No wise man, and no great artist, leaves God out

[Gypsum_Fantastic]

Originally Posted by Rob_Roy_Kowalski

Imagine no religion......

Stalin's Russia, Hitler's Germany and Mao's China gives us excellent examples of a society built on such an 'imagination'.

[Rob_Roy_Kowalski]

Originally Posted by Gypsum_Fantastic

Stalin's Russia, Hitler's Germany and Mao's China gives us excellent examples of a society built on such an 'imagination'.

To pick on a throwaway quote at the end of my post only serves to show you have no sensible response to the main body of the text.

However, let's deal with your "examples" given above. You seem to imply that these are examples of what would happen in a world free of religion. However, they were not the result of religious voids in any of the cultures mentioned. Religion existed strongly in Russia and China before the emergence of Stalin and Mao. Religion was not suppressed in that way under Hitler.

1/ It's true that Stalin saw religion as the enemy of communism. However, he simply forced his people to follow a different idealism. I am not saying that a world without religion would be better served by following a dictatorship, and well you know it. Any idealism, including religion, can only stifle the freedom of the people.

2/ Hitler was not an atheist. Far from it, he believed was doing the work of the Lord.

"Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator: by defending myself against the Jew, I am fighting for the work of the Lord."

3/ Mao saw religion in direct opposition to Marxism, thus believing religion to be the "opium of the masses". I can't say I disagree with Marx on that point, though I do disagree with suppression of the right of the people to chose.

However, many now consider Maoism to be a Theocracy in its own right. Whether you like it or not, religion comes in many forms.

It is odd that you chose those three examples to put forward your poor attempt at argument. I would class religion right up there with the worst of them.

You display a naive and obvious fear of a world without religion, which brings me back to the argument that you see it as a safety net.

Now, if you would like to address the points I made, in relation to the passages I quoted from your original post, I would be most interested in reading your responses. Assuming you have any.

[bell-the-cat]

Originally Posted by Gypsum_Fantastic

Stalin's Russia, Hitler's Germany and Mao's China gives us excellent examples of a society built on such an 'imagination'.

Those societies, in the way they dealt with any opponents, seem startingly similar to that wished for in your own imagination - to quote your own words, sent to me by private message, "would it be asking too much for you to **** off and die?" The only difference is that a sad little nonentity like youself will never have a ready supply of thugs to carry out such requests.