Well, I think saying "If everyone became atheist" is sort of like saying "If everyone becomes a conservationist."  It's simply not going to happen, for several reasons:

1) There will always be a significant undereducated population somewhere.

2) There will always be people who really, really want there to be an afterlife.

3) Religion is marketed much better than atheism.

4) It's just not human nature, unfortunately.  Humans are designed to see patterns even when there aren't any, and they're designed to anthropomorphize unexplained events.  Put those two things together, combine with a lack of critical thinking education, and you get religion.

Having said that, I believe that if someone were to wave a magic wand and make religion go away completely, the world would be a better place.  Far from perfect, of course, but better.

I liken it to a man who visits the doctor, and the doctor comes in after reviewing all the blood tests, etc, and says, "I'm sorry sir, but you have several things wrong.  You have cancer, diabetes, and psoriasis."  Suppose for a second that the man's insurance would only cover treatment for one of these maladies, and he'd have to choose to live with the other two.  He would be insane for not choosing to treat the cancer, right?  Sure, maybe the diabetes would still kill him eventually, but it's easier to control than cancer.

Anyway, I look at religion that way.  There are a lot of things wrong with people and society, and getting rid of religion wouldn't fix all of them, but in the same way that getting rid of cancer would make the life of the hypothetical patient better, getting rid of religion would make society better.

 

It would be a good start. That would eliminate one ridiculous notion: gods. Then we'd have to get to the next ridiculous notion! Too many to list here.

The power and a bad influence the religion has, is more a symptom, than a cause. A major part of the evil in our society won't be cured just by becoming atheists. On the other side, the religion can stay in harmless (non-organized) form, if the evil will be cured.
Having a critical thought doesn't mean to be critical only to God and all things religious. The real critical thought must be aimed against everything causing you diffculties. On the society itself, in the first place. We are in economic slavery, we're exposed to dangerous food, drink, air, electromagnetic waves, commercialism, TV violence, competition, trends, fashion, and yes, the religious faith. We should be very critical towards this all and more, because it's killing and crippling us every day, and you guys are angry mainly at the religion? Priests and bishops doesn't control the market, they don't control ecologic limits, nor a standards for the work, they don't make the news, nor they produce any goods to sell. These areas are very different, but they suffer by a similar problems as the religious institution.
The problem is much deeper and transcends all these areas. Everything must change, if we should have any profit from not being religious. In fact, I'd guess that most of you aren't angry at religious people as such, but because of bigotry, fanatism, double standards, division, dogmatism, political infiltration, endangering human freedoms, and so on. These bad aspects belongs to our society and are present in more areas of it than the religion only.
This doesn't mean to spare the religion of very thorough changes, but rather to transform everything, including the religion. I guess this will need some really tough pope, to destroy it from within. I hope the prophecy of St. Malachy will be precise and we'll get a Church-slaying pope after Benedict. I don't know what effect will it have on non-Roman-catholic churches, but let's hope in domino effect, specifically.
 

If "everyone" was an atheist then the term itself would be redundant, but there would still alas be a need for individuals who value ration and logic to defend their stance unfortunately.

 

In societies where atheism prevails there is still no shortage of superstition and people peddling it. Luminon who posted in this thread is a good example of an adherent to one of the many types of bullshit which then simply attempts to validate itself in the absence of organised deism.

 

The OP here obliquely suggests that superstition in the form of religious belief is a "good thing" in that it acts as a control on those who do not have the inclination or the ability to think rationally and who therefore in his opinion require the behavioural constraint that particular form of superstition imposes.

 

I disagree. Superstition in any form is, in terms of human intellectual development, a cancer. It mimics rational thought but subverts both the process and its motivation, all to no worthwhile end. It claims, with absolutely no justification, absolute credit for whatever general intellectual progress our species has made, and encourages its subscribers to avoid taking responsibility for the regressive behaviour, the anti-intellectual damage, and often downright immorality these subscribers wreak on their fellow humans.

 

It is a con. It is inherently dishonest. And if we deem it the greatest good that humankind should advance to a point where by its intelligence and innate morality it renders this corner of the universe a habitable, sustainable and enjoyable place to be, then religion - and especially the codified and structured variation of that superstition which predominates - has proved itself the greatest evil and the single most debilitating relic of our common roots in ignorance which we still labour under. In attempting to justify, and even glorify, that ignorance it shows itself to be what it is - the enemy of reason and therefore the potential enemy of our own survival since, however such survival can be engineered, reason will have to play a dominant role in achieving it.

