Another 'What if'? .....

[oldskool]

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How does it leave us emotionally and spiritually?

that would depend on whether you beleive it to be true far too many people would just continue to beleive in their particular religious standpoint regard less of accepted scientific fact. How many provable scietific facts are now debated by humans ? tons- see evolution as an example

Would we become morally debased?

no morality is an artificial construct - created by humans aas a way of controling and regulating society - essentially other humnas and ther behaviour . Morality is codified into laws the ten commandments for the basis of most legal systems. Atheists wuld feel very smug tho

Would it create mass hysteria?
Riots?
Would Arsenal finally field some English players?

all of the above are unlikely as the cause of most mass public disorder is usually economic not philosophical .

How would our world turn upside down.....or wouldn't it turn at all???

Over to you guys ....[/quote]

 

[pestilence]

Robbo.

I think the supposition is flawed with this sentence:

We must assume here for the purposes of this thread, the scientists/ mathematicians are in fact correct in their conclusions and it just remains for the human race to accept or deny such findings.

First off, I'd like sit quietly on the fence in regards to personal beliefs, but I was intrigued by a documentary I watched on BBC Iplayer yesterday entitled the "Cracking the Narnia Code" which really did make me stop and think.

Towards the latter half of the program, on dealing with the Science Vs religion debate, the program made a very valid point (which I'll try and steal). Science 'loads' the questions is asks.... by trying to break down and define everything, it misses the fundamental question of why it's there. You can argue that the universe spontaneously popped into existence, but no amount of science can ever answer the 'why' that happened....

I'm not saying that is my view at all, but it did make me stop and think, and maybe give a little hope that just ever so maybe, that there is a reason for it all in the end. that at least assuages the more emotive side of being human, for me anyway.

 

[Golddust]

First off, I'd like sit quietly on the fence in regards to personal beliefs, but I was intrigued by a documentary I watched on BBC Iplayer yesterday entitled the "Cracking the Narnia Code" which really did make me stop and think.

Towards the latter half of the program, on dealing with the Science Vs religion debate, the program made a very valid point (which I'll try and steal). Science 'loads' the questions is asks.... by trying to break down and define everything, it misses the fundamental question of why it's there. You can argue that the universe spontaneously popped into existence, but no amount of science can ever answer the 'why' that happened....

I'm not saying that is my view at all, but it did make me stop and think, and maybe give a little hope that just ever so maybe, that there is a reason for it all in the end. that at least assuages the more emotive side of being human, for me anyway.

You need to play the xbox more, play somes sci-fi like mass effect, we could just be mere puppets playing a bigger role somehow, no one here can prove me wrong, but then at the same time its very far fetched isnt it?
Its stupid really, as if there is a greater force out there he would just make it so we never discover him, its daft tbh!

Do we really need to know stuff like this, cant they spend there time doing something more useful?

 

[RoryM]

My take is that religions were formed back in trhe days when mankind sat in ignorance of why anything around him existed.

Much like the fables and stories that tribal elders passed down, where they attributed events to higher beings, as they had no other explanation. Alongside this they also created other stories about retribution and adoration for the gods as a form of control for the masses.

And if you look at most common religions they are quite similar in their ideals, heaven for the good, hell for the bad, follow the rules and so on.

As for the creation of the universe, and the question of why it happened, or what made it happen, and if you have no answer, there MUST be a deity behind it is not really much of a case, is it? Things don't neccesarily happen in nature for a reason, they just do. It's nature, it does not need a reason.

The reaction naturally to this would be that those of a religious nature will discount any science, no matter how conclusive, as their beliefs far outweigh their need to take science as fact. It's not just about the how we got here for them, it goes much deeper than that as it represents other things. Spirituality is not just about the creation of the universe, but more about a way of living for most believers.

Sometimes the irony of calling it a belief is lost on many religious types, because f it was irrevocably true as some maintain, it would be a fact, not a belief.

