What Is a Man Without Religion?

When we think of religion, some of us tend to think of it as an institution, which dictates the way a follower has to live his or her life and is rigid and unaffected by progresses made in science and technology. Nothing could be further from the truth because most if not all religions in the world actually make an effort to grapple with the progress we have made in terms of our understanding of the world. In order to understand the life of man without religion, we must first study the impact religion has had on a man's life and its evolving role in society.

Religion definitely no longer provides all the answers and its predictions have on several occasions been disproved in light of new discoveries being made in science. The most commonly cited one would be that all celestial bodies in the solar system orbited around the Earth. Galileo Galilee was placed under house arrest for having refuted this claim on the basis of sound scientific principles. In the past, religion provided a way of looking at the world and consequentially answers about questions about the universe. All too often, it could be seen that religious leaders had tried unifying the entire universe by conferring all phenomenon a deeper religious meaning. For example, if floods happened, it was probably because the Sea God was upset and therefore had to be appeased by means of offerings or prayers. This is seen to a significantly lesser extent in today's context where much of our lives tend to be secular regardless of how spiritual we are. For another thing, religion no longer provides answers and Greek mythology whilst largely studied is no longer subscribed to as a religion. However, while circumstances have changed, religion still serves its original purposes; it gives man the confidence that his existence has a deeper meaning, that he has a certain amount of influence on his future and a serves as a source of strength. With these purposes in mind, we shall examine how the lack of religious belief affects the thinking and lifestyle of an atheist.

In the absence of religion, a person will have to independently decide on the set of values and principles that he or she will adhere by and know what his or her motivation is for adhering to them. Most religions actually have a set of rules it expects its followers to abide by and these rules are believed to have been set by the Almighty himself. In Christianity, these rules take the form of the Ten Commandments, which forbid Christians from committing theft, adultery and other despicable acts. Very often, religions also state that there is a price to pay if these rules are not abided by. In most religions, wrongdoers are believed to be punished in their after-lives proportionately to the crimes they have committed. In Hinduism, there are specific punishments for different wrongs. From this, we can see that the reason for moral behaviour is inspired by fear of punishment at least during the