Imagine, with John Lennon, a world with no religion. Imagine no suicide bombers, no 9/11, no 7/7, no Crusades, no witch-hunts, no Gunpowder Plot, no Indian partition, no Israeli/Palestinian wars, no Serb/Croat/Muslim massacres, no persecution of Jews
as 'Christ-killers', no Northern Ireland 'troubles', no 'honour killings', no shiny-suited bouffant-haired televangelists fleecing gullible people of their money ('God wants you to give till it hurts'). Imagine no Taliban to blow up ancient statues, no public beheadings of blasphemers, no flogging of female skin for the crime
of showing an inch of it.
Quote by Richard Dawkins taken from the book The God Delusion.
5 comments:
As Eddie Vedder might say, it's hard to imagine!
I personally can imagine a world without religion. Though it is in the future, I believe it may be possible. As I have been researching this topic, many sources have stated that religion prevents intellectual growth due to the close minded teachings of that religion. Note: Those who are religious are not unintelligent. In the past, gods and myths were used to explain things that man could not. But now we know why thunder occurs or even seasons. With our knowledge should we depend on a belief of gods that is truly ancient? People have stated that religion does not make you unintelligent, but that you dismiss intelligent conclusions on the basis of your own religion. I do not think that you should shove logic away if your religion prevents you from doing so. Also, as a child not raised in any religion, I do not know why people have the belief that those who were not raised in a religion are worse than those who were, or even vice versa. Is it wrong for a parent to raise their child to love everyone and not discriminate against others based on what a written document tells you to do? My parents raised me to question things that I did not understand and not allow someone to tell me that MY way of life was the wrong way of life. Bloggers have stated that : "I look at religion as a tool used by the powerful to dominate the weak." This quote could surely start conflicts. But I do not wish to cause any conflicts based on my own beliefs. One of my questions is :
Does religion make people's actions be based on the belief that HE is watching you? Why do people reject the Darwin theory when it can explain the origin of species in a scientific and testable manner? Global Warming: Do religious people not care about Earth or its inhabitants because when they die they will go to heaven? Should we destroy the world that GOD supposedly created?
Please give me your opinions. My blog is empoweredyouthsociety.blogspot.com. State if you would like to be an online member and participate in intellectual conversations.
I love the way you have presented your very important and seemingly answerable questions. You are one of few I have come across that do not believe that have proposed questions in a completely uncompromising and intelligent way. First, I would like to propose to you a question of Truth. For instance, if you look on non-biased as well as conservative and liberal sites, or even simply the purely scientific information spoken of concerning Darwin's theory of evolution you can truly find that it does not explain everything and that after 140 years the absolute lack of transitory fossils to support his exact view of evolution remain utterly lacking. Let me step back in saying that just because his original view of evolution may be found lacking in today's science because of the evidence that we currently have, it does not mean that the end to which it concerns itself may not be explained by evolution of science itself. Further explaining itself in theories put forth by more modern scientists that instead of the original view of Darwin that projected a gradual change, instead surmise necessary instantaneus and rapid change during times of crises may have occured. The one thing you have to understand is there are many more than just one point of view out there about many scientific theories and so long as they are true they are truly beautiful in that the human mind can aspire itself to know such things.
To take a step away I think every human seeks truth, and I would say that so long as the truth you seek does not allow you to physically harm another human in any way that it is an intelligent pursuit. There is one thing I, in particular, know for certain and that is there is something inside us that causes us to search for this truth, and something that wants the loving human to share his love with others. To see the wrong in the world and make it better by correcting in the most perfect way by love. These are things unscientifically explained at least in fullness, and unscientific in nature if you look at their base. Now the question is; Is it God simply because it is unexplained? No, absolutely not. It is simply unexplained and we know it not yet why simply because we can't explain it, but in knowing that you must know something else: With every answer we will gain a question. It makes sense if you think about it that once we found the smallest particle to be a nucleus and then realized there are even smaller parts, and smaller and smaller and smaller. And just because we cannot explain something and that something is unexplained means that thing that is unexplained is God. Rather we should look at that first thing I said. Why are we caused to love one another? Why are we caused to love others that would not help our being in particular? Why are we here? Is it beautiful and light? Or is it Darkness? Is it Truth? Or is it a Lie? There are many questions and only one answer, but you can only have this answer by a faith in something more beautiful than yourself. Next you must answer whether you can attain something beyond what you can see with your own eyes. And then you must realize that every day a scientist sees something and realizes something beyond the eyes of his predecessor.
This life is truly beautiful (if you can cause yourself to see beauty) and to realize this beauty is in itself at least a step towards Truth.
My friend, I do not believe in 'Truth'. 'Truth' exists only in, and because of, language responding to available evidence, both internal and external.
'Truth' is merely perceptual, therefore it is infinitely variable and cannot exist as an entity outside of the confines of variability.
I have always felt that to seek an ultimate meaning for life is completely a waste of ones short time on earth.
There is no necessary meaning in life. There is just a finite and sequential series of occurrences before returning to a nihilist state. Thus life has always been and can only be. Surely if there is any meaning in life it is that one should cherish every moment of it, and that one can only cherish life in concert with other individuals who demand no more and no less respect than oneself?
To me, religion is one of the final barriers preventing the human race from evolving to its full potential. We create deities, divide along religious lines and slaughter one another over invented fables. Surely humankind has to be more noble and more advanced, less fractious, if we are to survive as a species?
Isn't survival more important than ridiculous and wholesale slaughter over stories we made up centuries ago and ideologies which demean the individual human being and rob them of the freedom of thought and expression and that we should long ago have left behind?
Religion kills free,logical,rational and questioning thought. We can never understand life better unless we constantly question it and learn from it instead of trying to pigeonhole it into ridiculous and unprovable theological theories.
Evolutionism may yet have to develop fully and discover more, but it is infinitely closer to the truth than anything offered up by any world religion/faith group as 'causa vitae'
If all the gods demand that we love one another and that all are equal, why does every religion/faith on earth expressly ignore that core essential of faith? Religion is a banner to hide behind and spit venom at people under a different banner rather than get to understand and accept each other. That surely has to be antithetical to the notion of a useful existence?
A world without religion is a world where everyone is free to believe or not believe as they wish There is no right system thereby no punishment .in this life or the next And morality is not dictated by a set of codified rules but by a simple concept do to others what you want them do to you
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