I've been asking myself this question for a while. First, I was excited for the idea of finding another life form on another planet. But then I thought: "they will always find an excuse for god". Sure, it won't happen overnight, but I believe as we progress and communicate with each other, it will eventually happen. I guess the hope is in the children. As the older one gets, the more stubborn he/she usually becomes.

So I'd like to ask you guys for some practical ideas that we, as individuals, can do to educate children and help them breakout of the mysteries they've been taught by their parents/cultures.

As a software developer, I'm thinking games. Perhaps books would also work as well, but in some cultures, children just don't read (I'm looking at you, Saudis!). Any other ideas? Do you know of any games, books or any other form of achieving this goal that's been tried before?

Keep the internet free and the kids will learn for themselves.

(May 28, 2013 at 11:45 am)Minimalist Wrote: Keep the internet free and the kids will learn for themselves.

In a perfect world, maybe. As long as there are companies who'd do anything to make money, I don't think this will happen. Most technologies used by dictators for blocking the web are made by companies located at secular countries. And I bet most of their employees hate dictatorship and autocracy, but since they're not directly affected and they'll make money out of it, they do help them out.

Two weeks ago, a popular telecom company here has approached an american security expert/hacker to help them monitor mobile text apps (e.g. WhatsApp), fortunately he denied to help, but I'm sure they were able to find someone else who will do anything for money.

The same way the Greek and Nordic religions and religions of old became extinct; some other theocracy or ideology pushes them out. I have no faith in humanity on this point, lest we drastically change our nature, we're gonna cling to superstition as long as we have our current nature.

(May 28, 2013 at 8:21 pm)Sal Wrote: The same way the Greek and Nordic religions and religions of old became extinct;

With the possible exception that a large number of horny old men will have to find different ways to get their hands on kids. And they will not have a multinational NGO covering up their "innocent fun" with an "infallible" dictator who chooses to ignore this "minor" issue and rather focus on the "major" issue of peoples personal lives, like whether consenting adults choose to wear a rubber or not.

Ah, that'll be the day.

With a bang!

(May 28, 2013 at 11:45 am)Minimalist Wrote: Keep the internet free and the kids will learn for themselves.

Good point Min.

I remember when I was young listening to religious friends of my parents...sitting there thinking..this is such bullshit.

What was my option...hitch a ride to library and spend weeks researching>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>google baby....its getting a lot harder to sale bullshit.

I think people should learn for themselves. It's taken me a long time (30 years) to get where I am but I had to do the work. It would have been really weird if some stranger tried to force me out of belief.

They will end a lot more peacefully than the old religions of Europe, that's for fucking sure!

I broke from Christianity and became an atheist at a very young age, I believe my reasoning and connections that I made back then explained out could be put to use for this cause. The most important part of becoming an atheist was realizing that Santa Claus is not real in the third grade. After realizing that Santa Claus is fake, I had to realize why kids are being lied to about this reality. I came to believe the goal in lying about the existence of Santa Claus is to improve children's behavior with reward of presents with good behavior, or with penalty of coal with bad behavior. I related presents to heaven and coal to hell, as heaven is the reward for good behavior or believing in God (which is thought of as a good thing), just like the presents, and hell is the punishment for the opposite, just like the coal. Santa Claus is the supposed judge of whether individual children receive presents or coal, and the deliverer of them, while God in Christianity is the supposed judge of whether individual children and adults deserve to go to Heaven or Hell. I thought that if children, on a large scale, could be fooled by the existence of Santa Claus, and forced into keeping that belief and acting in certain ways based on the promise of presents of coal based on their doings, adults can be fooled likewise by the existence of God. If the penalty for not believing in God or doing bad things was not as harsh as eternal suffering and torture, and instead was to receive coal, and the reward for the opposite was less great, and instead just receiving minor gifts, more people would be likely to question the existence of God. But as it is, many adults are not only afraid to not believe in God, they are afraid of even questioning the existence of God, because they feel this process might make them an atheist and then they will suffer eternally after their death. I related the concept of the Christian God to all of the other concepts of God, so I did not try any other religions that I knew about. It took me a while to declare myself atheist. For a while, I was afraid, because I was not aware of the benefits of atheism, and viewed it as a bad thing. In late middleschool I realized how great humanism is as an alternative, though I did not know it was called humanism until very recently (I am 16.). Now I have other reasons to believe there is/are no god/gods, but I cannot deny that relating Santa Claus to God was the biggest step for me.

So, I don't know... maybe make a parody of the song "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" that instead of saying "Santa Claus" says "God"?...
"God is coming to town...
He knows when you are sleeping,
He know when you're awake,
He knows if you've been bad or good,
So be good, for goodness sake."