 

Religion is a control. But, as its leaders know very well, its longevity is not just down to any inherent value in controlling vulnerable, ignorant minds, but in its hitherto uncontested success in shackling great minds. In historical terms we are still only at the outset of a successful challenge being mounted against that policy. But there is still a long way to go and a lot of sensible and rational opposition to be mounted before those restraints can no longer retard us. In that pursuit there can be no compromise which allows religion still "control" anybody, for any reason. It is an evil that works against everyone, and for everyone's sake everyone should be freed from it.

There is a few people on this board who likes to read my texts in style of imaginative literature. If you are not one of those, and don't have a serious reason or enough of time to read this, you can skip on the end to the thick text.

Neglecting some details, I can tell my experience. Once something becomes estabilished, there will come people who will rebel against it, or simply told, search for something new. In countries like USA, people rebels against the Church oppression. In countries like mine, which are mostly atheistic, people feels a grudge against the "short-sighted, cold, inhumane, selfish institutions of academic arrogance and patent on reason". They however doesn't join or start Churches massively, they usually explore the vast area of various New Age-like teachings, which allows them to keep their freedom. Those explorers are often a mature people, who already satisfied their ambitions as for career, family, and property (also sometimes an university degree) and started to pursue a different, spiritual goals, by their own wish.
I was raised by such a people. For me, the thing in cursive is similar to yours - the oppressor, which we need to be free from. You see this is no return to the old, tough Church regime. I see this is a sign of development further, to a greater freedom. It must be very diffcult thing to imagine for people here, just as for me it's diffcult to imagine the obstacles created by religion in American society. If I'd be born in American society infiltrated by religion, I'd probably search for the rationalism, which is lacking there. I'm not, so I search for something else. Indeed what I say is bullshit for you, you need to bash the religion as hard as you can, and not to be a peaceful, holistic guy like I need to be here. Holy crap, even this rant is peaceful and holistic!

This is true.

This is also true. How can both be true? Very simply. The original religious superstition is very old, about several thousands of years. At these times, the people had very little of intellectual capabilities. Their intellect (if any) was overshadowed by emotional needs and fears, which makes their situation practically unimaginable to us today. By reading of Old Testament for example, we can find things, which from our point of view are trivial, basic, primitive, implicit things which every young child knows today. A lot of them are also such a seemingly trivial worldly advices - for example, if your brother loses a sheep and you find it, return it back to him when it will be possible. But in these times, for these tribes, this was the very essence of morality! If there were any visionary people who wanted to bring some kind of order into minds of these wild barbarians, they had to do it by a large shepherd stick, by eternal flames, by severe punishment, and the most fearsome tool of all, their own fear of the unknown. And lo, the benefactors of humanity in fact wore priest robes, preached a superstition, punished by death for nonsenses, and in the proces made more of people stick together and form a greater groups. Greater groups needed written laws, vocations, and many other arts of living together. Maybe the priests started the civilizations.
And now, the real irony comes. Take this old religion of imaginary brimstone and very real stone for stoning, and try to apply it on the people of today, for millenia more advanced than that. What maybe once was the best method of cultural development, is now a poison.


I see my thoughts followed a similar path...

 

Indeed, religion is control, but today, the control is a religion. If you want to defeat the religion, defeat the control first. Even we atheists are less or more the believers of news, of financial system, of our schools and textbooks, our politics, and so on. Within this all is the control, and in a today's extraordinary amount of homeless people, readers of independent press, conspiracy theorists, intelligent, but uneducated people (etc) or just people who feels unhappy about the world, I can see "atheists" of the control. This reminds me of one man in Philip K. Dick's story, who stood on New York street, shouted "I DON'T BELIEVE IN THIS!" and the skyscrapers started to shake. Before that, he got out of and destroyed the christianic Hell by the same method. Indeed, Philip K. Dick was a great visionary.

The summarized point for people not reading this above:
Given enough of time, even the most loved liberator becomes an oppressor.
I guess some guy from ancient Greece or Rome noticed it before me and made some better written quote.
 

