If you had a religion-erasing wand...

[articulett]

Can I wave the wand to get rid of religious beliefs while all the art stays? It could be interesting to see people walk around wondering what those buildings are for

And all those little hippie on a stick dolls...

 

[-Fran-]

And all those little hippie on a stick dolls...

What are those?

 

[articulett]

What are those?

It appears to be some sort of idolatry or statue worship involving the letter t and loin cloths-- but hell, if I know...

 

[bjb]

I'd rather have a wand that causes people to recognize irrational behavior when they see it, especially in themselves.

 

[six7s]

Religion is a symptom - not the cause - of the problem, which is that we live in a world where - despite 1000s of years with opposable thumbs and relatively large brains - stupidity hasn't been eradicated from the human gene pool

Wisdom is an inhibitor of, not vaccine for, stupidity

Men are wise in proportion, not to their experience, but to their capacity for experience.
James Boswell (1740 - 1795), Life of Samuel Johnson, 1791

The magic-wand would merely alleviate one symptom; it wouldn't promote the growth of anti-bodies

We don't receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us.
Marcel Proust (1871 - 1922)

N.B. I am not oblivious to the irony of copying and pasting such a quote

 

[Lord Muck oGentry]

But what good is argument and evidence for someone who believes that FAITH is the key to salvation-- and "biting from the tree of knowledge" can lead to damnation.

Little or none, I should think, in the hopeless cases at any rate. But what we need protection from is not what they think but what they do or threaten to do- from murderous violence to genteel bigotry. In the world of the magic wand we may, just as in the humdrum world we must, seek protection by mundane methods without resorting to mind-control.