If you had to choose a world wide religion that everyone would have to follow...

[Autumnleaf]

Then so be it.

However, I fail to see the logic in your conclusion, and, in fact, it directly clashes with reality: There is no religion everyone has to follow, yet we don´t have communism.

Whatever - I´d surely prefer communism over a theocracy any day.

I'm not going to argue that the only society without a religion is communist until someone points out a society without religion that is not communist. I am pragmatic and a student of history to a fault which is why I take this stance. To argue hypotheticals of something that never has been would be a waste of my time.

 

[Autumnleaf]

Would have to follow? I'm going to assume that you don't mean that they are being forced to follow by law, but have somehow been converted in that direction.

I'm not sure why you are limiting this to established religions, and I'm not quite sure what you consider "established" (e.g., is Wicca an "established" religion?), or even what you consider a "religion". If you could clarify these, it would help.

Naturally, I would choose Eudaimonism as the world "religion", if it could count as one. It's a nontheistic philosophical path, and perhaps not what you mean by "religion", but there you go.

If I can't choose that, I suppose that I would choose either Thelema or Buddhism. Or Stoicism, if that would count. (Stoicism is techincally a philosophy, but advocated belief in an intelligent panentheistic orderer of reality.)

Generally speaking, I would choose a religion that was strong on the advocacy of rational inquiry, personal insights, and charting one's own path.


eudaimonia,

Mark

I'm coming from a stance of if the UN took over the world and had to choose a religion to run the empire and the Emperor said, "Mark, help me out with this. What religion should we make everyone act like they follow to keep them in line?" Which would you choose?

 

[funyun]

I'm not going to argue that the only society without a religion is communist until someone points out a society without religion that is not communist. I am pragmatic and a student of history to a fault which is why I take this stance. To argue hypotheticals of something that never has been would be a waste of my time.

Your being a "student of history" notwithstanding, your argument is logically and factually flawed. As a thought experiment, hypothetical examples are not irrelevant to the discussion, but are, in fact, appropriate. In any case Buddhism is not a hypothetical.

 

[Eudaimonist]

I'm coming from a stance of if the UN took over the world and had to choose a religion to run the empire and the Emperor said, "Mark, help me out with this. What religion should we make everyone act like they follow to keep them in line?" Which would you choose?

I would answer: "a religion that advocates deposing theocratic emperors", as I stab a knife into him.

Seriously, I don't like this idea of using a forcefully imposed religion to "keep people in line". I want individual liberty and self-determination. Any religion in favor of respecting people's individual rights and keeping government secular would be a candidate for my support. If no "established" religion does this, then I'm stabbing the Emperor.


eudaimonia,

Mark

 

[Mling]

I'm not going to argue that the only society without a religion is communist until someone points out a society without religion that is not communist. I am pragmatic and a student of history to a fault which is why I take this stance. To argue hypotheticals of something that never has been would be a waste of my time.

Well then the conversation is over. Close the thread. Why would you even start a thought-experiment thread to begin with if you don't want to talk in hypotheticals?

There is no country that has no religion at all. There is no recongized country that follows the real ideas of the Communist Manifest without seriously corrupting them (though small bands of nomads follow them well), and the OP is based on the premise of a single world religion, which we do not have.

That said, as was pointed out earlier, Scandinavian countries are not terribly religious, but neither are they atheist, nor Communist:

Today about 75% of Swedes belong to the Church of Sweden (Lutheran), but the number is decreasing by about 1% every year, and Church of Sweden services are sparsely attended (hovering in the single digit percentages of the population).[73] The reason for the large number of inactive members is partly that until 1996, children became members automatically at birth if at least one of the parents was a member. Since 1996, all children that are christened become members. Some 275,000 Swedes are today members of various free churches (where congregation attendance is much higher), and, in addition, immigration has meant that there are now some 92,000 Roman Catholics and 100,000 Eastern Orthodox Christians living in Sweden.[74] Because of immigration, Sweden also has a significant Muslim population. Almost 500,000 are Muslims by tradition, but approximately 5% (25,000) of these are practising Islam (in the sense of attending Friday prayer and praying five times a day).[75] (See Islam in Sweden.)
According to the most recent Eurobarometer Poll 2005,[76] 23% of Swedish citizens responded that "they believe there is a god", whereas 53% answered that "they believe there is some sort of spirit or life force" and 23% that "they do not believe there is any sort of spirit, god, or life force".

