If it were demonstrated to you that the vast majority of people will only restrain themselves, morally, if they believe they are being watched and judged by an invisible, omnipotent being...
...would you embrace religion as a necessary lie?
I'm not saying it has been demonstrated. This is purely hypothetical.
2007-09-11 07:14:26 · 17 answers · asked by Martin Evilmind 4 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
By "embrace", I don't mean would you become religious yourself. I mean would you stop saying religion is false in public.
2007-09-11 07:15:41 · update #1
HYPOTHETICAL: being or involving a hypothesis
HYPOTHESIS: (1) a tentative assumption made to draw out and test its logical or empirical consequences; (2) an assumption or concession made for the sake of argument
2007-09-11 07:52:59 · update #2
No. The resulting chaos from all those newly unrestrained people would be some good entertainment.
2007-09-11 07:18:59 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
If the vast majority of people can only restrain themselves due to fear of the sky monster there is no hope for the human race, we might as well set all the nukes off right now and be done with it.
2007-09-11 07:23:41 · answer #2 · answered by ? 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
I expect that legal restraints are much more important to maintaining civilized behavior than religious strictures, even at the present time.
Some religions forgive just about anything. It's the law that keeps unethical people in line.
2007-09-11 07:23:10 · answer #3 · answered by cosmo 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I already embrace religion as a necassary evil, along with governments, corporations, and beuracracies. Because if people could control themselves these institutions would not exist period.
It is important for the enlightened few to realize that they are the exception and not the rule.
2007-09-11 07:25:23 · answer #4 · answered by msuetonius 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
that's exactly how they governed in the european middle ages, well combined with brutal retribution for those that were labled heretic.
so, no. I don't find any form of bridle upon my fellow humans to be a good idea whatsoever. we are not meant to be controlled that way, or we would not have evolved into such individualistic creatures.
2007-09-11 07:27:53 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I would reject your basic premise, and admonish you for having so little faith in your fellow human beings.
I (and millions of other just like me) are the living proof that you don't need God to be good. Why should *I* be able to behave without belief, and everyone else not be able to? That's just being an elitist snob.
2007-09-11 07:30:20 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
That's a big if. The religious people I know are more do as I say not as I do types anyway. They believe their God will forgive them whatever, so they do what they want and just say sorry.
2007-09-11 07:36:53 · answer #7 · answered by Louise 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If the only thing keeping you (in the general sense) from stealing my car is a false belief, then by all means, you hold on to that belief, I'll hold onto my car.
2007-09-11 07:26:59 · answer #8 · answered by Eleventy 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Perhaps, in which case we'd need to modify the relevant religions to suit our evil ways. Putting that many people in jail would be cost-prohibitive.
2007-09-11 07:20:23 · answer #9 · answered by Meat Bot 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yeah...but quite the opposite is true. I don't see the sky daddy stopping anyone from anything that really matters. All it does is make them feel guilty about things like sex that don't.
2007-09-11 07:27:31 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