Middle_Man

[quote="Thermite Man"]I think religion should be banned on any potential colonization of any planet. It has fucked us too much already.[/quote]


this is the kind of thing dictators say. i agree that much blood has been shed in the name of religion; however, much blood has also been shed in the name of government, slavery, territory, etc. banning religion would be a violation of basic human rights, and I don't think I am in the minority to say so. for the record, i am sorta agnostic but mostly freethinker (freethinker is a fancysounding word for "changes the nature of his spirituality every time he wakes up in the morning")

i do believe in the values the US was founded on, and I will fight to my death for the right of even the Westboro Baptists to say what they wish to say. abolishing religion is a v. idealist mindset (mind you, i am an idealist myself) at best, and downright dictatoresque at worst.

additionally, i implore you to investigate buddhism.

[quote=Wotcher]additionally, i implore you to investigate buddhism.[/quote]
bigcfk likes this, as a Buddhist.

Not to get into the religion debate. But the first settlers of any planet/moon will more than likely be scientists. And quite honestly I believe by the time we can colonize anything that religion will be all but the butt of a joke. Scientists seem to be made of a majority of atheists. I feel like religion wont be banned but just accepted as ancient fairy tales much like the Greek/Roman gods are now.

I do not foresee the colonization of Mars in my life time. I do believe it will happen, not soon. Look at what people were saying back when computers were being invented. Something to the extent of "no one will ever need a hard drive larger than 1MB". We look back on that now and laugh. I hope I am wrong about Mars, but I would rather hope for the best plan for the worst. We will have a colony on the moon before Mars and I think I will be seeing the beginning of that as I am dying.

You can't say you don't want to get into religion debate and then just... put forth your position on the future of religion.

you went from "this is how i feel religion /should/ be treated in the future" to "this is how i /predict/ the people doing the colonizing will treat religion." does this mean you believe both, or that you are clarifying/changing your original thought?

also, most scientists are actually just scientists, not Atheists. i put Atheists in caps because I personally distinguish heavily between:
-a scientist who is An Atheist
-a scientist who doesn't concern himself with questions of god

a la Neil deGrasse Tyson. most non-scientist atheists (and some scientist atheists) are all up in your face about their lack of religion.

scientists and scientifically-minded people will certainly be the first ones to colonize Mars, and by the time that happens i'm sure our society will be less religious as a whole. however, that doesn't mean that religion will end up as the butt of a joke. I think the varieties of religion, anthropologically speaking, still have things to teach us. science will eventually get to the point where we can fully understand the human predisposition for spirituality, perhaps with sciences we haven't yet figured out entirely, like quantum mechanics or super symmetry.

what WILL be the butt of a joke, to agree with you here, are things like harmful orthodox religions that encourage unequal treatment or brainwash kids. that shit needs to go ASAP.

and finally, if our spirituality eventually gets explained by science, the atheists will all go, "see! it was never spirituality in the first place! it was science all along!" (this is a problem with atheists: they often falsely claim to be less competitive/intrusive than the religious folk)

when, really, if spirituality can really be explained by science (i believe it can be), then spirituality and science were the /same thing/ all along. it doesn't invalidate spirituality; it just provides the math for what people have been experiencing and enjoying since the beginning. two sides to the coin.

FWIW, my experience with scientists is that very few are avowed atheists. I know lots of people that are indifferent or agnostic, and several that are religious in one way or another. Just my experience being part of a large circle of assorted engineers, chemists, physicists, and medical people.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=da3_1331394029

^ Somewhat related but interesting nonetheless.

Thank you cokalsM.

The fact that the recent bank bailout was a greater sum of money then the entire running budget of NASA for the past 50 years makes me want to slap someone in the face.