What would happen if tomorrow everyone in the world suddendly somehow realized that there is no God? how would your life change?

'Realize' probably isn't the best word to use here as it implies that it is a fact that there is no God, and I also doubt you'll get many interesting responses here considering this board is predominantly atheist. However, seeing as most of his worldview hinges upon God's existence, I can't help but wonder how NotReady would respond to this.

Sorry, I am agnostic, it is purely hypothetical.

It would be disatrous. Although I think a suprisingly high proportion of people deep down think that "no God" is a decent, or even likely, possibility, even those people cling desperately to the hope there is one.

Although many might think the opposite is true, the fact is that a much higher percentage of atheists think it would be a good thing if there was a god than the percentage of believers who think it would be a good thing if there wasn't one.

For those atheists who believe the world would be better off if everyone was sure there was no God, I see some of your points. But I also know the well known fact that when depressed people were compared to non depressed people as to predicting the future, the depressed people were more accurate. The normal people were irrationally optimistic.

Agnostic is not a belief position. Either you believe in the supernatural or you don't.

Is believing that you can't possibly know anything outside of your imposed reality a belief position?

The world would be a better place without religion. But it doesn't follow that an instant paradigm shift would be positive. In fact, David is right, it would be disastrous. Society needs to be weened off religion, not taken off it cold turkey. Withdrawal symptoms would be catastrophic. It's like David writes in PG&L - the truly bad people are those that do not commit crimes only because of the possible punishment. These are the same people who tend to be religious - stupid, uneducated, need something greater to keep them in line, only a godless world away from delinquency.

As it stands now, we need religion to keep the lower parts of society in check. Eventually, as we tend to a more educated society, this will not be the case.

I think you would see a lot of denial and an incredible amount of religious strife.

Someone who is religious would disagree with that statement.

Your belief system is based on this funny little thing called ‘logic’ while the religious persons’ belief is based on this funny little thing called faith.

If we want to rely on pure "logic", then we'd have to accept that there is some sort of ‘goal’ that we are aiming to achieve.

There is no way to objectively assign futures to each belief system because we can’t say for sure which state of mind leads to this ‘goal’ of humanity.

That being said, we’d have to assume that this goal lies somewhere between ‘quality of life’ and the preservation of human existence.

But since we can’t possibly know which set of beliefs will lead to the harmonious maximization of both ideals, then we can’t possibly say for sure which one is most relevant.

cliff notes:

Who cares if 2+2=4?

I can guarantee that I was much happier before I knew that.

Would people be happier going to work, paying taxes, sitting in traffic, following orders, obeying laws that run contrary to instinct, solving the mundane banalities of modern life, etc., only to find ourselves again swarmed by inescapable ‘problems’?

Or would we be better off climbing trees, resting 20 hours out of the day, killing off enemies or dying quickly, while remaining in the present moment with zero worry just like the rest of natures creatures?

To me the former is a direct result of the destructive force of ‘logic’ and ‘intellect‘ and can only get worse imo.

It's not like a society without god is a society without beliefs. Or without religion for that matter.

Religion is just an label we slap on certain beliefs, at times it is almost an arbitrary distinction. On this board when we discuss religion it is often just taken for granted we are referring to revealed religion (it has holy words or dogmas), some form of monotheistic religion, and mostly abrahamic faiths and in particular christianity.

I certainly have beliefs, believing in god is just not one of them. Atheism after all is lack of belief in god, it doesn't mean lack of beliefs.

I posit that easy access to food, hygiene, information, clean sexual partners and cool stuff like lights is the preferred state of humans. You don't see many Westerners lining up for green cards for Zimbabwe.

But you do see many, many westerners committing suicide despite all these wonderful things like light bulbs.

For the majority of people, the easy access to all of these wonderful things you speak of are really only useful for the perpetuation of unfulfilled desires and suffering.

For older religious people, a lot of despair I think. Their whole moral apparatus has been propped up by lies, and many have never learned humanism or courage thanks to religion.

Not a great deal of change among younger people.

Well, we can actually measure suicide rates somewhat reliably.

You know, there was no organized crime back in the old Soviet Union. Or rather...they didn't look for it.

I guess, but can you measure people that wish they could only conjure up the courage to do so?

I'd guess that suffering is the most prevalent of most day-to-day human realities.

Go spend a week in the jungle surviving on your wits, and then get back to me.

If you haven't had a chance to travel you really should. We've got wonderful lives and opportunities here in the West - sometimes it's hard to see and care about until you've seen what else is out there.

Um... if I did, I'd be taking with me my 'intellect' - what modern human society has instilled into me, and not natural animal instinct - With FEAR of unrealized futures - with the threat of starvation and death looming over me. Psychological pain.

How many other animals suffer this condition?

Most of the ones with brains?

Emotions don't stem from the advanced cortex, so you'll find them in most mammals afaik.

Be glad you can have a fairly good ability adjust your emotions to be less afraid based on advanced cognition, an ability many of those animals lack.

Animals 'fear' until they escape the threat of physical harm. Probably adding up to a lot less than 30 seconds on average. Humans fear for the majority of their lives - even if it's mostly just a vague anxiety set in the background.

Non-existence trumps all.

Modern humans love to rely on the religion of 'logic'. But if you guys want to take logic to it's purest form then I'll gladly drag you through the sewers of nihilism.

Actually I don't live in fear, its one of the advantages of modern civilization - at least for me - I won't pretend to speak for everyone like you are so fond of doing.

Studies have shown that in tribal cultures stress factors are much higher than in what we'd typically think of as modern western culture though. Go figure - living off the land and not having a good idea what may come actually takes a bigger toll on you.

this sentence nicely sums up your form of argumentation.

Your second paragraph contradicts your first. Not speaking for everyone huh? lol "studies". I highly doubt that true tribal cultures are as stressed as we are. How about tribal cultures from 100,000 years ago? Can you speak for them as well?

Most people work. Most people are stressed. Most people are unhappy. Most people never get what they want from life. Most people are forced to accept their circumstances - most of them being pretty ****ty. I'm glad that YOU are ignorantly blissful.