Monday, January 7, 2008

Hypothetically speaking...

Just as a thought experiment.

If somehow all trace of religiosity were removed from the planet earth; no believers, no texts, no cathedrals no trace at all... (I stress this is a hypothetical idea, I'm not advocating the complete removal of all traces of religion from planet Earth even if it were possible)

...what would happen within two generations? Within a hundred, a thousand?

My completely unqualified surmise is that faiths and religion would spring up, humans appear to be inclined toward it, it just wouldn't be Judaism, Islam Christianity or any of the current crop.

1 comment:

Ubermilf said...

At heart, I think people know when they are guilty of bad behavior, but they still want an excuse to engage in bad behaviors.

Such as, "I'm rich and my neighbor is suffering, but I don't really want to share even though I know I should" or "That person's different than me. I know I shouldn't hate him for it, but it's more comfortable than getting him to know him."

So, they need to rationalize their behavior: "God wants me to be rich and is punishing him for something" or "We're God's chosen people, everyone else sucks."

The irony is, religion should be an inspiration to do good, yet too often results in an excuse to do bad.

So, long story short, I think you're right.