if all religions ceased to exist...

[waitasec]

do you think the world will go nuts? i mean, worse then it is now...

i can see that there will be some sort of disarray if all religions were somehow proven beyond a shadow of a doubt to be false, as those who need it to stay in line will say "to hell with it" ...but what if it gradually just faded into black...into a distant pass time.... would life be more unfair, cruel and indifferent?

 

[Road Warrior]

It would continue to be regenerated as long as the human race existed. If you want to kill off religion, you have to kill off those who are religious.....but you already know that, don't you? It's what Stalin and Mao tried to do. It didn't work for them but you might have better luck.

 

[Sunstone]

Religious behavior is deeply engrained in human genes. If you ended all existing religions today, new religions would spring up tomorrow.

 

[Road Warrior]

Agreed. Maybe it's part of sentience to have a spiritual nature or at least a nature where one wonders from whence they came and where they will go.

 

[waitasec]

Agreed. Maybe it's part of sentience to have a spiritual nature or at least a nature where one wonders from whence they came and where they will go.

i agree with that.

but we can't always get what we want...even if it is within our nature to find out answers

 

[Road Warrior]

Even if we can never achieve it, and how can we really know that for sure, that won't stop people from looking. When they look, it will be a spiritual quest. For some, this will evolve into religion.

 

[waitasec]

It would continue to be regenerated as long as the human race existed. If you want to kill off religion, you have to kill off those who are religious.....but you already know that, don't you? It's what Stalin and Mao tried to do. It didn't work for them but you might have better luck.

now now now...that wasn't very nice.

do you think i'm like this with people i come into contact with in the real world

this is a forum where ideas are free to roam....
you know like this

[youtube]IWEfmCvu8R8[/youtube]
B-52´s Roam - YouTube

 

[Sunstone]

Agreed. Maybe it's part of sentience to have a spiritual nature...

I was thinking more along the lines of causal reasoning, agent detection, a preference to see events as a narrative, respect for elders, and other human traits that have been shown or suspected to have a biological (i.e. genetic) basis. In this day and age, not to know what traits are in all likelihood foundational to human religiosity is a strange choice to make.

 

[Road Warrior]

do you think i'm like this with people i come into contact with in the real world

I think you hide your true nature from people in the real world because the consequences of doing there as you do here wouldn't be financially beneficial for you.

 

[waitasec]

I think you hide your true nature from people in the real world because the consequences of doing there as you do here wouldn't be financially beneficial for you.

my true nature is to be real and let go of the BS 'cause it's a waste of time...
life is too short.

 

[Road Warrior]

So which is your true nature, the one you display here or at work?

Agreed about "life is too short". It's why I'm the same wherever I go.

 

[waitasec]

So which is your true nature, the one you display here or at work?

well i don't hang out with the religious, other than my immediate family...we don't talk about it so much well not anymore. it used to get heated, but we decided keep it cool...however i would love to get into it with them.

i don't know i guess what ever is happening at the moment will determine my nature for that moment....
people say that i am a very calm person...and sometimes they say i'm very passionate and sensitive

and since the only way you have experienced me, waitasec, in a forum that isn't really a part of my reality...you really can't determine what my true nature is.

so when it comes to religion and how it feeds prejudices and persecution the gloves come off in this arena....and really no one gets hurt..it's just good old fashioned honesty.

 

[Road Warrior]

and since the only way you have experienced me, waitasec, in a forum that isn't really a part of my reality...you really can't determine what my true nature is.

I may not know your entire nature, but disagree that this isn't real. Of course, that is given that you are honest about your thoughts and feelings on the forum. Obviously some people here are purporting to be things they are not. That's their choice, but it does say something about their true nature.

 

[waitasec]

I may not know your entire nature, but disagree that this isn't real. Of course, that is given that you are honest about your thoughts and feelings on the forum. Obviously some people here are purporting to be things they are not. That's their choice, but it does say something about their true nature.

sure.
and of course there may be parts of my nature that are aggressive, for obvious reasons, and other parts that are timid...it depends on the situation...

i think everyone is like that.

 

[Road Warrior]

sure.
and of course there may be parts of my nature that are aggressive, for obvious reasons, and other parts that are timid...it depends on the situation...

i think everyone is like that.

True, everyone is like that. We all have good days and bad too. It's not how a person is at the moment that shows their nature, but how they appear over a course of time that reveals their nature. It's consistency of action even if the only action is putting electrons on a screen.

 

[Caladan]

do you think the world will go nuts? i mean, worse then it is now...

i can see that there will be some sort of disarray if all religions were somehow proven beyond a shadow of a doubt to be false, as those who need it to stay in line will say "to hell with it" ...but what if it gradually just faded into black...into a distant pass time.... would life be more unfair, cruel and indifferent?

Would religion really disappear? there would still be cult followings of celebrities, reality TV, mega corporations, consumerism, and many other social phenomena that I have no other way to define them other than religious.
It's also possible that some social segments will go nuts, but I'm not sure if we can really tell that, I mean who knows what other monstrosities people who are extremist in their beliefs would reinvent?

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

Would religion really disappear? there would still be cult followings of celebrities, reality TV, mega corporations, consumerism, and many other social phenomena that I have no other way to define them other than religious?

I do not believe it useful to answer the question by significantly distorting or diluting 'religion' as a useful term.

(I really like Yi-Fu Tuan's baseline: "All human beings are religious if religion is broadly defined as the impulse for coherence and meaning.")

 

[Caladan]

I do not believe it useful to answer the question by significantly distorting or diluting 'religion' as a useful term.

(I really like Yi-Fu Tuan's baseline: "All human beings are religious if religion is broadly defined as the impulse for coherence and meaning.")

Can you be more elaborative Jay? My short analysis is certainly not focused on a search for meaning but on collective mental masturbation

 

[beerisit]

What a frightening idea, given the number of religious people on here who feel that without religion murder, rape and pillage are the default behaviour without religion.

 

[Jayhawker Soule]

What a frightening idea, given the number of religious people on here who feel that without religion murder, rape and pillage are the default behaviour without religion.

In your opinion, what percentage "of religious people on here ... feel that without religion murder, rape and pillage are the default behaviour without religion"?