Friday, December 3, 2010

If I could design my daughter's future....

  • Literal belief in anything supernatural, including the Abrahamic faiths, occupying but the irrelevant fringes of society. People would continue to be free to believe but these believers would exist as an insignificant pocket of society similar to today's readers of palms and tea leaves.
  • Today's "super-religions" evolving to become "mythology clubs" with no literal belief. People getting together in churches, temples, and mosques to enjoy the artistic elements of holy books and once-believed myths with open debate on their historical veracity and metaphorical nuances. Similar to a book club but with greater fulfillment, as the members can reminisce over wine about the days where they (and later their ancestors) believed fiction to be non-fiction. "Remember when we thought this was the blood of Christ? hahahahahaha!"
  • A society of skeptics. Not in a "don't trust anyone" sense but rather in an intellectually stimulating one. People believing that which has significant sums of measurable evidence; debating and challenging that which does not; and open to being proven wrong.
  • A general understanding of the meaning of the word "proven."
  • God, Allah, and Mohamed sharing relevance with Zeus, Big Bird, and James Bond.
  • A world where wars are not fought because of or behind the guise of religion (because there would  be none). Why not a world with no wars? Because I am an atheist not an idiot. As long as the world has humans it will have wars.
  • Schools where science is taught in science class and mythology taught in mythology class.
  • Social policy being created by intelligent, democratically elected men and women and shaped by the collective wishes of the skeptical public not by messages from the leader's imaginary friends.
  • Men marrying women. Women marrying women. Men marrying men. Men not marrying anyone. Women not marrying anyone. No one really caring about any of these scenarios.
  • Mr. Ratzinger and every molester he protected dying in prison.
  • The eradication of diseases whose cure or prevention is currently being stifled by dogma.
  • People taking control of their lives because they know that only they can control it;  understanding that they are being nice to one another out of pure genetic human volition not because god has given them the morality to do so. Behaviour based on the "pay-it-forward" power of humanity not the fear of divine consequences. 
I've got us started. Post a comment to spread the word of a what a truly secular and free thinking world could look like. Snowballs require snow flakes.

3 comments:

  1. Only two things control society. Fear and money. Used to be the Vatican, now it's government. If you can't control people, then they have their say in a democratic society. The church used the bible and money. Government uses terror(ism) and money.

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  2. You're right Adrian. Problem now is that religion is seeping into government. The 21st century needs to be one of rational thought. Teaching people to be skeptical of religion is a nice step towards being skeptical of all forms of power. Group think is a very bad thing, especially when it involves imaginary people.

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  3. This sounds like a wonderful future.

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