What if no one thought to worship the imposable and no one invented religion...what state would we be in right now...
7
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Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.We would be such different creatures that it isn't even possible to make a guess where we would be.
We would be creatures who don't crave explanation. We would be creatures who were comfortable with doubt. We would be creatures who don't believe in magic.
Very few humans are like that (although many of the humans on this site are).
plf515
Level 4
Apr 26, 2020
3
Science doesn’t just spring fully formed in human cultures. The prevailing theory is that religion was used as a means of explaining the world until we developed scientific principles to discover the nature of the universe.
Gatovicolo
Level 8
Apr 26, 2020
1
However Science doesnt doesn't expect people to agree. Science requires people to be sceptical.
A much better state, recognizing reality as it is, setting superstition aside, and proving all things with science.
BestWithoutGods
Level 8
Apr 26, 2020
3
Not only a much better state but I believe paradise. Nature is very beatiful and wonderful but people are divorced from it by religion.
Consider the etymology of the word "religion". "Re" of course means back or again but "lig" refers to a tying or ligature. Obviously the word "baptism" refers to the retying of the umbilical cord to the church and God, instead of wild nature. That's why humans are causing the extinction of the non-human animals on the planet.
What state would the human race be in?
I ponder this question a lot.
The common assumption (myth) among the masses is that religion (christianity) brought the world "civilization" . But a quick study of civilizations debunks that.
So when I look at ancient (?) yet advanced civilizations, it is amazing what they accomplished and how civilized they were. Great engineering, solid knowledge.
What is unknown to me, is what degree their religions played in their advancements?
How much did the Greeks credit their gods for their learning?
The meso Americans? The Egyptians and Asians?
How much killing, torture, slavery and prejudice was involved?
How much of that was religiously induced?
Did they credit their gods for every little thing like I see here in 'Merica now? (Which is leading us to tribalism, decline, paranoia and decay).
A ton of questions.
So where would we be now without it, if we worked simply off of knowledge and rational thought for the last 2,000 years? No advanced thinkers or heretics were ever killed / repressed, and their knowledge destroyed? The knowledge & books of the Library @ Alexandria was saved and put to use? No waste of resourcess and energy spent following irrational and untrue myths?
....I like to think 200-500 years advanced. But IDK shit. It's just a guess.....my belief!
twill
Level 7
Apr 26, 2020
2
@TheMiddleWay Certainly. I was only thinking of the good stuff
Some monster would have found another reason for people to hate other people so he or she could make inordinate amounts of money and power.
LenHazell53
Level 9
Apr 26, 2020
1
If there had been no religion we might take which football team we support to be ultimately important.
Wallace
Level 7
Apr 26, 2020
3
Earthlings would have been better off without gods and money.
@TimeOutForMe most earthings are, it's only humans that hold these in high esteem.
@LenHazell53 should've just said it lol humans off course
I can only guess it would be like how Family Guy depicted the world if Christianity never existed. 
CommunityTom
Level 7
Apr 29, 2020
1
"Big tits or you boys will put your penis in a wheelchair" did women find that funny ?????....that reminds me some whales have 13 foot long penis in search of mating near the ocean surface....how long of a penis did geebush jeehobah ghostholes have ?
Umm Errr ~ ' H A R M O N Y '
My observation is; that far from leading towards a life of harmonius self inclusion in our wonderful universe. Religion seems to frustrate that destination
pgrobinson
Level 5
Apr 26, 2020
2
I can't say for certain but we would definitely have to change the name of this forum.
Surfpirate
Level 9
Apr 26, 2020
1
The modern mind likes to classify certain behavior patterns as “religious” but that classification is somewhat artificial. Storytelling, ritual, art—they all sprang from man’s emerging self awareness, creativity and curiosity.
An early sign of self awareness was the burying of the dead. Do you oppose that practice? Cows seem to have very little of what we call religion. We’d be like cows.