Sweden ranks aside with France and Russia on having a large minority of its citizens who have no religion. Independent of these statistics, it is generally known that Swedish society, collectively, is in some ways comparatively secular and non-religious.[77]

A quick look through wikipedia reveals that none of the Nordic countries are particularly religious, but in all of them, no more than a quarter of the population affirms that there is no god, and none of them are even close to Communist.

This is as close as we are going to get. Throughout all of human history in which it is meaningful to talk about "countries" or even "nations," there has never been a nation that is completely without religion. The closest we are going to get is "not particularly religious" and here we have it.

You want to keep talking about a complete lack of religion = Communism, you will have to resort to your dreaded time-wasting hypotheticals. You want to talk about reality, here it is.

 

[Eudaimonist]

A quick look through wikipedia reveals that none of the Nordic countries are particularly religious, but in all of them, no more than a quarter of the population affirms that there is no god, and none of them are even close to Communist.

I've lived in Sweden for the past five years, and I can vouch for the secular and non-communist nature of its culture.


eudaimonia,

Mark

 

[Kroger99]

from the religions already established. Which would you choose?

If I had too, I would choose Christianity because thats what I beleive and the world would be a much better place is everyone agreed with me.


But for the record... I wouldn't choose at all because I beleive in freedom. But what fun is that in a hypothetical thread.....lol

 

[quatona]

I'm not going to argue that the only society without a religion is communist until someone points out a society without religion that is not communist.

You are, of course, perfectly entitled to base your views on logical fallacies.

On top several people have pointed out secular societies that are not communist. But you are of course also entitled to base your views on ignoring the facts.

I am pragmatic and a student of history to a fault which is why I take this stance. To argue hypotheticals of something that never has been would be a waste of my time.

Yet you were the one arguing hypothetically and making a prediction and a "by default" claim - as opposed to merely making a statement about history.

 

[Archer93]

I'm going with UUism as well.
I would say Thelema, as it's my religion (well, it answers to the name of religion, and I subscribe to it....) but a key aspect of it is not forcing anything on anyone. So forcing someone to be a Thelemite would be a massive contradiction.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thelema

Plus, it's an absolutely dreadful religion if you want to keep people in line....

 

[Archer93]

I'm not going to argue that the only society without a religion is communist until someone points out a society without religion that is not communist. I am pragmatic and a student of history to a fault which is why I take this stance. To argue hypotheticals of something that never has been would be a waste of my time.

Could you explain what you mean by 'a society without religion'? Because has already been pointed out, many countries that do not have an official state religion are not communist.

 

[clarksided]

I don't really care, I just wish people would realize God isn't nearly as American as they think he is; I seriously doubt he gives a hoot about what goes on in someone's bedroom between two (or 17) consenting adults or about what kind television programs John Walters in Joplin, MO enjoys. Let's give our creator a little more credit than that, ok?

But yeah, as a deist, I'd prefer a society that realizes they have way too many worldly problems to worry about and push organized religion to the fringes where it belongs.

 

[SiderealExalt]

While I would of course, choose "none of the above."( cue the pun) if I just HAD to, in the spirit of the hypothetical, I'd go with Buddhism.

 

[wanderingone]

from the religions already established. Which would you choose?

Impossible, why would I ever want to live in a world where everyone was forced to follow any faith? People already are living in places that make a mockery of faith by forcing people to abide by religious doctrine - there's no value in that.

 

[RedTulipMom]

i wouldn't choose a religion. i would choose a relationship with Christ.