what if one day it was proven beyond all reasonable doubt that god never existed?what would the implications be for everyone?would anarchy ensue?

I would think those that are believers in religion would go thru the stages of a likeness to mourning. Shock, betrayl, disbelief, and etc..I don't believe anarchy would happen. But , I do believe there would be alot of suicides. I dont believe alot could take the betrayl.

I don't think anarchy will ensue. Our government will see to that. For many people it might be like finding out for the first time that Santa Claus isn't really the man they grew up thinking he was. So ok may be Santa doesn't come down the chimney and ride in a sleigh with flying reindeers, but as long as somebody with a kind heart continues to put on that red suit and white beard and gives toys to needy children Santa will always be real to me.

Likewise, as long as there is some one or something with the ability to create, love, and administer justice, the spirit of God will never die.

Yeah good post Cricket, i don't thing your far wrong there....

if you also mean that besides no god there is no after life well than there would be absolutely no point to life.

The point of faith is that you believe in the absence of evidence or contrary to evidence. Although, religions these days do realize that a lot of people need a little more than that and they have thus spawned, for example, the creation science and intelligent design movements. However, these show that even then, a lot of people only need something that is superficially scientific to give them the assurance they need. Because really, have the teachings of the major religions not already been undermined by modern discoveries?

But what if someday people convinced themselves to stop believing? Individuals lose faith quite often. What would happen to society as a whole might be more easily divined by looking at what happens to those individuals when they lose their faith. If a large proportion of them go into decline and take to their beds and stop going to work, or even commit suicide, then we could expect a similar proportion to do so out of the whole of those believers who would suddenly stop believing. The consequences of this are easily forseeable, and probably again a still larger proportion would go into decline on account of having witnessed so many others doing so. But not everybody has the same reasons for "believing". Some people believe because they have the fear of God in them. If they stopped believing then this might be somewhat of a relief to them. But then they might see the effects upon others and not be so relieved. The people who need to be convinced of things like intelligent design to believe might not be too adversely affected, because their faith was never very strong to begin with and was dependent upon exposure to reassuring arguments of an apparently scientific basis. Obviously the ability of a society to cope would be dependent upon the proportion of people who already do not believe. If the hypothesized mass suicides occured, and their was a general depression wrought by this loss of faith, then non-believers would be affected too.

If we consider that alien species have been visiting earth for longer than man has been here then we may yet face this hypothesis.

Our religions may have been engineered for us by aliens as a control factor. If God wanted to be worshiped he would make religion clear and well defined. Instead we see religions as fractured structures open to a myriad of interpretations.

Consider all the wars motivated by religion. Consider how large our population would be if not for wars.

If this is the case then we would eventually outgrow the need for religion. Consider that the more technologicly advanced a society becomes then population growth slows. Birth control options from technology and all that.

This does not preclude the existance of God as a creator of the universe. Such a God does not need religion, it is man that needs religion.

Wether the universe had a creator or not is of little consequence to religion. Religion being a moderator of humanity and not a requirement of the cosmos.

Fear of the consequences to society on learning the truth of our history may be one reason that the UFO phenomina is denied or ignored by governments.

Consider the fundimentalist muslims. Thry cant take a joke about Mohamed without threatening to cut your head off. Tell them that their religion is a manufactured contrievence and watch the ensuing explosian.

Religion is a matter of faith and not reason.

religion is a form of control.slave and master.

I don't think anarchy would happen either. I think the very hardcore believers just flat-out wouldn't accept it. It's amazing how blind people can become when it comes down to their religion and their God. No matter the evidence, people would still find, or make up, holes in it to comfort themselves.

I don't think majority of this wchich are saying they belive in God,they really follow this what they are saying they follow,interpretation by them of religion is sick ,they do not follow realigion and their creators,they follow some dumb sheet,if read Jesus and you look at Christian,you will easy determine this are not the one who followe him,belives like others things are determined not only but the mouth but by the action,this doesn't play together,its good reason they are blind,Christ predicted this he will rescue humanity by putting people down ,to bothers ,he came to Earh to change direction of people,if you alcoholic and someone breik the bottle of Whisky or take alcohol from you and tell you you drinking to much ,this person becaming in your eyes your enemy ,alcohol is your real friend in your eyes,you will only created aggression,any addiction works this way likemoney,material things,drugs,sex,gambling ,.only one way to help this person is wait until will hit the bottom ,that's point when joke is over,if won't change will be gone and money change,but get succesfull you must elimanate the reasons wchich brought you to the bottom,in other case you be back again ,only matter of time,at point when Jesus walk thru the Earth humanity were so far in lies,addicted to many things (reason for lies) who couldnt turn this around ,he only seed few good piecies to be capable to make it in right moment,seems to me we are very close to this ,thinks are changing around the world very rapidly lately ,is coming many positive changes ,I think we have a good chance to make it,even if doesnt look like it,but we must change everyone(but Universe is chan reaction,small process like first lie (biblical apple) grew up so badly with time became danger for existence of Earth,Jesus seeded truth and some others and this is growing to lately rapidly if I notice correct)

