman says, we adhere by the Christchurch model.

A rabbi reads during Purim festivities Getty Images. This psychological staple states that we have two very basic forms of thought: System 1 and System 2. System 2 evolved relatively recently. The first one is the fear of hell. In fact, quite possibly in eternal trouble — namely, hell.

Afraid of being thrown into hellfire , people start believing all sorts of things that religion tells them, regardless of how unreasonable those might be. The second main reason why people believe in religions is the desire for heaven. And many of us are willing to sacrifice our lives so that we can enjoy ourselves in the afterlife. I could only accept heaven and hell as symbols representing states of our consciousness.

For example, when we are hateful and agitated, we experience a state of hell. According to the Abrahamic religions and plenty of others , God created animals for one basic reason: So that people can exploit them.

They are just pieces of meat put together, functioning like machines and being unable to experience happiness and sadness, pleasure and pain. In general, they have no problem exploiting or even killing animals whether directly or indirectly. This is quite obvious, for example, by the fact that they tend to unnecessarily consume animal products — that is, products that are the result of exploitation, abuse and often murder — without feeling any regrets.

Just like us non-human animals , they have subjective experience, a rich and complex emotional world, and the desire to live and avoid pain. Additionally, you might want to read this article that refutes the most common arguments people have against giving up animal-derived food products. What the vast majority of religions around the world have done is divide people according to the race, sex, gender, class and religion — among other things — they belong.

Let me give you a few examples:. Again, these are only a few examples among countless others. They even believe that God wants male children to have a piece of flesh chopped off from their penis i. And, considering that nearly every religion claims to be the only right one, which religion of the thousands that exist in this day and age should one follow? They become attached to a particular belief system, which prevents them from changing their mind when presented with information that contradicts their religious beliefs.

I want to be a freethinker and not a prisoner to any belief system, so I choose not to identify myself with any religious ideology. As I mentioned in the introduction of this article, I do enjoy reading religious scriptures including the Bible , the Dhammapada and the Bhagavad Gita and have found immense wisdom in many of them that has helped me to live a more meaningful and fulfilling life.