Hey everyone!!
Don't you think that maybe Humanity's religiosity is a lost cause? Despite living in a modern world built on rigorous scientific theories and engineering feats, billions of people keep buying in, at least in all kind of supersitions, and at worst in the numerous major religions?
If it was possible to leave for another world, should we, atheists, agnostics and other non-religious folks abandon the rest of our specie? Would that be irresponsible?
Let me know what you think, pals!!!
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I will stick with my friends and family. I don't let religion come between us.
As chimp3 said. I would like to think that the human species may one day wake up.
rmfr
Honestly i would stay with my family and friends too, wether religious or not! Maybe should we focus at one problem at time and eradicate fundamentalism and in/out mentality first?
Hey there, Talyn. Great question. Actually fun to think about. *grin*
My very first knee-jerk instinctive reflex answer would be, "Where do I buy my ticket for that flight?" lol Sure, I know many religious people (friends and family), and I really have no problems with any of them on a daily basis. Matter of fact, for the most part they are really good people. And since I live a fairly "isolated" life (by choice), I really do not have to contend with any of them very often anyway.
That being said, the thought of being able to get away from the entire "collective religious mindsets" obviously sounds very appealing. Yes, let them have this place to themselves to pray to their respective gods and squabble and fight with each other over who is right and who is going to hell. What a bunch of nonsense. My only "reservation" about leaving them, I suppose, would be whether or not my leaving would be considered an admission of defeat. Of course, one then has to consider the futility of trying to use reason and rationality on an irrational mindset. And then the question becomes, "At what point does the rational person start to seem irrational by trying to convince the irrational to think rationally?"
So, yeah, when does that ship leave, and where do I get my ticket?
Of course, the initial impulsive feeling starts wearing off as I get about halfway up the loading ramp of the ship. Then I stop. Hang my head resigningly. Take a deep breath. Exhale. Look up. Then turn around and walk back down the ramp and hand off my ticket to a random person waiting in the ticket line.
Dammit..... I hate giving up. Probably would have been a really fun trip, too.
I am optimistic that the world is becoming a better place. It is far too soon to write it off.
I agree, Sapporo. I think the human race is maturing. It’s slow, but I think, steady.
But will the human race mature in time? We all have survived a senile old mad man serial liar/con-man with his hands on the button to kill us all. Maybe we will survive.
I do not envy the world's poor, (most of us,) 100 years from now however. Unless we make some major breakthroughs, along the lines of: deuterium based control fusion power plants that actually works and economical to operate.
I do optimistically think that the "nones" will reach majority within my lifetime. To me, a great milestone, and the internet will lead the way on this, as so many young religious folks simply never had the alternate viewpoint available to them, and the atheist argument is (in my mind,) extremely compelling logically.
Yes, we are most definitely at risk. We always have been though. Barring a complete global disaster, I think the human race will survive.
For it to thrive, however, I think we need (probably among others) two things: the empowerment of women and a clean, free energy source.
Dammit, give me my ticket. Stateroom portside, close to the bar please....
@Old Man Re: "....close to the bar please...."
Hey, you think the bar on the ship might be anything like Ten Forward on the Star Trek TNG Enterprise? That alone would be worth the trip. May have to go get my ticket back from that guy I gave it to. May have to fight him for it, though. The damn thing was expensive. Shouldn't be too difficult, though. He looked pretty old and rickety. May even have some mental problems, because he was on a red tricycle and wearing a white helmet with a yellow shirt and blue pa-.... Oh! Wait...... Heeeeey....!
Nah. Put the religidiots on the rockets. I hear there's some surplus missiles with low mileage for sale cheap in North Korea. Some of the silly buggers have already tried to hitch a ride to heaven on a comet. The Christians, muslims, and all the rest of the other-worldly mobs should leave this planet to those who really appreciate it.
99.999% of the universe is deadly to us. Where should we go? Any ideas?
Cognostic: 99.999% of the universe is deadly to us. Where should we go? Any ideas?
All the more reason to put the religidiots on the rocket. All they need to do is pray to their god and he'll keep them safe...
rmfr
lol arakish :)
Now lets not turn into the relidiots ourselves and even idly talk about genocide, that is their calling not ours ;)
Also: a lot more "9's" needed in that figure cognostic :)
i say we should go to wakanda...
there they have much better medical methods and technology...