WilliamFleming
Level 8
Apr 26, 2020
1
We would either still be hunting and gathering, or we would be extinct.
skado
Level 9
Apr 26, 2020
1
Not the Orange Free State or Athens the City State where the early Atheists skipped worshipping Athena...like Nancy ReaGUN said JUST SAY NO TO DRUGS and religions
Larry68Feminist
Level 7
May 8, 2020
1
Ricky Gervais movie INVENTION of LYING is useful like Family Guy here.....look back with a sense of humor WITHOUT any apology for religion ....our species is the most evolved of all mammals due to nurturing cradle to grave AND the invention of complex language....many species create if not metabolized tools ...think spiders beavers bees bats dolphins ants ....I think symbiotic species are going to be the winners of change over time .....mocking birds are multi-lingial ......not all cultures fear death or expand the threats of religion beyond death .....Margaret Meade documented humans with less patriarchal rapacious violence.... if Elon Musk is successful humans will build space colonies no pope or preacher can ruin with their insane lies....all us Atheists and Agnostics here have escaped the worst of religions....it is up to us living as role models for future humans to stay free from religion....we are all born Atheists global cannibalism has almost been exterminated like polio ....if we global human rights activists can ban sexual mutilation of baby boys and millions of girls people can stay knowledgeable and not be brainwashed into any beliefs
Larry68Feminist
Level 7
May 8, 2020
1
We'd be in a pretty bad state... Although not very effective at explaining the world and such, religion was at least an attempt to knowledge... Some went beyond religion... Others did not...
Cutiebeauty
Level 9
Apr 29, 2020
1
We'd just be another species of primate scratching out a living, trying not to be something elses dinner.
Religion was "created" when our ability to question exceeded our ability to find the correct answer. People don't like not having answeres, and unfortunatly the wrong answer (the made up one) is better than no answer (even if the question is unanswerable).
1of5
Level 8
Apr 26, 2020
1
Rational thinking, so long hindered by religion, would abound....social awareness, un-fettered by restrictions to the natural nature of man would work for the "good" of human kind......and the "goodness" of human nature, instead of the "sinfulness" of human nature as taught by religion, would reign.
HankSherman
Level 8
Apr 26, 2020
1
More people would be sleeping in on Sunday mornings.
nicknotes
Level 8
Apr 26, 2020
1
well actually ! Sunday wouldn't be a special day anyhow !
I usually buy bagels on Sunday for breakfast. @pgrobinson
I'd be in Alaska.
There are those who would say that the birth of religion and beliefs in invisible imaginary buddies were inevitable. Your question tests that paradigm. Is the order of events and the development of mind preordained? In my view, it is not. It is no more true than the idea that the path of technology needed to follow the order it did. Nothing is fixed. Evolution shows us that.
What if (____)?
evidentialist
Level 8
Apr 26, 2020
1
Religion ... pure and faultless is this: to help widows and orphans in need and avoiding worldly corruption. James 1:27
If no one invented religion as defined about 2000 years ago, I guess it would suck to be a widow or an orphan and corruption in the world might would abound. Then, I think at times people are not truely religious it seems that the world is full of corruption because people do not want to do true religion.
A lot of people like the invented religion defined by sarcasm worship of the non-existent flying spaghetti monster sky god. These sorts of sarcasm worshipers like giving sarcasm worship to non-existent flying spaghetti monster sky god by making fun of people that do things to help widows and orphans.
Word
Level 8
Apr 26, 2020
1
lol religion wasn't invented, and it sure as hell didn't get defined 2000 years ago.
g
Word:
@genessa Do your own research to find out how old the book of James from biblical text would be accepted to be. I have come across somethings that gives for these bible text to be verfied as to the fact they were written a minimum of almost 2000 years ago. In those texts as I quoted it defines religion as I quoted from James 1:27. If you find a certified older source for a different definition for religion please feel free to let me know.
@Word what has the king james bible got to do with the "invention" of religion? do you think christianity was the first or only religion? judaism isn't the oldest and it is almost 6k years old. do YOUR own research. i don't need a certified older source to prove there were religions that preceded judaism. do YOUR own research and don't make assumptions about what i have or have not done.
g
Word:
@genessa Religion ... pure and faultless is this: to help widows and orphans in need and avoiding worldly corruption. James 1:27 written almost 2000 years ago.
Do you refer to this "United States of America" as a government or a religion?
I understand, now in modern times, this word "religion" is most popular as you are purporting it. I am not rejecting that fact of usage.
