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One could argue that religion has historically also been a catalyst for world peace, and that would be correct in my view.
Maybe peace to the individual and between members of the same religion but not to the "infidel" or "heathen" outside the group with a different (and assumed to be) inferior point of view.
Man will always try to beat degeneration-death, no other objective is so attractive at a Hasty glance . An Atheist society would prob give birth to many creative after-life cults. Séance's and so called gifted people surfacing with great popularity in the search for meaning beyond the material. ?
Now thats an interesting thought; An Atheist society giving birth to creative after-life cults. And then they might eventually give birth to " Atheist Religions?" And that certainly would be interesting. How would the now world ruling Atheist society treat these Atheist who want an after life?
Curiously, an Atheist society would fare better in marriage than the religious society has. Recent stats show Christians have a much higher divorce rate than Atheist do.
One: That's not really true. Evangelical Protestants and Pentecostals have much higher divorce rates than atheists. Catholics, Lutherans, and Presbyterians are about the same.
Two: Part of the low divorce rate of atheists is that they're less likely to marry in the first place. Hard to "fail" at marriage when you never enter it in the first place.
It's hard to know what a truly, and organically i.e. not coerced, atheist society would look like. Most of the highly atheist societies we have the people may believe in a variety of supernatural or paranormal things. So it would plausibly not be a Rationalistic society as Rationalism isn't particularly popular.
Still judging by places like Scandinavia, France, etc you might have a society with lower crime than the US, reduced teen pregnancy, and maybe less abortion as less people get pregnant. Presumably sexism, ethnic intolerance, and discrimination against homosexuals would be less judging by what I've read. Many of these are linked to "tradition" and atheism, usually, has no traditions of its own. You'd also plausibly have a society where the state is powerful as people switch from the Church to the State for their needs. Individual generosity would likely be comparatively low as the State or Community Organization would deal with that and more atheistic people tend to be less personally generous going by Gallup et alia. (Yes there are billionaire atheist philanthropists, but this only tells of us exceptional people not average people) Suicide would presumably be high, particularly among those over sixty or disabled. Euthanasia and "softer" forms of Eugenics would become more acceptable. Non-rational "Traditional" ideas about sanctity or purity would presumably decline. So plausibly cemeteries would decline and eventually things like consensual non-procreative incest would be okay. Asimov dealt with the second in Robots of Dawn and John Varley did in several works.
And I'd get more into this, but my edits mean I wrote a bit after Sunday ended. See you next Sunday!
Last edited by Thomas R.; 01-29-2012 at 11:08 PM..
Well you might be forgetting something. The new atheist which is on the table knows not the prejudice which is in the contemporary atheist suitcase. In order to follow along , that suitcase filled with the many complaints for religion must be left at the door. The mind is vacant on all items associated with religion...it has been wiped out, does not exist. There is no such thing as religion or any of its beliefs. All thats left is the well known many un-answered questions with respects to consciousness, time, ...we don't even know why gravity exists so putting the cap on probably the most attractive curiosity in a continuing realization, may not exist in the same manner.
We are all atheists, some just go one god further.
It is obvious that folk all have their own idea(s) of who god is proving this god exists only in the collective consciousness. This god occupies the emotional part of the brain and interacts with emotions.
It takes a conscious effort to suppress this god once it has taken hold. Thereafter this god ceases to exist.
Now thats an interesting thought; An Atheist society giving birth to creative after-life cults. And then they might eventually give birth to " Atheist Religions?" And that certainly would be interesting. How would the now world ruling Atheist society treat these Atheist who want an after life?
I think in general they would ignore all of it unless something hit the front page...or many who may find some of the ideas interesting would prob keep updated for interest. People always seem very curious.
This might sound weird coming from me but I don't think a world full of atheists is a good idea. As much as I think that religion has run it's course for me I do believe it has it's worth and is good for people, keeps them in line and gives them hope. A lot of people need that so I think it would be very disadvantageous for people to lose faith and hope. I may have lost it but I can handle not having that false hope and faith, a lot of people couldn't or wouldn't survive without it.
We were discussing if Atheism will ever be a majority, or even complettely wipe out religion from this planet.
Fear not Mickiel, you're quite safe. Religion will never go. As Mencken said.............
"The most common of all follies is to believe passionately in the palpably not true. It is the chief occupation of mankind."
...and....
".....What the world turns to, when it has been cured of one error, is usually another error, and maybe one worse than the first one."
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