Everyone should have his own world where each person is the sole human on it. That way everyone can do whatever he wants without affecting anyone else. It's like being a Mormon god or a muslim guy in paradise but without any people to rule over.
A good total immersion VR system could provide that. Should be easy enough to trick everyone into said VR system...hehehehe..
Of Course no way to know if we are all already in said system :)
Although I would love to get in line for such an adventure, I would not do it just to leave religion behind. IMO this is doing the right thing for the wrong reasons.
I would stay, I'm not running away from the problems.
I live in a nation where religion does not dominate the political conversation. The politicians must be more rational, and policies are not heavily influenced by religion. I am heavily exposed to those of faith, and many I consider close friends. I do not perceive this as "us against them", my fellow human beings are not my enemy. We disagree, but the way to resolve differences in opinion is compromise and dialogue.
And what about those we leave behind? Each day more and more are leaving religion, and it pains me to think of those who dropped religion only to look up and see the last rockets heading into space. The same goes with children. Do we abandon the innocents to religion?
My neighbors and friends are not my enemy, my enemy is the irrational and fundamentalist application of religious doctrine.
@ David
Goddammit, someone's always got to be bloody Captain Sensible don't they?. *sigh* Here TM have your ticket back, I'm staying. David, you are fucking killjoy sometimes, especially when you are right...*sigh*
@Old Man Re: Ticket
*out of breath panting heavily*... You mean I ran all the way back over here for NOTHING??? *tearing up ticket and throwing it in a trash can*... Well, ain't that just great? Gee, thanks, David! Always has to be that ONE reasonable guy in every group. *throwing hands up in the air in exasperation* Great! Now I'll NEVER get to see what warp speed looks like from the observation deck.
Hey, Old man, mind if I hitch a ride back? I'm pooped from all that running.
@Talyn
Re: "Despite living in a modern world built on rigorous scientific theories and engineering feats, billions of people keep buying in, at least in all kind of supersitions, and at worst in the numerous major religions?"
Most of humanity don't live in the modern world. They certainly don't benefit from it. In fact, they barely know it's there: when the Americans first invaded Afghanistan, they were astounded to find the average Afghani had no idea what 9/11 was. They'd never heard of it and couldn't fathom what the Americans were doing in Afghanistan.
Most of the world's people live in places where poverty is rife and inequality is extreme. Their lives are nasty, brutish and short as a result. It's perfectly reasonable for them to place their hopes in the next world when this one has treated them and theirs so very harshly.
It's a well evidenced fact that the higher the inequality is in a country, the higher the religiosity: that's why the USA is the outlier amongst all first world democracies. If you want to end the religiosity, you have to address the inequality. The two go hand in hand. Poverty won't necessarily make a society turn to god-there are historical examples of dirt poor societies who were atheistic- but inequality will, every time.
Really well said Sushisnake.
To me inequality (in its many different forms, not just financial) is big driver, the insidious cause to so many of the world crippling issues. And religion is a tool that greatly aids those on top to keep the people from rising up from such inequality.
To most people in the world, the loss of access to a mode of transportation would be devastating to the well being of the entire family. Whether it is a private car (for the richer ones like the lower classes in the US) or buses, mopeds, or even the ability to walk as a primary mode of transportation.
Jeff Bezos could easily just leave his latest car 100k car idling in the road when ever he went somewhere, instead of parking it. It will get stolen or towed away. He can just have another 100k car waiting for him to pick him up. He would not even notice a dent to his overall finances, the 100k car is like lint in his pocket, (not even chump change.) He could use 100 dollar bills as toilet paper, but make far more money per second then he is spending using 100 dollar bills as TP (even if he went crazy with it and likes to use a lot of "tp."
@orignal post
In a highly hypothetical scenario where there was another world we could travel to that supported human life much like earth, on a mangable rocket ride away, I would definitely be very interested in going if it was a world based on atheist/agnostic/none.
I know my immediate family would happily travel with me, and for the rest, I am happy to communicate via email/video conferencing, and come visit on occasion, just like I do now. (just across country instead of across worlds.)
If visiting was not an option, that would be a bit harder, but I probably would still buy that "rocket" ticket. Of course such a scenario will never present it self.
I do wonder if say, 20 years from now, compelling VR worlds will be a thing, and AR will have its own VR world we can all visit with anonymous (or optionally not) and have AR conversations :) ---think Ready Player One. like world w/o all the Hollywood drama.