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A Thought Experiment for Believers and Atheists Alike
#21
RE: A Thought Experiment for Believers and Atheists Alike
(October 9, 2017 at 6:42 am)chimp3 Wrote: Scenario:

At Midnight GMT a small miracle occurs. Everywhere , all at once, religion disappears. Every trace of it. Every holy book, every deity, every hymn, every religious symbol. Every memory of religion disappears from the human mind. Some people wake up and wonder why they are wearing funny hats (We will keep the hats for this exercise). The rest of human memory, culture, cuisine, art, song, industry, technology, science, medicine remains as is.

What do you think will happen?

Probably the same as what already has happened. First, the revival of some type of animism or polytheism in response to the 'sensus divinitatis'. Following that, a philosophical inquiry replicating the natural revelation of ancient Greece resulting a "God of the Philosophers". After that, it would take some special revelation in order for there to be knowledge of Divine Truths and a subsequent synthesis of faith and reason.
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#22
RE: A Thought Experiment for Believers and Atheists Alike
No, I don't believe religion would return.
It's all about indoctrination. Without it, it cannot work.
It's just a psychological tool. Once we break that cycle, everybody wakes up and we all get on with our lives... No fear, no carrots, no mental gymnastics, no nothing.
Jesus, Shmesus!
No God, No fear.
Know God, Know fear.
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#23
RE: A Thought Experiment for Believers and Atheists Alike
(October 9, 2017 at 8:16 am)Hammy Wrote: Does the memory of religion disappear? I am just trying to be clear. Do people forget religion ever existed? I am only wondering because you say people wonder why they are wearing funny hats.

Yes. All memory of religion disappears. I am keeping the hats around for my own laughs.

(October 9, 2017 at 1:14 pm)Succubus Wrote: This thought experiment just can't work unless you are more specific regarding, buildings, for example. If Notre dam Cathedral disappears people will be wondering 'what's that opens pace', it wasn’t there yesterday. If the thing still dominates the Paris skyline then there will be a chorus of 'what the fuck's that? There's far to many paradoxes for this to work.
The architecture of cathedrals would remain but all links to deities would vanish. Statues, paintings, gone.

(October 9, 2017 at 7:56 am)Alex K Wrote: Who dat Jesus guy we have reams and reams of music about? Seems a bit excessive...

The name, history, and image of Jesus would be gone. The tunes would remain but lyrics are gone.

(October 9, 2017 at 6:12 pm)chimp3 Wrote:
(October 9, 2017 at 8:16 am)Hammy Wrote: Does the memory of religion disappear? I am just trying to be clear. Do people forget religion ever existed? I am only wondering because you say people wonder why they are wearing funny hats.

Yes. All memory of religion disappears. I am keeping the hats around for my own laughs.

(October 9, 2017 at 1:14 pm)Succubus Wrote: This thought experiment just can't work unless you are more specific regarding, buildings, for example. If Notre dam Cathedral disappears people will be wondering 'what's that opens pace', it wasn’t there yesterday. If the thing still dominates the Paris skyline then there will be a chorus of 'what the fuck's that? There's far to many paradoxes for this to work.
The architecture of cathedrals would remain but all links to deities would vanish. Statues, paintings, gone.

(October 9, 2017 at 7:56 am)Alex K Wrote: Who dat Jesus guy we have reams and reams of music about? Seems a bit excessive...

The name, history, and image of Jesus would be gone. The tunes would remain but lyrics are gone.

The First Amendment of the US Constitution would protect freedom of the press but would not mention religion.

Thomas Paine's "The Age of Reason" would not exist. Neither would the religious debates of Hitchens or the Atheistic writings of Ingersoll.
God thinks it's fun to confuse primates. Larsen's God!






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#24
RE: A Thought Experiment for Believers and Atheists Alike
A few people would form cults, and some people would join them. None would ever become as widespread as religion ever became. ThE major religions were invented and literally held sacred because they professed to have answers to some big questions. Many of those questions have since been solved, and what passes for religion today is not actually held sacred by any intelligent person (i.e. the Bible cannot possibly be taken literally, and you would end up an idiot and a criminal if you tried). All that's left is a desire for community, and religion provided that too. So there would be a handful of silly cults.
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#25
RE: A Thought Experiment for Believers and Atheists Alike
(October 9, 2017 at 6:29 pm)Puke Skywalker Wrote: A few people would form cults, and some people would  join them.  None would ever become as widespread as religion ever became.  ThE major religions were invented and literally held sacred because they professed to have answers to some big questions.  Many of those questions have since been solved, and what passes for religion today is not actually held sacred by any intelligent person (i.e. the Bible cannot possibly be taken literally, and you would end up an idiot and a criminal if you tried).  All that's left is a desire for community, and religion provided that too.  So there would be a handful of silly cults.
I agree with you. We have the vast body of scientific evidence to explain reality. We have moral philosophy to support reason as a tool for moral thinking. We have history to learn from past mistakes. We have secular government to replace theocracy. We have medicine to replace magical healing rites. There may be an impulse towards religion but religion would never gain the same foothold. It would be a bunch of normal people and a few wackos.
God thinks it's fun to confuse primates. Larsen's God!






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#26
RE: A Thought Experiment for Believers and Atheists Alike
But... But.... Gullibility?

Astrology? Palm reading?

But most importantly: what will the lady scream during a good shaggin?
No God, No fear.
Know God, Know fear.
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#27
RE: A Thought Experiment for Believers and Atheists Alike
(October 9, 2017 at 6:12 pm)chimp3 Wrote: Yes. All memory of religion disappears. I am keeping the hats around for my own laughs.

I think Astrology, fortune tellers, conspiracy theories and pseudo-science and cults in general would effectively become the new religions.
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#28
RE: A Thought Experiment for Believers and Atheists Alike
(October 9, 2017 at 8:20 am)MysticKnight Wrote: Maybe that's due to the mess of history we have. Clean slate, we might be forced to rely on reason more objectively?


If you correctly applied reason to your god beliefs, they would melt away.

You'd believe if you just opened your heart" is a terrible argument for religion. It's basically saying, "If you bias yourself enough, you can convince yourself that this is true." If religion were true, people wouldn't need faith to believe it -- it would be supported by good evidence.
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#29
RE: A Thought Experiment for Believers and Atheists Alike
I think more would be created, ad infinitum. In other words, I think religion as a thing... rather than any particular religion... is here to stay... forever... and nothing... not a hypothetical reset like this or the greatest advances in science... would ultimately make any difference. Because the human condition is always searching for answers, especially on subjective metaphysical questions like consciousness and continuity, and science alone is ultimately incapable of answering them definitively. So where there are gaps - as there always will be... a hundred years from now, a thousand years from now (if we haven't nuked ourselves by then) people will still be asking those same questions even if they're flying around in spaceships as they do - there will always be people willing or needing to literally take a leap of faith as to what might fill those gaps... and for this hypothetical, they'd be the founders of the new religions.
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#30
RE: A Thought Experiment for Believers and Atheists Alike
(October 9, 2017 at 8:14 am)MysticKnight Wrote: I think reasoning will prove the need of having FSM's guidance and reasoning will prove the need to unite on a leader from FSM who represents the path of FSM and name of FSM.

I think people will then pray for FSM to guide them and FSM will provide that guidance.

Did you even read the op?  Please lay off the cough syrup.

Also, FIFY
"For the only way to eternal glory is a life lived in service of our Lord, FSM; Verily it is FSM who is the perfect being the name higher than all names, king of all kings and will bestow upon us all, one day, The great reclaiming"  -The Prophet Boiardi-

      Conservative trigger warning.
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