Imagine No Religion?

[Lantern]

What would you be if it weren’t for your religion? An impossible question to answer without a time machine, but I would think that all of your life experiences - as a child learning from your parents, from your teachers at school, from family, friends and colleagues at work, solitary efforts at self-improvement, and other events of your life - have hall contributed to who you are.

If religion suddenly became unimportant in your life, what do you imagine you would do differently?

Would you suddenly turn into a hatchet murderer?

[The GM]

Originally posted by Lantern


If religion suddenly became unimportant in your life, what do you imagine you would do differently?



I imagine I'd sleep in on Sunday mornings. *shrugs*

[burgerjockey]

Hmmmm.... I gave up religion about the time that I was about 14 or 15. That was about 8 years ago and I seem to be doing just fine. *looks at hand and sees a hatchet* or maybe not...

[NarrMaster]

Lantern:
Would you suddenly turn into a hatchet murderer?

I don't need religion to tell me that hatchet murdering is wrong. If fear of punishment is what keeps someone from murdering people, are they really moral?

[Bruce]

Originally posted by Lantern

Would you suddenly turn into a hatchet murderer?

Absolutely not. I am strictly against the murdering of hatchets. Hatchets are not evil.



I might consider being a people murderer. The weapon of choice would be irrelavant. :D

[arthwollipot]

Originally posted by Lantern
If religion suddenly became unimportant in your life, what do you imagine you would do differently?

Exactly as I am. Since I have no religion to lose, there would not be any change.

However, the story goes deeper than that, because if I hadn't spend two years going to a born-again pentacostal church, I'd probably still be an apatheist, rather than a militant atheist. Mind you, atheism came to me a long time after I stopped going to that church.

If not for that experience, I wouldn't have my interest in science and logic. I wouldn't be listening to the music I do, and I wouldn't be here posting on this forum, because I wouldn't be as skeptical as I am today.

[RandFan]

Originally posted by Lantern
If religion suddenly became unimportant in your life, what do you imagine you would do differently? It did. I Stopped going to church. I Stopped giving money to the church. I Stopped praying. Asside from stopping all church related activities my life changed little.

[Hutch]

Originally posted by RandFan
It did. I Stopped going to church. I Stopped giving money to the church. I Stopped praying. Asside from stopping all church related activities my life changed little.

What Randfan said. Been about 20 years now and I haven't felt the urge to murder anyone with a hatchet....with a sledgehammer, yes, but not a hatchet....;) :D :p

[The GM]

Originally posted by Hutch
What Randfan said. Been about 20 years now and I haven't felt the urge to murder anyone with a hatchet....with a sledgehammer, yes, but not a hatchet....;) :D :p

Somebody has been eatting too much red meat.
:D

[Marquis de Carabas]

Originally posted by Lantern

Would you suddenly turn into a hatchet murderer?
I would turn into a hatchet killer. A murderer is a killer who gets caught. I wouldn't be nearly that daft.

[c4ts]

Originally posted by The GM
I imagine I'd sleep in on Sunday mornings. *shrugs*

And you don't do that anyway?

[The GM]

Originally posted by c4ts
And you don't do that anyway?

Good point. Although on one Sunday a year, I make an effort to be up and in church. That's Mother's Day, and I do it out of respect for my mom. Otherwise, yeah, I'm rolling out of bed at the crack of noon, some times noon thirty.

[tennis_man45]

Originally posted by NarrMaster
Lantern:


I don't need religion to tell me that hatchet murdering is wrong. If fear of punishment is what keeps someone from murdering people, are they really moral?
Exactly. There are three reasons that athiests such as myself do not blatantly disregard ethics just because we don't believe in god.

1. Welfare of Society and Ethics
2. Public Opinion
3. Well, we'll go to JAIL...

It's become a common mistake to confuse athiests with those who disregard morals in complete pursuit of personal gratification. The term that the author of this topic is seeking is "[New-age] Hedonist".

I haven't believed in god since I was 13, and it's working out just fine for me (I'm 16 now). In fact, without all the restrictions, I find it even easier to be a moral person.

[H3LL]

My better half has not been exposed to religion and considers what she knows as fairy tales.

She has a greater sense of morals and consideration for other around her than I have ever seen in any self-proclaimed devout religious person that I have ever met.

In my experience the more religious a person considers themselves the less they follow what they claim to believe in.

In the extremes, people like our beloved 1inch would appear to have the morals of a rock and I would be less surprised to hear he was a hatchet murderer (or people murderer) than almost anyone on this board.

[RiddleRhet]

The atheistic perspective is the only one that allows you to define a truly consistent moral philosophy.

You get to dig down within yourself, and figure out what does it mean to be moral, and why would you want to? Turns out, there are plenty of very good reasons to do "good." Turns out that some ideas of what is good are shared by atheists and religionists...but many things are not, and that's where it gets really interesting.

I found it quite tiring to have to memorize the "irregular" items on the morality list of the religion I grew up with -- I could never quite figure out the Principles from which all the rules were derived; there were always exceptions.

[Vortex]

Originally posted by Lantern
What would you be if it weren’t for your religion?
I have no religions. But since you mentioned religion, which of the tens of thousands or so defined gods are you referring to? The one residing only in your own head or one of the other gods residing in somebody elses head? Either way, not interested, unless you can somehow call your god into existence outside of your own head.
If religion suddenly became unimportant in your life, what do you imagine you would do differently?
Loaded question, it assumes that religion ever was important.
Would you suddenly turn into a hatchet murderer?
Empathy requires no gods, sorry.

[AngrySteve]

Of late i hear people in high places. Politicians and such forth bang on about religion being important whilst growing up

I disagree strongly with these comments.

Sometimes i do wonder if we are truly 200 years in the past

I would replace religion with common sense.

Religious assemblies in schools to be replaced with an extra Excerise Lesson, because of growing problems with obesity

You can be moral without God. Otherwise Atheists would be heartless killers. Morals are taught human being to human being, and through experience. It was never God that taught Morals in the first place

Oh yeah, whilst i'm here.
Can anyone see any reason why Holy Water being used by the Churches for multiple reasons is any different from the water we get out of our kitchen taps?

[arthwollipot]

It is symbolic. If you buy into their religious beliefs, holy water has been blessed by the priest, so it is "holy" and therefore pure.

For an atheist materialist, it is all symbolic.

[username]

Originally posted by Lantern
[B]What would you be if it weren’t for your religion? An impossible question to answer without a time machine, but I would think that all of your life experiences - as a child learning from your parents, from your teachers at school, from family, friends and colleagues at work, solitary efforts at self-improvement, and other events of your life - have hall contributed to who you are.

Yes, all of the events I have experienced have contributed to who I am. I don't see that I would be worse off had I never been exposed to religion though. Had I never been exposed to religion I probably wouldn't have spent years of my life hating people for their personal choices that have no impact whatsoever upon me simply because a book or authority figure told me they were evil.

I wouldn't have gone through puberty thinking the devil was inside me because of the biological urges I was experiencing.

I would have been far less judgemental toward my peers.

If religion suddenly became unimportant in your life, what do you imagine you would do differently?

When a deeply religious person loses their religion it is my experience that they actually begin thinking for themselves.

Would you suddenly turn into a hatchet murderer?

No, but I might stop fantasizing about the mass murder of brown people so that Israel could fulfill God's chosen plan.

When I imagine a world where people voluntarily turn away from religion and all other forms of dogma I do not imagine a utopia, I just imagine a society about as close to one as we can ever hope to get.