A possible end to religious war

Post Reply New Topic

Okay... I know damn well I'll get sh*t for this, because I admit, it's a hair brained idea, but here goes.

I read a lot of near death experiences. The more I read, the more convinced I am these people are telling the truth. Now if they're actually going to the next world... that I'm really not so sure of. If they're not, then there's a scientific component: one that can be replicated!

Everyone's asking for evidence that these people experience that, and that's idiotic, because there's nothing physical to present. It's all post fact anyway. But if we can learn enough about the brain, and figure out how to scientifically induce these experiences, we can take the mystique out of them. The experience is fascinating, and often leaves people comfortable with death, and in a state of acceptance of other religious ideology. They suddenly believe that all the religions are okay. I think what's happening, is that primal horror of the "the end" is suddenly gone, on a neurological level. If we can induce enough people, on a regular basis over decades, religion suddenly won't make much sense to anyone. We break down that barrier, and release people into the population with the notion that religion is not where it's at. Just as other inventions revolutionized life on Earth for people, what could this do?

I honestly think with time, it could lead to the disappearance of religious war.

it's what john lennon dreamt about, "and no religion, too." but god in god's infinite wisdom, only grants a person here and there a premature behind the scenes look at the workings of creation. danion brinkley has a website with a lot to say about the whole thing.

You'll need to have the brain experience death.... NDEs are probably very similar to dreams in nature

What if the end game of the big religions were met?

I thought you didn't believe in this? At least in a supernatural sense?

Ok, but all that kind of experiment really shows is the neurological mechanism for how religious experiences are experienced physiologically. I'd think most Christians could tell you that these experiences can be faked. For instance, speaking in tongues is thought by some to be evidence of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit--evidence that is required of anyone who claims to be saved. That would lead to community pressures to speak on tongues rather than having ecstatic utterance simply be a part of the praise and worship experience. And I think that would involve more people doing it to fit in rather than engage in genuine worship. That, not to mention I don't believe that is a correct interpretation of the book of Acts.

I think an elevated emotional and mental state is a part of the worship experience. You don't have to be a Christian or even a theist to work yourself up into an ecstatic frenzy. Christianity is much more than a set of thoughts or feelings that can be artificially induced.

You want an end to religious war? Get everyone to universally, willingly, and voluntarily to agree on a common religion or ideology. Jesus didn't teach holy war. I would point to that as a start. Both people who use the Bible as an excuse for war and unbelievers who mistakenly believe the NT justifies war in the name of Jesus should take note of that.

Who knows? What if God picked that exact moment to reveal Himself?

I wouldn't test that. In the OT, attempts at manipulating the Divine often met with disaster. An anti-supernatural end game would not be pretty.

For once.

While it certainly might bring an end to religious war, I rather feel that religious war will simply be replaced by some other form of combat.

We are social creatures, we define ourselves, in part, by community. That community may be family, tribe, country or religious, but always we are aware of the difference between "us," and, "them."

Me against my brother,
Me and my brother against our cousins
Me and my cousins against the village
Me and my village against the tribe
Me and my tribe against the rest of the world.

If we look at the scope of religious war, much of it is predicated on religious belief, but it seems to me that it is always motivated by economic and political interests. Those interests don't die away when our religious differences disappear, so why would we expect that the motivation for war would?

It's all hallucination induce by anoxyia - it only happens in the brain when it does not receive enough oxygen. The reason that all the experiences are similar is that everyone's brains are similar.

Here's a useful article: "Near-Death Experience (NDE)".

Enjoy!

I don't think that would happen, I'm talking about more like an engineered event to simulate that occurrence. When I think what possibly could be done, I look at the Middle East. Seems like it would be hard to pull off, but people can be stupid, and there is a small group of people controlling the media. Still yet, is it possible? Sure!

whatever gave you that idea? i am the airy-fairy new-ager here [with a few others]. i never had any use for religion. maybe i should've phrased my reply as "god, in god's infinite wisdom, only grants a person here and there a premature behind the scenes look at the workings of creation, via an OOBE."

Religious war will end when religious people finally succeed in wiping us all out.

You misspelled oboe. Interesting that damned instrument can help achieving some visionary experiences with a higher consciousness. I never would have guessed. I gave it up after one concert band season because I never once got a decent sound out of that thing. Now I wished I'd stuck with it...

maybe a bass oboe or hecklephone woulda been better for you.

I think Christians and Muslims should have sex with each other if they both believe in peace.