r/AskReddit • u/darwhyte • 2h ago
What are your thoughts on a religion free atheist Republic?
20
2h ago
[deleted]
5
u/FlyWide6069 2h ago
Exactly. If religions are TV channels, being an atheist is switching the TV off. I'm not trying to force others to watch a certain channel.
1
u/darwhyte 2h ago
In my idea of an Atheist republic, it would be a sovern state where Atheists could live and exist, free of religious idealisms and doctorates.
One could simply exist within a society where humans are just humans, unmanipulated by religious conformaty.
2
0
u/darwhyte 2h ago
Why would that be stupid? I believe an atheist Republic could exist and still follow the basic rules of human kindness to others. One doesn't have to believe there's an invisible man in the sky in order to be kind to others.
7
u/ghoulthebraineater 2h ago
It's been done. The USSR was officially atheist. It resulted in a lot of persecution.
Policing thought is a bad idea.
2
u/ProudBoomer 2h ago
One doesn't have to not believe in a God in order to know how a Republic should work.
2
7
u/Rubysage3 2h ago
Reminds me of the South Park episodes. In the future a bunch of atheist governments warring it out over nonsense. I bet it'll turn out like that, sea otters included.
"For science!" (╯°□°)╯
7
5
u/kevinsyel 2h ago
I believe in the America that was on paper... there should be no official religion, but you're free to be religious if you want to be.
The whole problem with America is not a religious problem, it's a problem of manipulators and drifters. They simply use religion as the vehicle to control and manipulate people
0
u/darwhyte 1h ago
Throughout the course of human history, it is most likely that more humans have killed other humans over religion than anything else.
If Gods, deities, and religions were never ever conceived, how woukd that have changed the course of human history?
What would the world we live in today be like if Gods, deities and/or religions were never conceived?
3
u/kosarai 1h ago
You seem to underestimate mankind’s ability to hate “the other”. Wars and atrocities have absolutely happened without religion being any part of it.
If religion did not exist, the world would not suddenly become a utopia with no reason for people to hate one another. There would just be another “Humans have killed other humans over X more than anything else”.
1
u/worldserieschamp 1h ago
They always would have been conceived, as nothing more than a reason to explain things we dont understand.
1
u/kevinsyel 1h ago
I agree with you. But making the same mistake of banning religions will lead to more bloodshed. We can evolve beyond that.
0
u/ProofByVerbosity 1h ago
America was founded on the opposite. I sure hope you arent American
1
u/kevinsyel 1h ago
America was founded BY folks of various religions. But you seem to be ignorant of the establishment clause in the first amendment.
The Establishment Clause: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion"
I know this because I am American.
Go spread your Russian flavored misinformation somewhere else.
3
u/thewalkindude368 2h ago
I don't have a problem with atheists in government, but I don't think government should make any laws mandating or forbidding any religion.
5
2
u/darwhyte 2h ago
Good point. My idea of a sovereign Atheist Republic would be a country where Atheists could settle and live. Religion would not be forbidden, there simply would be no one living within the state that believes in Gods of any type exist, therefore, the Republic would be free of religion because no one would believe in the existence of what makes religion exist in the first place.
3
3
u/Suitable-Season-4847 2h ago
I'm an atheist, but the enforcement of belief (including the absence of a belief) is not something I'm supporting.
I don't mind restrictions around public space preaching, but generally I feel people should be allowed to believe whatever they want. I can mock them for it, but I'm not one for thought policing
1
u/darwhyte 1h ago
Maybe I should have phrased my question better. By atheist state I didn't mean a state where all religion would be banned and outlawed.
What I meant was a sovereign state consisting solely of atheists who do not believe any God or deity exists, therefore in the process rendering religion non existent, which organically would create a religion free state.
What are your thoughts of a sovereign atheist state that is religion free NOT because religion is banned, forbidden or outlawed, just religion free because the population solely consists of individuals who are atheist solely by freedom of choice?
2
u/Suitable-Season-4847 1h ago
People might change their mind. What do we do with them? Execution?
I think anything like this ultimately ends up in horror.
•
u/darwhyte 12m ago
But why must religion exist amongst humanity. Can't a sovereign state consisting solely of free choice atheists exist?
