The ideal role of religion would be as a long discarded concept mentioned only in history classes.

As an atheist, I see no need for it, but for those who do believe, it should be personal.

What role would I relegate it to? The role of fantasy.

My son fully believes religions should be outlawed since they are pretty much the cause of the majority of wars.

Me..... as long as the nut cases stay out of my way, I'm okay with religion. Unfortunately that doesn't happen very often.

If I could I would remove religion from society completely. I see absolutely no benefit from it outside of facilitating an illusion to avoid dealing with reality. It's role would be the same as alchemy and magic. There would be people who still insisted there was a benefit, but they would be outcasts and "odd" not being able to demonstrate the veracity of the claims they make about their odd beliefs. Also, religions would have no effect on the political and social dynamics of the overwhelming majority of people out of disdain for it's purposeful ignorance simply to make a few nutcases feel good about their delusions.

Tonight I was watching Monty Python's Life Of Brian, and it struck me that the movie's title character, a Christ figure, said it very well in jest. He said, "You don't need a messiah, you have to work it all out for yourselves".

The best role in my opinion would be none...but that is not a realistic prospect. I think if the religious kept their religions as a private matter and didn’t try to inflict their beliefs on the rest of us that would be good. I’m not American, and in the UK the judiciary is quite separate from the legislature and therefore not subject to religious or political interference. At Westminster MPs religious beliefs are not material to the framing and passing of our laws.

As a footnote in the histories.

The religions require faith. Faith is believing in things without evidence. There is no reason to believe anything without evidence. Therefore faith is illogical.

Most people find comfort and validation through their religion. But it is illogical to rely on delusional thinking for comfort and validation. It is possible to find those things through a better understanding of reality.

ideally? to vanish from existence. i don't know why religion, which is basically mass delusion, should have a role in society. do i want to take it away from believers? no, but i don't want it foisted upon me, either. it is not my job to relegate it anywhere.

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Non-existent.

Private and nothing to do with government

The ideal role for religion in society? Would be it being a distant memory found only in museums, books and video.

To give large , money grubbing churches legal tax avoidance.

To give humans a universal scapegoat.

To provide wayward comforts, when humans go through hard times and cannot face reality.

The one good thing, as I see it - to provide inspiration to countless composers, for some mighty fine tunes !

Absent.

I would never outlaw religion because that just does not work. I would take measures to educate people out of it. No science denying, fact denying, history revising home or private schooling would be allowed, for instance; and I would fortify the wall of separation between church and state. I would have secular programs to help people so they would not have to turn to religious organizations for help and the only tax exemptions churches would get would be for money that went directly toward helping people; they would not be allowed to force people to listen to sermons or other proselytizing in order to get that help. Hopefully, in time, organized religion would just fade away.

Absolutely! I would eradicate all religion in all its forms, immediately. It serves no purpose except to act as a placebo at best. At worst, it kills.

Religion does not serve any purpose in society, apart from giving people a placebo effect and (false) hope. The sooner that people believe that this is the one life we have, the better people can start treating themselves, others, and the earth fairly and with respect.

Ideal role of religion today? To be taught in schools that people a long time ago used to believe in gods... Zeus, Apollo, Jesus, etc.

Nope, it should be treated as ancient fiction text and analyzed for its historical, linguistic, and literature value.

On par with astrology or a notch below. Something people do for shits and giggles, not engage in wars.

Religion, from what I can see in America, is a catch all term to use if you want to justify behaviours.

America received a strict, puritanical version of Christianity from Europe, or In the first instance England specifically.

It will be very hard to break that down because it is in the fabric of the nation’s history. The Rapture, deep within the Christian Right is not likely to go away due to its soteriological nature, with everyone wanting to be ‘saved’ from something even if they don’t know what it is.

I don’t know if it is pre-millennialist of post but due to the aggression associated with it, it is probably pre-millennialist. In other words, the momentum for endemic Christian abuse will remain until Jesus whisks the ‘godly! up in his cloud and the rest of us experience the tribulations.

I must add that the Rapture is a combination of biblical ideas put forward by John Darby who was associated with Plymouth Brethren and so has no textual authority other than within its own sect.

Ideally, there would be no role for religion in the world. I suppose it could be used as fairy tales for entertainment, but it should not be taught as if it were reality.

Novelty

Comedy clubs.