A Thought Experiment for Believers and Atheists Alike

[Der/die AtheistIn]

A dream to beautifull to be true (at this day and age at thevery least).

[Catholic_Lady]

I definitely think religious beliefs would return. It's human nature. (I would say God put that in us.)

[downbeatplumb]

I definitely think religious beliefs would return. It's human nature. (I would say God put that in us.)

But would your religious beliefs return?
looking at what other peoples believed before they were encountered by missionaries and priests it seems doubtful.

[Catholic_Lady]

I definitely think religious beliefs would return. It's human nature. (I would say God put that in us.)

But would your religious beliefs return?
looking at what other peoples believed before they were encountered by missionaries and priests it seems doubtful.

No, not unless Jesus came back and retaught it.

[Silver]

What do you think will happen?

Unless man's imagination is also removed, he will most likely use it to recreate religion; but who knows what will come out of his head.

[drfuzzy]

Oh, I would love to think that the human race would be completely free of any concept of a deity or anything supernatural.  Yeah, we can do away with ghosts and spirits and angels and santa claus and vampires and zombies . . . entertainment writers would have to work harder . . . and there would certainly be less war.

But I'm quite sure that some sick con-artist would try to make something up.  They would probably claim to have scientific proof of crystal healing or pyramid power and then a bunch of idiots would buy it, and we'd be off to the races again.  

[henryp]

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?

This is interesting.  With no memory of religion, there would also be no recollection of why religion is goofy.  As a new religion inevitably developed, I think we'd see a lot of people who were vehement atheists through cultural inevitability be the first to lineup for the new religions, and some of the brighter religious folk, without the lifetime of conditioning, become some of the more outspoken atheists.

The battle would exist socially, and the scales would tip heavily based on whether being religious was considered the 'in thing to do.'

[LadyForCamus]

Baby-feasting fit for kings until the species is effectively wiped out. 😏

[Succubus]

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?

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.

[SteveII]

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?

The Natural Theology Arguments would come back in no time. We have a built in propensity to believe in the supernatural and coupled with reason, we get all kinds of reasons to posit some sort of deity. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_theology

Psalm19:1The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
2Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they reveal knowledge.
3They have no speech, they use no words;
no sound is heard from them.
4Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.