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What do you think it would look like? Would the world be a better or worse place? I think most people here would agree generally to "better", but let's look at some of the specifics here.
Some ideas to consider:
-Republican politics as they are today wouldn't exist in their current form without religion. Maybe they would be more focused on the fiscal and small government aspects as they once were, instead of legislating gay marriage, abortion, etc.
-Modern science and medicine may become more advanced because there would be less hindrance due to religious objection (stem cells, etc).
-Would charity suffer? All of the church-sponsored soup kitchens wouldn't exist. So where would that type of social support derive from? Additionally, there are typically religious holiday drives like Toys fror Tots, etc. all of which are gone.
-Perhaps we would lose some great art. Naturally non-religious subjects can be inspiring, but inspiration strikes everyone differently, and for some of the great artists of the past religion was that inspiration.
-Stand up comedians would have one less topic to make fun of. What would Bill Maher do?!
What do you think it would look like? Would the world be a better or worse place? I think most people here would agree generally to "better", but let's look at some of the specifics here.
Thoughts?
Religion free society? Well it's been done before. Look to the old Soviet Union. And today we have North Korea. Two fine examples.
Religion free society? Well it's been done before. Look to the old Soviet Union. And today we have North Korea. Two fine examples.
What about a religion free society in which the government is far more limited than either the old Soviet Union or North Korea?
Explain why atheists would value more power isolated within the government than theists.
I think it'd be a better society because we would need to worry less about members of the government having motivations for their political views that come from inaccurate sources, or citizens voting for elected officials because they have those inaccurate views.
-Would charity suffer? All of the church-sponsored soup kitchens wouldn't exist. So where would that type of social support derive from? Additionally, there are typically religious holiday drives like Toys fror Tots, etc. all of which are gone.
Thoughts?
We already have many atheists doing lots of charity. If religion was not sponsoring the soup kitchens other foundations would step up (or there would be new ones).
Religion free society? Well it's been done before. Look to the old Soviet Union. And today we have North Korea. Two fine examples.
North Korea is NOT religion free. The religion is worship of the *dear leader.* The soviet union attempted to make militant atheism the state religion, but never actually succeeded in that. They did repress the churches, though.
I actually think it would look either an awful lot like the world we have now, from Denmark to North Korea and all points in between, or it would be almost totally incomprehensible to us now.
If I look at this issue, I have to start from my view of religion. As best as I can tell it is an authority structure meant to form communities, provide uniformity within the community, protect the community from others, and improve the community's lot at the expense of others. It does this by appealing to tradition and authorities, and Gods are just the highest manifestation of an unquestionable authority figure.
The formation and adherence to these structures is something that is kind of built into the way we think and the way we form groups by family, language and shared culture. I think there we are evolutionarily predisposed to use hierarchy and appeals to authority to form and protect our sense of community and belonging.
Thus, if we could remove religion as it exists today, without changing humanity, we would in short order reinvent structures that served the same purpose and, even if they did not have deities, would look remarkably like "religion". I think examples of this are specifically the near deification of "the State" in many Communist countries, or the cult-like "Dear Leader" approach. In short, if we removed religion, we would recreate it in some form very quickly
The alternative is instead of magically removing religion, we wave our wand and remove the propensity of humans to form social groups based on a hierarchical authority structure. In this case, I am not sure I can begin to imagine how we would turn out. It would certainly change the way we thought about family, community, nations, religions, ideologies, and a host of other things that are all related to the social grouping that appears to be the basis for religion.
Religion free society? Well it's been done before. Look to the old Soviet Union. And today we have North Korea. Two fine examples.
Forgive me if I'm wrong but... isn't that a church back there on Red Square, all front and center on the most iconic piece of real estate in the Communist world?
And the Jong ill wackadoodles? They are "deified sons of heaven"; Kim could even control the weather with his mind.... or at least that's what his followers believed.
I could be wrong but this all sounds religious to me.
I
Thus, if we could remove religion as it exists today, without changing humanity, we would in short order reinvent structures that served the same purpose and, even if they did not have deities, would look remarkably like "religion". I think examples of this are specifically the near deification of "the State" in many Communist countries, or the cult-like "Dear Leader" approach. In short, if we removed religion, we would recreate it in some form very quickly
-NoCapo
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chango
Forgive me if I'm wrong but... isn't that a church back there on Red Square, all front and center on the most iconic piece of real estate in the Communist world?
And the Jong ill wackadoodles? They are "deified sons of heaven"; Kim could even control the weather with his mind.... or at least that's what his followers believed.
I could be wrong but this all sounds religious to me.
As to the church in red square that was there before the commies came to power and banned religion. A church building is just a building. As to Jong, see NoCapo's post. The Jong fellow is "worshiped" by atheists. Kinda ironic.
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