Advancement of science
My collegue Darrell drew attention to Shulem Deen’s revelations in "All who go do not return" and his demise after losing his Jewish faith.
I responded by pointing out total rejection and death followed an Australian aboriginal having the tribe point the bone of rejection at him. But this raises an important point in relation to globalisation.
Since cave man time people grouped together for security and followed the behaviour as it developed in the group. Not understanding why we were here for, or the nature of the universe, for comfort some leading individuals invented God(s) as a matter of convenience and the group conformed in their belief handing it down to their children. As always exists, some individuals may have mentally challenged the logic of the beliefs they were fed but rather than be rejected from the group, they generally went along supporting the illogical. And we know you could even get killed for suggesting the earth was not flat. Mentioning flat earth belief, there is an irony that the founders of all the major religions who laid down inviolate rules about the world and how we should live in it, all lived in an era where they believed the earth was flat. I don't think anyone could get away with that today because we have flown above the clouds and know there is not a little old man/woman up there determining our destiny on a daily basis.
In China as in the USSR the state rejected religion and the Group went along with this in public. Again, if the group supports a concept, we are herd animals and are desperate to fit in, just as it took a little boy to point out that the Emperor was naked.
Of course this was all very well when the world was a smaller place. Group thinking could be contained in small spaces and early on a group could force out or perhaps tolerate fringe outsiders. Now of course when people have traveled the world, group think can collide with other Group Thinks and this threatens beliefs and their basic logic. You had the early problems with the Jews and Christians, Crusades against the ”infide", then Catholics against Protestants etc, and Sunni versus Shiites. All of this threatens Group Think.
And you can’t have politicians allowing people to get away from Group Think. EVEN when you go to war and there are NO weapons of mass destruction and you knew there were no weapons of mass destruction, you can still get the Group to support you because they are all too scared to be ostracised from the group. The rest of the system follows along and the media machine cashes in on the popular thought or you become a Michael Moore and a pariah.
So what happens if science can prove that the earth was not built in seven days and that there is really no old man/lady up there somewhere listening to human desires and ready to welcome us into a here after stocked with everlasting peace and a suplit of virgins? What if science can prove that there is really a life force (bring on Avatar) which like all energy cannot be created nor destroyed and people can really be "born again"through this life force? What if this can be shown as a scientific reality? If this were so, would it then perhaps bring an end to wars because it would no longer be a matter of my God versus your God and no need to rely on inventions which have no possibility of proof? We could just go ahead and enjoy this life and put the most we can into it.
Of course this would never be achieved overnight since I can't see the Pope and his minions giving up and redistributing the billions they have collected from the faithful over the centuries. There will probably be more people burned at the stake for proving the earth was not flat, but it would be a start.