I'm not suggesting a sovern state where religion is abolished, outlawed or forbidden, but a society where religion does not need to exist because none of its citizens believe in the existence of any God or Deity.
I think such a state where humans can exist without restrictions imposed by religious conformity could do quite well and prosper.
•
u/Suitable-Season-4847 9m ago
Because humans are fallible creatures. People have all sorts of mad beliefs. It's akin to saying, couldn't we stop STD spread by asking everyone not to have sex.
I mean, in theory... Sure. But it's not going to happen. Humans are hardwired to see patterns and demand answers, and whilst that has allowed for much ingenuity, it also creates side effects like religion.
2
u/norecordofwrong 2h ago
Oh yeah so we are going with gestapo storming houses they suspect of harboring crucifixes?
Like just think about it for a minute and ask yourself how you’d enforce the atheist part?
You going to hang missionaries, line up underground churches and shoot them?
What absolute nonsense. You should feel bad for even asking the question.
3
1
u/darwhyte 1h ago
Throughout the course of human history, it is most likely that more humans have killed other humans over religion than anything else.
If Gods, deities, and religions were never ever conceived, how woukd that have changed the course of human history?
What would the world we live in today be like if Gods, deities and/or religions were never conceived?
1
u/Specialist-Doctor-23 1h ago
Our nation was founded by men who were devout Christians. Who knew that a society unbound by a system of morality and ethics would fail. Whose beliefs naturally led them to follow Christian morality and ethics in crafting our government. Who intended that Christian morals and ethics would inform every part of our society.
John Adams wrote that our Constitution was: "made only for a moral and religious people" and is "wholly inadequate to the government of any other." James Madison wrote that our Constitution requires "sufficient virtue among men" to be viable. The Founders knew that durable, consistent morality and ethics come only from belief in, and fear of, a higher power who determines your eternity.
And yet, these men who made room for people who worship different gods to make lives here, free from persecution, but subject to the moral and ethical framework erected by Christianity.
•
u/A-maze-ing_Henry 7m ago
That religion-free is a utopia. Albert Camus claimed Communism is an atheist religion. Karl Popper rejected positivism claiming that Scientism could become the largest, most oppresive religious institution ever.
We all have faith in smth, even if it isn't a deity. Plutolatry, Egoism, it's our nature to make myths and rituals.
However, the atheist part is possible -- just look at Czechia, rejects every religion and thrives in atheism. Someone there asked about religion and was told that the largest religion there is beer.
1
1
1
u/ArmoredMirage 2h ago
Atheism is a belief system though. Not any better pushing that than any religion.
If anything Agnosticism would be better and more fair. As it leaves room for other beliefs.
-1
u/RandomGuyOnline115 2h ago
Such a society would quickly become lawless and collapse in on itself.
3
u/ProofByVerbosity 2h ago
Secular ethics are a thing.
1
u/RandomGuyOnline115 1h ago
Take a look at modern society. Today, religion is already being demonized.
And what are the consequences?
Chaos within the country. And people destroying themselves & others in the name of political ideologies.
1
u/ProofByVerbosity 1h ago
Ugh.. yeah ive heard a lot of preachers who turned out to be pedophiles try and argue that. And boy those Islamic states certainly have fair ordered societies.
•
u/darwhyte 4m ago
Human beings do not need some form of religion to behave in a harmonious manner. A person does not have to believe there is an invisible man that lives the sky to know that they should be kind to others.
As far as a lawless society, we live in one, DESPITE the presence of religion.
Human nature being what it is, there will always be good people who do good things for the benefit of others, and bad people who do bad things that harm others, regardless if there is a presence of religion or not.
0
u/Pssht_haha 2h ago
Would probably be full of assholes.
People who think there is no higher power in the universe, that we are the ultimate intelligence in it…are probably idiots.
1
u/epicuerean 1h ago
This too could be said for the people who believe in an imaginary power that left its existence vague but the punishment for non-belief eternal.
10
u/Throwaway03461 2h ago
Conflicted. The reason I became an atheist is to experience freedom without the confines of religion.
If I make a single belief mandatory, that would not be freedom.