If everyone were atheist we would not solve all the world's problems but at least we wouldn't have to worry about terrorist attacks or evil regimes trying to impose things on us. The worst we'd have is seeing our tax dollars wasted on things like homeopathy and the like. Although this is a terrible crime as it still takes lives and makes lives less fulfilling since money that could have been spent on medical advancement or real cures is wasted on these false remedies.

My previous post was satire for anyone who couldn't hear my tone of voice through the text. <-- Probably should have put that...

Anyway, I think the world could be fundamentally changed depending on the way in which every one became an atheist. If it was because the entire lot of the human race learned to think for themselves (and critically at that) then the world would be a lot better off. If it were for some lesser reason and people didn't learn to think, the world would appear largely indistinguishable from it's current state. Religion may be the most popular reason to be an idiot but it's by far not the only one. People will always find a new crutch to lean on, and beat people over the head with.

I do worry sometimes about simple minded religious people. Hitchens told a story about losing his wallet in a taxi and having it later returned by the taxi driver. After thanking the driver he was told not to mention it as the driver was Muslim and the Koran commanded it. Making that statement I wonder if the taxi driver would have returned the wallet if he had not been religious. I worry that some people do indeed need to believe that an invisible sky daddy is watching them to do the right thing.

Of course, if someone is brought up in loose atheist society (eg - Scandinavia) then this changes. Morals are taught without religious threats of eternal damnation or promises of eternal bliss. I'm just not sure bursting the religious bubble for some would be advantageous to society.

I don't think that the whole world needs to lose religion to improve. All we really need to do is treat religion the way we treat Astrology. Most of us know it's total bs but let the believers have their fun as long as it harms no one else. Astrology doesn't get involved in politics, science or effect us in any way. People of different star signs don't fight one another. Religion should be the same.

 

 

Not pessimistic - especially considering the recent wave of publications from atheists - just someone who knows how much work there is to do.

Also, it's "HisWillness". Like, "Your Highness". I want people to be aware that I'm completely full of myself before they read my post. Actually, I'd use "Will", but that's always taken, so on internet forums, I've tended to resort to the most ridiculous forms of my name. "MrWill", "ItsWillAgain", "WillAndTestament" - the list goes on. I have yet to use "HisWillingness", though. I can't decide if I find that one entertaining or disgusting.

Agree with practically everything you've said. All I'm saying is that atheism simply is not enough. It has to be preceded by reason and rationalism which would IMO lead to a pragmatic atheist society. What about those folks who choose to be irrational? A democratic atheist society will still have Paris Hiltons and nuts who think the sun revolves around the earth. There will still be a minority of folks with deeply held convictions of a sky daddy. Remember, in a democracy people have civil liberties to be stupid. Furthermore, there will be intelligent atheists who uphold wrong ideas eg. the mind is a blank slate. There will be atheists who have very different and contrary ideologies. An atheist society would be better but far from perfect.

35. The best selling book of all time would become Harry Potter.

36. The poor would get richer and the rich (some of them anyway) would get poorer.

37. America would have to come up with new criteria for election their presidents.

38. Atheist activists would have to find a new hobby.

39. Mormons and evangelicals will have to volunteer to do jobs that actually benefit the community.

40. Global warming would end because of all the trees that won't be cut down to make religious texts.

41. Otters would be able to talk and Richard Dawkins would be hailed as the smartest man to ever have lived (South Park reference).

No 46??? wtf? Oh well, I'll re-number before publishing.

 

48. Grape juice and cracker stocks fall due to no more communion provoking a bailout of those industries.

49. Kosher foods become regular food.

50. Holiday cookie cutter manufacturers retool.

51. December candle sales match every other month of the year.

52. Crosses only represent the letter 't'.

53. The DaVinci Code has to have a preface.

54. The moral majority includes everyone.

55. Weather patterns occur with or without words whispered to the sky.

56. Snopes loses an entire section of their site.

57. FSTDT finds other sources of crazy talk.

58. Tolerance only refers to a +/- value of measurement in quality control.

59. Billboards on the highway in the south are blank.

60. Missions have to find other activities for the guests to do prior to breakfast.

61. Waldenbooks CEO kills self.

62. The gothic subculture experiences an industrial awakening.

 

 

[Thunderous applause from the peanut gallery]

Nice one.

 

 

If everyone became atheists...

