Phaseolus

Hi every one, There this Question thats been nagging at me for quite some time now and even after a number of long, and at times intense debates internally ( I split my self into two context dependent personalities, one for and one against and argue it out) and with other people, I still haven't come close to being any where near a satisfying answer.

To the question (finally!)... A lot of you have heard this one before but its very important to me so please indulge me. WOULD THE WORLD BE A BETTER PLACE WITHOUT RELIGION? for some of you the answer may be fairly simple..an over whelming YES! since a lot of conflict and strife in the world's past and present has been and is a consequence of while for some others it may be no, arguing that it serves as a moral and emotional support/compass etc in life whose benefits cannot be argued.

What I have been finding very difficult to predict is whether the benefits of an absence of the obvious problems caused by religion would actually outweigh those of believing in a higher power (whether it exists or not is irrelevant to this topic) and having a set of guiding principles that help navigate the intricacies/difficulties of life. For most of us agnostics here, the lack of religion is not a problem, and has even enriched our lives to an extent. But without a doubt we are an extremely small minority . What about the rest of the world's people for whom the need for a faith is an integral part of their existence. Could most people cope with their lives and the world without a religion or would society just break down into chaos making even the worst evils caused by its presence look like a small blip. Which is the lesser of the two evils? Please let me know your opinions.

P.S To some the answer might seem obvious, but hypothesizing on this scale is not to be taken lightly in my opinion which is why i'm hoping some of your thoughts will be helpful.