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View Full Version : Use your imagination, now envision of a new Earth


Yahweh
1st June 2003, 05:11 AM
When I envision a new Earth, I try to imagine a whole world where religion was an unknown idea. I imagine a place where the entire world never thought for a second about devinity. And when I think of that world I see a place far more advanced than this world that I am sitting on right now as I'm typing this. I imagine a world that nobody questioned the credibility of a Earth that rotates around the Sun, or an Earth where prayer was more of a sign of sickness rather than normality. I would imagine an Earth with no religions or faiths or anything of the such would be a place where science was an answer to everything. And yes, there would be an answer to everything, but in the case where that answer was hard to come by like "Was there really a Big Bang" there would many theories because a question like that is really really hard... almost like asking whats the square root of a 300 digit prime number. Its a place where if you said that you talked to an invisible man named God everynight before you go to bed, than you would be delusional and would need counciling and be placed on a high dosage of Respirtol. Its a place where people who claimed to have any power that broke any law of science (such as mental telepathy, telekenisis, or the ability to fly) would first be scrutinized and examined throroughly, only then to have their hands stamped in big red bold letters "Not Quite Right" so people would know immediately that these people are not quite right or flat out liars.

Heres a list of things that would have never happened in the world with no religions:
1. There would never have been a 300 year long period of witch persecution
2. No jihad, because lets face it, jihad is without a doubt the stupidest most ignorant thing to be concieved ever... ever.
3. No Al Queda
4. No Hitler or Jewish Persecution, as there would be no Jews or reason to persucute
5. No stupidity... thats such a generalized idea... by that I mean people kill others because God told them so, or people who belong to cults
6. No slavery. I've heard that apparently some people back in the 400 years of enslaving blacks, people were taught that both Adam and Eve were white therefore making white people supreme and more intelligent than the black people.
This list goes on and on.

Some things that would still exist would be:
1. Holidays. But the holidays would be different because they would celebrate achievements like landing on the moon, or winning independence from a country, or great scientific achievements.
2. America still would have been discovered by the Europeans, probably sooner as science would encourage exploration.
The list goes on and on again.

But I would not want to live in a world without religion. For 2 reasons, #1 there would be no Buffy the Vampire Slayer show, #2 there would be no Angel show. I love those shows.

FireGarden
1st June 2003, 10:29 AM
I'm bored and have too much time on my hands.
So here goes:
Its a place where people who claimed to have any power that broke any law of science (such as mental telepathy, telekenisis, or the ability to fly) would first be scrutinized and examined throroughly, only then to have their hands stamped in big red bold letters "Not Quite Right" so people would know immediately that these people are not quite right or flat out liars.
I like the way that some claims have to be tested.
I imagine a world that nobody questioned the credibility of a Earth that rotates around the Sun,
Oops, only the woo-woo claims.

And then the list:
(1) The term "witch hunt" is used in non-paranormal settings. Such as McCarthy's witch hunt for communists. (Or is that a religion?)

(2) Are you saying that all Jihad would be gone? Including the peaceful campaigns and concerted actions. Can atheists not engage in the "Jihad of the soul"? (In a metaphorical sense) The word "crusade" occasionally gets used in non-combative situations, "Jihad" is much more a "concerted action" type thing. Are you conducting a "crusade" against ignorance?

(3) But there still would have been Nazis, the Mafia and Republicans :p

(4) Are you saying that Hitler couldn't have used hate against Gypsys or gays or..... Wait a minute .... He did.

(6) This is just silly. Slavery has been a part of all the old world empires, and was based more on nationality and/or skin colour than religion.

Are you going to get rid of nationality?
Of course not. 'Cause America would have to exist in your Utopia. And God forbid (excuse the phrase) that you should be unpatriotic. That would be so irrational.

Of course the Europeans would have had to find the secular, scientific and logical way of stealing the land from the natives.

I'd get rid of patriotism before I dropped religion.
But I'm far from sure that the world would work at all if I did so.
Nature had thousands of years to decide which kind of society was best for a thinking animal like Humanity. The last two or three thousand years have created a new environment were science and learning are hugely beneficial. Ritual/superstitious behaviour helped our ancestors through many 100,000s of years before that.

Today, I'd rather define myself as a mathematician than as British. But to have outlawed tribal behaviour 10,000 years ago would have been stupid. I'm not even sure it would be a good idea today.

Dancing David
2nd June 2003, 01:06 PM
I am afraid there would be evil without religion, just as there is evil with it.

Religion is like toilet paer, it has it's uses but after being used it should be discarded.

EdipisReks
2nd June 2003, 02:43 PM
Originally posted by Dancing David
I am afraid there would be evil without religion, just as there is evil with it.


if you are talking of "absolute evil", i would have to disagree with you. i don't believe there is absolute evil with or without religion.

c4ts
2nd June 2003, 05:35 PM
Whenever I imagine a world without religion, I get this picture of a world just like this one except that people are slightly more liberal about political interpretation. Think about it. If religion goes, law takes its place. Instead of bible beaters, you have constitution beaters, who go around demanding that the rest of the world join their country or die.