The Magic Button

[Astonished]

No, it's not a euphemism for something sexual. Read on.

I know I'm probably not the originator of this concept but I want to kind of outline it in a way that emphasizes how strongly I feel that no religious convictions are permissible regardless how benign (if only because they lend a sense of legitimacy to others who rely on things like the argument ad populum to reinforce their less private beliefs) and that the very idea of maintaining a belief system based solely around that which is irrational is the most selfish position it is possible to have, bar none.

You are to imagine there is a button in front of you. Pressing the button would create a wave that would wash over the earth and erase from the minds of ALL humans the following:
-Any homophobic beliefs (beyond ignorant locker room teasing they'll grow out of)
-Any thoughts that mutilating children's genitalia, or anyone's genitalia, is permissible without their expressed informed consent (and that to try to convince them to go through with it is NOT an act of utter lunacy)
-Any person should not have to base their beliefs around an empirical framework without presenting some valid evidence for the efficacy of this alternative framework
-There is any authority that can be derived from mythology
-Assumed authorities of the aforementioned illegitimate sort should be exempt from prosecution for crimes and conspiracies committed
-Teaching children things that are not demonstrably true is perfectly acceptable and forbidding them to question those lessons is the right thing to do
-Changing one's own mind or questioning one's deeply held beliefs is the worst thing a person can do
-People should be condemned for the simplest of mistakes and be made to feel guilty for things they had no part in or which harm no one
-Putting all responsibility in the hands of the idea of hope is not a contemptible act when it is within a person's power to do something else with their time, even if unrelated to what they hope will happen


I could go on, but you get the idea, I would hope (unless you're a theist...then all bets are off.) Regardless of your own personal beliefs, you would have to acknowledge a significant portion of the world is suffering because of all of these things and it doesn't look like it's going to be getting any better if something very serious isn't done to quell all of that. So you're debating whether to push the button because how can you help it even if you're the single most fundamentalist believer who's ever lived. But oh wait, there's a catch.

In pushing the button and creating the above effect(s), it will also remove from the minds of all humans the comfort they derive from imaginary friends. In some it will remove the tenuous safeguard against their proclivities regarding violence against others (which admittedly could be treated better with psychiatry and medication anyway). In others it may instill thoughts of suicide because of the grief they feel for the loss of a loved one because they will no longer be under the delusion that their departed loved one is in a paradise (where, again, grief counseling should have been pursued, with a secular emphasis to avoid this very problem).

So, that being the trade-off, while admittedly extremely minor in its ramifications by comparison, do you press the button? But if you're a critical thinker, you'll also understand things like the fact that all churches and other edifices could be converted into things like desperately needed space for homeless shelters, although because it will likely also result in fewer people being born because of how attitudes toward birth control, women's rights and family planning go, there won't be quite as much need within a few decades anyway. People won't be as likely to accept the status quo because their slave mentality will have lifted and rationalizations about why those in charge cannot claim any right to get away with their indiscretions will have vanished. So that, too, would add to the benefit of pressing the button.

Because if the answer is no, you are, without any ability to argue otherwise, the worst sort of monster imaginable short of any god that inspires all the problems (and more) that would be solved by the button and fails to either take responsibility and correct this behavior or worse, endorses it by their silence.

What kills me about this is that my best friend (who happens to be gay, got married to a woman and stayed with her for over a decade before he couldn't keep lying to himself, thus giving him an extremely valid reason to want to create an environment where no one else would ever have to go through that) told me that he didn't think he could do that. I admit it was a verbal conversation and I didn't even get through half of the list of benefits before he answered, but still, that was pretty shocking. His rationale was the most bizarre part as well; it seemed to matter to him more that he would be forcing this on people. But almost half his life was spent living a lie because of the FORCE of social pressures that have no business existing in the first place. And let's not forget circumcision and clitorectomies are done without the consent of the parties concerned, also against their will and by FORCE. So that seemed not to ring true, although I'm not sure if he just had never thought this through in the way that I had and it just caught him off-guard and he went with a gut reaction. I didn't bring up the topic with him again and I'm not sure I want to, but I just had to vent this somewhere if not with him.