What would an ideal society look like in terms of religion? [closed]

Question

Imagine you are building a new world from scratch and there is no such thing as religion yet. This world is much like earth and is populated by humans, plants and animals. What would an ideal new world look like in terms of religion?

Part 1: What should it look like?

Would it be better to have a single religion for all, to prevent the horror of religious wars and terrorist acts by extremists that have plagued human kind,forceful conversion etc (but risk losing diversity and freedom of choice as to what to believe, because no one is even aware there can be an alternative religion) What would this religion look like? Perhaps we should have no religion at all (not synonymous with no hope at all, but where would morality come from? What incentive would there for people to be moral?). Or would the current poly-religious world be actually the ideal situation? (but extremism and religious wars/persecution arising from religious differences and the struggle to gain more adherents might arise)

Part 2: How can your answer to part 1 be implemented, realistically?

Answer 1

No religion.

Any belief system which can not provide valid evidence for its claims, but wishes to enforce the conclusions of those claims on to others, is not a system for harmony. Every religion has a schism at some point because the beliefs are not based on evidence or reasoning. If the system values faith over evidence, there is no mechanism for rational discourse and unsolvable disagreements will occur.

People naturally prefer evidence over faith; it's why faith is hard. So make it easy, base the system on evidence, not faith.

Try secular humanism. This is not a religion, but a philosophy. It provides a guide for morality based on reason and science. It's a great way to do things as it allows for growth as humanity grows. It also doesn't provide any incentive for flying into buildings, which is always a plus for a belief system.

Can you imagine if we left our government or judicial system up to the will of a religion? It used to be the case, it was called the dark ages. Rationality is what lifts humanity away from being animals (figuratively speaking). We should be applying it as often as possible.

As for implementation, we're getting there already. For instance, America is becoming more atheistic/agnostic every year. Most of these people, like most other Americans, don't get their morals from a book, but from the zeitgeist (been a while since we had a public stoning). This is a step towards secular humanism.

Answer 2

A classic sign of a healthy society is religious tolerance. If you to show a society is rather close to a true utopia, then a excellent way to show it is with religious diversity instead. It fine to have one region that is clearly bigger than the others. But little cults and smaller religions being present can help show that ugly things like witch hunts don't happen in it, since people feel safe to practice a different faith from the majority in the open.

Incidentally having one religion doesn't stop religious based conflict happening. Merely its just lead to internal conflict within the religion instead of external conflict.

A good example of that kind of conflict would be the Reformation in Europe. Very messy internal conflict within Christianity.

Answer 3

Nation-State Religious Monarchy

In an ideal religious society, there is only one religion, the religion is the government, and the leader of the church is a legitimate prophet, seer, and revelator sustained unanimously by the population who also serves as the monarch.

For the purposes of this question, we're going to assume that this religion is indisputably, and undeniably true, as well as uncorrupt, moral and just, and that all the leadership positions in this church are unpaid and carry with them no secular status. The leaders are called to serve in their capacities (even if they feel they aren't up to the task) work harder and provide more service for the people than anyone else, they have a genuine love for their fellow citizens, and serve them in their capacity within the church out of love and devotion in addition to supporting themselves and their families secularly. Leadership positions are also regularly rotated, except for the leader and his councillors, who serve for the remainder of their lives.

To eliminate all corruption, there is no monetary system, everything goes to the church (all crops and resources) and it is the church that fairly distributes these resources to the populace.

This is a society where knowledge and understanding, and the pursuit of happiness are valued more than anything else, and everyone has a desire to improve their self worth and strive for perfection in righteousness, as well as uplift everyone they know. It is a humble, selfless, classless society, where no one is the underdog, everyone is treated as an equal, and all the dirty jobs are preformed by volunteers (the leaders volunteer more than anyone else). Sin and hypocrisy are abhorred above all else, but crime is dealt with lovingly through counseling, therapy and public service.

In order for this system to work, the church must be true and kept pure. As soon as the doctrines of men are mingled in, or corrupt men try to usurp unrighteous dominion in their leadership capacities, or dissenters try to rise against the system they must be struck down swiftly and effectively (publicly chastised, and excommunicated if necessary). Heresy is a serious crime, but is dealt with by educating the masses and calling the heretic to repentance.