religion is not a creation of malevolent PTB no we ourselves create or easily accepted religion out of fear and those in a position of power take advantage of and exploit that weakness. I am very aware that religion is so often bullshit but atheism is absolutely terrifying to me, i don't believe in a meaningless existence which atheism would be IMO. So i find myself in moments of fear or weakness asking a higher power for help and hoping for an afterlife. I would say that through my own observations of the nature of reality i am fairly confident that an afterlife is necessary and for there not to be one is illogical.

so can you be an athiest,that beliefs in an afterlife.i don't believe in the concept of a god.i believe are energy continues,but no due to a higher being or being faithful to a dialect.we are all energy and matter...and so is everything,with time and gravity thrown in.

It cannot be proven, because there is a paradox, and also blind faith.

A world without religion? I can imagine it. It's beautiful. In fact, I am willing to fight for a world without religion.

and the guy next to you is me.fight for the freedom of your own mind.religion is the grandaddy of conspiracies.a primitive explanation of scientific and natural events.

you can believe in god without subscription to religion, check it:

The members of the Nation of Gods and Earths (NGE) view themselves (men of their Nation) as their own God (both individually and collectively the Original Man).[1] Five Percenters sometimes refer to themselves as scientists, implying their search for knowledge and proof, and not beliefs in theories.[7]

Five Percenters also teach that Black people specifically, and the entire world population more generally, can be divided into three groups:

* The 85%, easily led in the wrong direction hard to be led in the right direction, who are the humble masses, mentally deaf, dumb , and blind to the truth about themselves and the world in which they live.
* The 10%, who understand much of the truth but use it to their advantage to keep the 85% under their control through religion, politics, entertainment, economics, and other methods.
* The 5%, who are the enlightened divine beings, having repossessed knowledge of the truth regarding the foundations of life and of oneself, and seek to punitively liberate the 85% through education

You suggest that you can join a cult instead of an established religion?

Why should the universe be here at all?
Possibly because somebody thought of it.
What was it made from?
Since as far as we know matter and energy were created within the universe, what it is made of is uknown. Possibly time energy, since time is the final measure of the universes existance.

Possibly whoever invented it took a piece of himself and made it so.

What this says is that even if the universe had a creator, we have no way of knowing anything about him.

The creator would be the God of the universe. What was his motivation? Uknown.

TST Religion, cults, all belief systems are creations of man. The creator dosn't need a belief system.

Nor does he need or desire to be worshipped. All religious beliefs on the earth are our own creations.

If there is life after death it is probably like nothing we can imagine it to be.

There is an interconnectedness of all things as demonstrated by gravity, electromagnetism, and quantum entanglement.

When the universe ends then all goes to a single destination. Weather there was a creator or not all are connected to the source of creation, even if we are unaware of the connection.

Any belief system other than "I don't know" is an artificial construct. All in the universe came from a common and unknowable source. Anything else is speculation and unfounded faith.

Due to the nature of the universe, no matter how much we learn, there will always be some piece of information that cannot be known. From within the bubble of the universe its entirety cannot be observed.

You don't have to imagine no religion, there isn't one.

more like a philosophy or a way of life, why ya gotta put it in a negative light like that?

Collectively, society is grounded in divine law and order. Undefined, that is taken to mean a will higher then human will. Few are able to accept the will as undefined by human terms. Therefore, most social groups personify that will in a god of their choosing. While it is possible to disprove these gods on the basis that they are all relatively defined, how could go about disproving that which remains undefined? Remove the divine will and you will remove all that underpins society. That which was deemed inherent and inviolable by reason of having been imbued by an authority greater than that of humans alone would suddenly become subjective and violable. Laws and social order would falter. IMO.

This post has been edited by iwant2believe2: Apr 9 2008, 12:28 PM