As you say, government and religion is rather synonymous. In that sense, I consider the "United States of America" to be the secret religion of the Masonic lodge secret religion racist devil worshiper governmental terrorist European invaders since their freedom from England July 4, 1776 to rape these lands from the original indigenous inhabitants calling them such but not limited to Mexican, Indian and native American. The Masonic Lodge secret religion racist devil worshiper governmental terrorist following the dictates of the biblical text in the establishment of the mark of the beast-666 which began with requiring birth certificate, social security card and photo identification for taxation, government commercial control and capitalism wage slave labor requiring that everyone shall worship the devil and the beast-666 "In God we Trust".
Do you refer to this "United States of America" as a government or a religion?
@genessa @Word
I was taught in the temples that Hinduism is the oldest religion in the world, much older than Judaism. I am not here to argue or push religion, just thought I should mention. The more I read about it afterwards, it confirms almost 99%. Judaism seem to have some similarities when I listen to some of my Jewish mates in their talks.
Word:
@TimeOutForMe @genessa What Hindu, Judism and other such things labeled now as religions were not called religions then. It is only a recent labeling to call them a religion in modern times looking back giving them this label of "religion".
Otherwise, I would see it as it was their "way of knowing, or body of knowledge" for their times. Now we get the word "science" from origins of meaning "way of knowing" and it being a body of knowledge".
I would think it more so correct to call what they did "early stages of science".
Now with modern times, over all general knowledge has increased and sciences have evolved from alchemy and other erroneous understandings of the world to be more refined and better defined then things were known 1000s of years ago.
Lack of changing in peoples minds. As things have developed or discoveries made thru out history, some people hold on to older, erroneous or inferior ways of doing things. Some people just don't like to change even in view of new discoveries.
@Word @genessa
...also hinduism is a modern word, like hindi is a modern Indian language, like english, but hindi being older, english watered down to 26 alphabets.
My roots as explained in the temples goes beyond the sea, called kumari kandam, and not shown on the map, like dwarka being swallowed by the oceans. Tamil is also older than sanskrit.
@Word
oh that's funny, go on tell us another
@LenHazell53 only i guess you won't be documenting any rebuttals, wadr
@bbyrd009 Debating with an idiot is as pointless as playing chess with a chicken, it will shit all over the board, knock down all the pieces, not know the rules and will claim to have won anyway.
@TimeOutForMe, @Word I have no reason whatsoever to accept king james' definition of religion. I have never been christian and king james is nothing to me. You may as well present ny next-door neighbor's definition and tell me that is true and everything else is false. So much for king james and his definition. As for the usa, it is neither a government nor a religion. It has citizens and other residents and visitors, some of whom follow and/or bekieve in a variety of religions, or do not, and some of those religions are organized and some are personal. It also has a system of hierarchical governments about which i make no comment at this time except to say that you can ramble on about masons and conspiracy shit and 666 (also meaningless to me as a person with no christian background) and that won't convince me that this is really that and religion is only 2k years old and king james had any respectable agenda for that matter. Your premise seems knotty and silly and i don't have to buy into it on the basis of a quotation from a guy who patched together a bible based on his oersonal power needs.
g
Word:
@LenHazell53 this is basically why I do not debate illogical atheist. I can respect people well enough not to call them idiot's for the most part. But it is well established enough that nothing is required on my part to prove atheism illogical. In saying that a person holding on to this illogical title of atheist does not mean they are illogical in other matters away from their atheism.
@Word Cluck cluck
Alaska?
Mofo1953
Level 9
Apr 26, 2020
1
have no info whatsoever on alaska ....but thinking Inuit here where snow is the master and we have to survive...without a thing word....and just survive....
@Dragoria When the missionaries first contacted the "Eskimos" (Inuit), the missionaries taught the natives about Heaven and Hell. The "Eskimos" all wanted to go to Hell (it was warm there).
A hypothesis that you most certainly have thought about as a Freethinker. Knowing that humans are urged to explain things using religions(which makes them eventually believe in evolution without them knowing that most of the time) it is not bad to think what world would we have if religions/ideologies never existed! Personally I think that the world would be a better place, far more devoloped, more peaceful and happier! But again having a world like that would be impossible knowing that the (still) not so devoloped human's mind still feels the urge to explain the 'yet unexplained' using stories and higher powers.
PabloNeruda
Level 6
Apr 29, 2020
0
No one invented religion - it evolved over a million years, early man created the concept of God to explain his world and his existence.
gater
Level 7
Apr 29, 2020
0
invented gods to explain natural phenomena ...Invented and named them all did the humans...yes indeedy...invented...oops..said it again
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