When the entire world has converted to Christianity, the world will have progress an heYUUUUUUUUGE amount. That is the most important thing. Progression in science, lowering of poverty, improved technology, improved education, lack of wars, lowered crime, better morality, all these things would follow, but first must come the conversion of the world.

Religion. 'sup

To be honest, there is going to be a Unified Religion, and English will be re-branded as the International Business Language. We will all worship god, he won't have a name, or any distinctions, and he won't care about the matters of human society, as long as that we all love him/her/it and make no distinctions. Quite frankly, the routine of America (superpower), preaching to us about how the 'world is a dangerous place', while simultaneously selling weapons and arming the world around us - is getting pretty fucking old. There is most likely also going to be some humanitarian/biological disaster which will eradicate a vast percentage of the worlds population. Either that, or nuclear holocaust. Whatever the chosen method is, it is necessary because there are simply too many humans on this planet. It could be subtle, like chemicals which cause sterility being pumped into national water supplies, or it could be drastic (as the examples given previously). The world only has a sustainable carrying population of around 2.3 billion, and this number is diminishing rapidly because of improper farming techniques, fertilization leading to eutrophication, and water supplies dwindling. At some point in the near future a choice is going to have to be made about how many humans we want on our planet Earth - and all the associated decisions regarding their quality of life... what level of technology will be enjoyed by the average new Earth human, what level of healthcare will they have, how much education shall they receive, what luxuries will they have access to, how much food will they eat, will they be equal or will there be an upper and under class system at play. Governments have long been buying out corporate media and spin-doctors. He who harps on about conspiracy theories is quickly branded a lunatic and discredited in absolutely any way possible.

Charlie Sheen spoke out against the 'lies of 9/11' and called for a proper enquiry. What does a google search turn up about him?

[/rant]

Why does progress seem to include assimilation to most of you? This is a genuine question.

Perhaps because an example of progress that I think most can agree upon is the tolerance of others' differences. The next step that seems natural to many would be further assimilation. You know, if someone feels good after a single beer, then more beers must equal more good feelings, right? No. There's a point where you start feeling worse with every drink. A balance between individuality and community involvement/tolerance seems to be best, but then you will find tons of disagreements over how to exactly arrange such a balance. This is further evidence, in my mind, of why there will never be a 'Utopian' society. And it would be terribly fucking boring.

The only way for all humans to truly be at peace with all other humans is for our species to be extinct.

Progress will be when religion no longer has a place in civilized society. Seriously how can anyone in Christianity want progress? Progress is Jesus coming back and initiating a massive cleansing of the population, sending all of humanity either up or down in the afterlife.

Please, think the consequences of your own religion through... You are going to be hanging out with an omniscient God. What use is science? Why scrabble for pithy bits of knowledge in this life when you know you will have an omniscient being to communicate with in the next? Why try to make the fallen world a better place when the world of the dead is supposedly utter paradise? You have not thought your own religion through.

If I was a sincere Christian I would kill myself to get to paradise as quick as I could (Oops didn't read the fine print God doesn't let you do that, damn!) I would stop literally everything else and focus solely on converting as many of my fellow humans to Christianity. They can be starving, they can be illiterate, they need not have knowledge or comfort, only an obedience to my Lord's rules and a belief in his existence to ensure their place in Paradise. Then I would just rinse repeat this for as many generations as possible until Jesus finally comes and ends all our suffering by finally bringing about Judgement Day.

Seriously, who WANTS this to be true. I do not understand. I can only conclude that you have not realised the conclusions of your own beliefs.

When people are educated to question their beliefs they will shatter like glass. That is how religious beliefs are held for so long because they are never encouraged to look at them critically and consider that they are wrong. Doubting is discouraged, yet still the doubt creeps in for the rest of their life. This is cognitive dissonance brought about by holding a belief that is inconsistent with reality.

When people start doing this religion will cease to exist as a persuasive force in humanity, and people will start progressing more in this life because they know that this life is all they have got. That is the problem with religion, this life is simply a 'welcome mat' and the next life is where the party really begins. When you know that this life is all you are gonna get, you spend it as well as you can. Any afterlife after such a life is then simply a bonus.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Apr 3 2011, 4:56 pm by private_parts.

I don't get what most of you guys are talking about, the world is already moving forward/making progress at an unbelievable rate...

but, such progress will improve at an even greater rate when quotes like this:
... no longer exist. Voicing such stubborn and closed minded views and opinions on any issue with so much hate only hurts progress and unification.

EDIT:
Religion is about philosophy. There's also this stuff too.

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Apr 4 2011, 3:39 am by MillenniumArmy.

"Censorship is the archenemy of progress."
-Sheldon Sandbekkhaug

Sorry, missed this for a while. I get shit for reading for fun in Massachusetts, I doubt it's much better anywhere else. Nothing serious, just basic disdain and surprise that I'd spend my time doing something like that and actually enjoy it. I consider education a near-complete waste of time, we teach for the tests and students are ill-equipped to move into the real world after both high school and college graduation. There are some good teachers who challenge students intellectually. They are rare and unrewarded for their excellence. On top of that, students are not taught how to think critically or make reasoned decisions and as a result we have a population that can't be trusted to make sound political choices. Instead, we vote based on bullshit and elect candidates that have no intention of determining the best way for our society to progress and would rather spend years discussing talking points and dodging questions. And because we're so ill-qualified to challenge any political opinion, we sit there and take it. It's disgusting.

As for bureaucracy: look at the technological innovations that have been made over the past 30 years. And yet, people still work 9-5, still make roughly the same amount with respect to inflation, if not less, and we still have high levels of poverty and joblessness. So, where the hell did the extra work come from? Things have been made vastly easier but we as a society are no better off. That defies logic unless you account for an increased amount of unnecessary bullshit.

As for assimilation, I don't think that will help. I think that's the opposite of progress, to be perfectly honest. If everyone is doing the same things, we're pretending we already know the best way to operate- the most basic political lie. Government is not definite, it's experimental. People who think they have all the answers rarely have any, but there's the only ones we feel safe electing. I'd love for societies to branch out and be allowed various experimental policies that citizens choose. If there is one reason I support a weak central government, this is it.

See, like this for example. Let the Christians go off and form their own society and see how things work out for them. They can wait for the rapture peacefully and stop holding up the rest of society. Maybe I'm wrong and they'll skyrocket with scientific advancements. Either way, there's no more conflict of interest. People can go live as they please under the mantle of a United "States", with free movement and trade between various areas.

Geh. I like to think that people get more openminded when they grow up. You're right, replacing Christianity with aggressive atheism isn't the answer; when more people can comprehend the whole situation and understand all sides to an issue, that's human development. That said, I'd still bet on technological progress being the most... important/fun.

Whatever comes after present is moving forward. We always move forward.