IMHO!!!

 

[Dicorpo]

Hmmm, tough one, but right on the money. I think that the human race would go into ectreme denial. It is very obvious that those who have chosen Religion to rule their lives will continue to do so. Not that this is a bad thing, religion gives hope, gives people something to belive in and something to look for when all other lights go out. Without religion people would have no reason to live...their views of "the afterlife" would become void. All the work that people put in throughout life, for that final chance to be judged and deemed worthy to enter into the gates of heaven, or to be reincarnated into something spectacular would inevitably be false. People would have no reason to live...

Now I know that there are a lot of people out there that don't believe in God...that's fine, but I also know there's a lot of people who don't believe in God thatdo believe in an afterlife, even if it't not an open belief...We lose friends and loved ones all the time, and thought that there is something after this rigmarole we call life comforts us, the idea that we WILL one day see our friends and family again sits at the back of our minds secretly telling us, "It's all right, we'll see them soon." Whilst a very large part says, "There is no God, there is no Heaven, there is no point." But I'm getting slightly off track.

The point is, the human race has developed many defenses against things that challenge us and our very beliefs. It is our very nature that we deny what we do not approve of, fear what we do not understand, and therefore I believe that when the joyous day does arrive, that scientists tell us the Universe was created by nothing more than gravity, dust and gas; the world will continue to spin, people will continue to believe in whatever they want and people will continue to fight and die for what they believe in.

 

[rewind]

seems to be a pretty similar thread of opinions here. and im near enough the same.
Many would question the reason as to why. and near enough all the points as to how and why they would think that appear to be covered, (all of my points, anyway).
However it does question the very standing of our legal system, as much of it derives from, (correct me if im wrong), as I understand it, the 10 commandments/ religion itself. The church being the main authoratitive power in the Uk for hundreds of years.
This in itself would through the legal system into ptentially a state of disrepair, as many would argue, that as God doesnt exist, and it was himself (so the church has told us) that has laid down the laws of which to follow, that they are no longer correct or binding. WHich could potentially cause us to fall into anarchy.

The thing is though, that true anarchy cannot exist and shortly people will group together for their own protection, soon clans will develope, then villages, towns cities, and each will eventually have leaders, growing soon to a point at which a governing body will lay down rules in order to protect the good based on experience of the human race rather than from any other religious background.

I also think that another attitude will arise, and that would be a more open persecution (I use that word loosely) of the religious people holding onto their faith, whichever religion it may be, due to the evidence proving every one of them wrong, maybe to the point that it would be widely beleived that they should be secure locations, as america have for paedophiles etc, assuming they have something fundamentaly wrong with them.

my rtwo cents anyway, make of it what you will

 

[Missy-Q]

The scientists that reached the 'conclusion' would mysteriously disappear, together with all their research, and the facility would burn down in a freak electrical fire.
Why?
The US is founded on Christianity (the only country to be so), and after an appeal from Rome, they would send in a black-ops team to silence the scientists and erase their data. The revelation of said scientists would destroy the god-fearing infrastructure of the country, and that cannot be allowed to happen.
Afterwards, anyone claiming that this cover-up had actually happened, and that there was once data to prove there was no god, would be treated like Tom Cruise, and discredited to the point of ridicule.

Tell me this isn't exactly what would happen....

 

[Matski]

Not on Chuck Norris's shift.

But apart from that I think it's pretty solid.

 

[Missy-Q]

Not on Chuck Norris's shift.

But apart from that I think it's pretty solid.

Indeed, actually the question could be:
"Has this already happened?"

 

[Tom Allen]

When it's made abundantly clear there is no god, i doubt it would make a lot of difference to the vast majority of people. But i do worry about the serious believers, what's left for them. Their whole life given to support their belief in a god, and then nothing......oops.

I can see groups of religious lunatics, roaming in packs trying one last vain attempt to convert the heretics, or do they already do that.