What would happen if someone PROVED that there was no God?

Question

If someone proved, without the shadow of a doubt, that no God or other diety existed, had never existed, and could not exist, what would happen? Would the churches fail, would peope continue to worship that which wasn't, would governments fall, would we have more or less wars (or the same number), would there be more crime, etc. I am not saying that there is no God, so please, no diatribes against me (e.g. "You're going to hell!!", or "Just because I believe", or quotations from scripture, or attempts to convert me), or other personal attacks. I'm looking for reasoned, thoughtful analyses of the social and physical ramifications of the absolute proof of the absence of a Diety.

Answer 1

Oh, that's easy. The theists would just build a straw man argument to deny the proof, or push the goalposts so that the proof 'wasn't enough'.

Answer 2

Something like that could never be proven.

But, hypothetically speaking - most churches would probably falter then fail... there might be some mass suicides by some extremists. Society as a whole would most likely fall into a decadent existance, many people would lose the will to live or benifit thier fellow inhabitants of earth. Governments based on religious values would not last long with an uprising of non-believers taking over. Communism would survive because there is no diety in that form of government... So that would lead to a massive take over by China - spreading throughout Asia and finally crossing the oceans to claim the un-organized wasteland that the USA has become.

Answer 3

Without law, there can be no discussion about law. Whenever a discipline is abstract, yet has knowable attributes, we can discuss what we know about the discipline. We share our knowledge or lack thereof. We can discuss electricity, heat, and the wind because we are witnesses to their power. I was the world's number one skeptic. However, I used to have frequent nightmares and I opened my eyes in the middle of one once. After 25 years of searching, I knew without a shadow of a doubt that there was evil in this world. I saw evil and ran into evil forces and beings. They had more natural strength than I had--then. The were more agile than I was, and most disgustingly, they could still get to me even when I bolted heavy doors and took refuge within secure walls.
I noted that they followed specific laws. In my travels and searches, I realized that we destroyed mighty libraries and the fragments that we have are very incomplete. Since we have the gifts of choice, we are free to pursue our own beliefs. I am living a quote from my favourite book: our pursued philosophy will determine our ultimate destiny.

I have found a force, mightier and more protective than all of the others combined. Just remember, at the moment of death, that is where we confront the door of truth. Since during the daylight, we can know only certain things, we need the night to discern the nightly things. Those who prepare for the darkness and know the paths on the other side do not have to bumble into uncertainty.

Been there.

Boaz.

Answer 4

This may not fall under reasonable and thoughtful analysis, but I don't think much would change. It's about what people believe, and if you could prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that there is no higher being, people could still just refuse to listen. You can have all the science in the world to back you up, but you still have to contend with people's free will.

Answer 5

According to what God is supposed to actually be, no one could disprove the existence of God without also losing Self as we know it. If God exists outside of our known universe/perception/physical matter, it would be safe to reason that in order to properly investigate any realm outside of what we now know, the physical limits placed on our bodies and our knowledge would cause us to 'discontinue' as we are now and some how 'restart' at another point, in our current state of being, with conclusive evidence that irreversibly refutes the notion of a supreme deity. It is my opinion that both the idea and the journey itself is "God".

Imagine a world where 'Men' are 'God'; who would justly maintain a world of such variation when we still fumble over concepts such as race? Where there are those that may say that they would rule fairly and with equity, there would be those that would plot murder on their beds each night--fearing nothing with nothing but a halted consciousness to guide them--our spirits would die because our wealth and reward of life would be exacted here--what would be after this? The nature of Man would exterminate us all within moments. No mankind and no earth.

But thankfully, we don't have this ability--and even more so, that we cannot 'prove' that there is no God--it pleases me to know that there is something that cannot be handled or mishandled by beings that still cannot grasp the 'closer concepts' such as Peace, Love, Forgiveness, and Mercy...maybe having God isn't as delusional as some would have us believe...

Answer 6

You can't prove a neg. But, suppose you did? Little would change. You might have a rash of suicides and depression.

But you have to understand that there is, today, a flat earth society with quite a lot of adherents, who still believe all the space travel, pictures of planets and the Earth and so forth are all faked. And you cannot convince them otherwise.

Answer 7

What would happen if we proved the Easter bunny did not exist.

The same thing would happen as with god. You can not prove something does not exist. That fact that there is no proof of god shows he does not exist. Same with the tooth fairy.

Answer 8

Nothing would change. Its already pretty well been demonstrated that existence does not depend on a deity, that all processes can be explained without a deity, that human kind is not dependent on any deity, yet there are still plenty of Bozos on the bus.

Answer 9

I'd do a jig. Hypothetically speaking, I don't think anything would change.

For instance, a church in Australia claimed to have an statue of the virgin mary who cried real tears, and people flocked to see it. After examining the icon, it was found to be a fake. This discovery did nothing to deter the faithful.

Answer 10

Well there are people out there that don't believe in God they must have reason....some kind of Proof..you might say