1. People would still hate each other for different reasons.

2. The next irrational belief would get more attention.

3. Bookstores in the south would go out of business.

4. Newspapers would lose billions of dollars in church ad revenue.

5. People would have to accept that they deserve the thanks when they do a good deed.

6. People would have to accept that shit really does happen regardless of moral standing.

7. Preachers have to find gainful employment.

8. She/He has to start screaming your name.

9. god dammit, jesus christ, holy shit, and go to hell are phrases that would be answered with "Huh?"

10. Globally, reforestation occurs at a much quicker pace since the same old book is out of print. Global warming is halted.

11. Theologians, apologists, and evangelists become the new homeless.

12. 'Deviled' foods get new names.

13. Paintings of religious themes become worthless and relegated to 'PORN' by the FCC.

14. 22.4% of the entire internet becomes unused bandwidth.

15. Churches, mosques, and synagogues become structures used more often than once or twice a week.

16. Dictionaries lose hundreds of entries due to religious words becoming obsolete.

17. Raping choir boys becomes a punishable offense rather than a relocation need.

18. People feel the need to give more often than one time a year in the early winter.

19. People have to come to grips with the fact that they really were talking to themselves.

20. 'Fundies' refer to crotchless edible undergarments.

21. US energy consumption falls dramatically from church sign lights turning off.

22. jesus fish emblem makers are forced to retool their facilities.

23. Actual people are used for co-pilots.

24. People leave Jerusalem for nicer places.

25. Sunni becomes a misspelling of Sunny and Shiite becomes exaggerated misspelling of shit.

26. Matrix Revolutions has to be redone because no one gets the ending.

27. The remaining Gaithers have to find a new schtick.

28. Big Butter Jesus gets recycled.

29. Presidential inaugurations are shorter due to no need for invocation.

30. Workers have to find other ways to get three-day weekends in April.

31. All of darth_josh's 'Good Friday' jokes are meaningless.

32. South Park's Satan would loose his satyrical sting.

33. I would be a lot happier.

34. Jesse Du Plantus (spell?) would turn to crack and end up capping himself.

35. The best selling book of all time would become Harry Potter.

36. The poor would get richer and the rich (some of them anyway) would get poorer.

37. America would have to come up with new criteria for electing their presidents.

38. Atheist activists would have to find a new hobby.

39. Mormons and evangelicals will have to volunteer to do jobs that actually benefit the community.

40. Otters would be able to talk and Richard Dawkins would be hailed as the smartest man to ever have lived (South Park reference).

41. We would still revolve around the sun, but not kill people for saying so.

42. The devotion once afforded to religion would be given to obsure hobbies like medical science.

43. They would remove my hideous face tumour.

44. In 400 years I will have my brain inserted into a battle droid to face the armies of the machines.

45. Muslim pilots would have to take responsibility for air safety, instead of trusting to God.

47. Grape juice and cracker stocks fall due to no more communion provoking a bailout of those industries.

48. Kosher foods become regular food.

49. Holiday cookie cutter manufacturers retool.

50. December candle sales match every other month of the year.

51. Crosses only represent the letter 't'.

52. The DaVinci Code has to have a preface.

53. Movies don’t get protested for their content.

54. The moral majority includes everyone.

55. Weather patterns occur with or without words whispered to the sky.

56. Snopes loses an entire section of their site.

57. FSTDT finds other sources of crazy talk.

58. Tolerance only refers to a +/- value of measurement in quality control.

59. Billboards on the highway in the south are blank.

60. Missions have to find other activities for the guests to do prior to breakfast.

61. Waldenbooks CEO kills self.

62. The gothic subculture experiences an industrial awakening.

63. Missionaries in Africa will help children of all faiths.

64. Youtube would suddenly be collectively smarter.

65. Kent Hovind would be transferred from jail to an insane asylum.

66. The extra hour most people have on Sunday will be used for something productive eventually leading to the solutions to all other problems on the planet.

67. Comets are no longer thought of as space ships to heaven.
 

 

If you see any crossovers let me know.

33+ to go. 3 days.

So far my favorite is #64.

Top 25?

Since we didn't get to 100, I'll probably just go with the top 25.

Write in the numbers of your favorites or I'll pick.

71.  Fox new would go bankrupt.

 

[edit: cunfused who it was that was going away.]