Hey, how do I do the quote thingy with someone’s comments?

Re. your query, we can try to act like the voices of reason and restraint…

That said, dibs on that bomb shelter being built as we speak to safeguard the last remnants of Humanity…

Too many comic books…way too many.

Anyhoo, after all’s said and done…what exactly CAN we do to better the condition?

I’ve heard people say that what we need is a dictator to take over for a while and set everything right by ruling with an iron fist. Okay… Then what? Do you think (s)he’s just gonna get up one fine day and abdicate without a fight? Isn’t it a whole lot more likely that we’re gonna have a self-styled Deus Regina/Rex (God Queen/King) on our hands?

Even if it was the Govt. that did it and forced people to live like zombies with regular injections of Prosium, well, we’ve all seen the movie, haven’t we?

The basic problem is that perfect equality is simply impossible. So you always have the power-mongers and the sheep. The former become the arbiters of ‘morality’ and ‘acceptable’ social norms (manipulated of course so that they remain in power).

This is what we’re seeing today, not only with the Shiv Sena but with similar moral policing groups all over our country and indeed, the world. The frightening thing is, these groups are popping up with alarming regularity nowadays and are increasing their power base as well with more and more sheep joining their flock daily. (BTW, what do you get if you take the agenda of most of these groups to the extreme? Neo-Nazis.)

So riddle me this – what happens the day these groups clash with those already in power and with each other? Think Ultimate Power Struggle. Think Civil War. Think Infinite (ok, maybe not Infinite!) Crisis. Think T2: JD without the ‘bots. Think ka-boom. Solution found. The End.

P.S. TP, this one’s for you – since you believe in the absence of free will (or do you? I can’t seem to keep track of your current beliefs!), why do you think so many writers/thinkers discuss apocalyptic scenarios for the human race? Is it ‘cos we’re predestined to end it all somewhere down the line with our very own home-made Big Bang?

First off…I DO NOT think that it is possible in the remotest sense of the word to ban religion. I was just wishfully thinking about the possibility. As for Brave New World, it was achieved through pre conditioning/ programming a human child…that’s a matter of science fiction/fantasy…

And I do agree that many moral codes have been enforced by religion but then agin,over the years, our perception of morality has changed drastically.

The ‘morals’ of a 1000 years ago don’t hold true any more. The entire concept of right and wrong change over the years…religion is modified gradually to cope with the times.

For example, women were not exactly treatd with respect in the Bible but over the years that has changed. This is because of an external sense of morality (read non religious) slowly changing the moral code of religion.

I’m not saying religion hasn’t done us good, it definitely has kept a lot of people from doing a lot of unmentionable thinkgs. BUT some take it far too literally and use it to justify their actions no matter how ludicrous they seem.

@Cendrelin Shilpa Shetty…I can’t blame…she’s just being a normal person. I doubt shge did anything for attention…it’s the protests I’m pissed at. Why make a hue and cry over such trivial issues? Aren’t there more important matters to bother about?

http://selvasamuel.wordpress.com/2007/04/18/the-richard-gere-shilpa-shetty-kiss/

Sadly, inspite of being perhaps an amazingly intelligent country, we are also the most narrow minded. Sigh…things may never change.

But we can’t really complain cn we? What are we doing about anything?

as far as shilpa shetty is concerned—the lady needs to go back to hibernation…she’s just going to go on feeding teh media who over dramatize things…so she gets kissed in front of loads of ppl…big deal…what she needs , is ppl to stop treating like some kinda princess…cos she cant act and she aint pretty…n she looks anorexic..
and ppl in our country seriously need to get a life…there are much more pressing issues at hand…crimes against women and children…skewered sex rations…poverty…blah blah…shilpa shetty isnt a matter of national concern…she needs to be spanked..and sent to bed…without food…

and as far as sex edu is concered…india…has lost all hope..no point discusin it further…it’l take a billion more years to make fat lil aunties who sit n watch soppy serials all day long that thier kids liv in a world wher they might actually want to hear what the real thing is before they get a distorted version of things…or worse if thy start doin stuff…n if any of teh above mentioned fat aunties are readin this….plz…stop watchin ekta kapoors’ crap…for teh love of god!!…

The paradox I wanted you to see in doing away with religion is that you would be starting another kind of religious war. It’s not as though believers will stop believing just because someone–who? a government?–says “There will be no more religion.” The countries that have tried it have found that religious faith actually increases under pressure. It is human nature to believe in something beyond ourselves.

Thank you for your thoughtful response!

No, I agree that men have fought over land and power as well but religion seems to be the easiest exceuse these days. Think about it, most of the wars in recent history (1000 years atleast) have been fought because somebody had a false sense of religious superiority.

I do agree that there may be no answer to the problem but call it wishful thinking if you may, I do think half of our problems could be eliminated if religion was done away with.

Religion is not a pre requisite for morality…there are ethical/morally upright atheists ya know?!

For example, if religion is banned, what will stand as the basis for the clearly defined ethics and morals? Who will define them? How would they be enforced?

We certainly have the same issues here (the Moral Majority has many of the same purposes you have mentioned above), but ethics and morality can have no value if not accompanied by freedom. And there can’t be freedom without disagreement, without opening the door to terrorism in some ways. I’m not sure there is an answer.