Imagine

I am inspired by the Facebook post of a dear friend.  My friend has a friend in dire straits both financially and mentally.  Her FB post was addressed to Prayer Warriors seeking prayers for her needy friend.  And I thought, her friend does not need prayer and prayers will not help.  Her friend needs money and professional support.  Prayer feels like a cop-out.  I pray and I have done my part and the need goes on unabated.  So, why do we do this?  Why don’t I hop in the car, find her friend, buy her breakfast, and take her to a clinic?  Why do we seek the path least likely to be of real help?  So, I imagined:

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people living for today.
 John Lennon - Imagine Lyrics | MetroLyrics 

OK, John.  Let’s try to imagine a planet where no one believes in gods or an after-life.  There is no religion.  I think I can see some of the characteristics of such a life and the subsequent impact on human culture and behavior.  So, I will imagine.

If there is no heaven, no hell then we know that when we die we simply die.  We are done.  Self-awareness ends.  We have no fear of hell and no aspiration for heaven.  We all know that all we have is the time here and now.  Today.  I have no sense of anything before my birth and will have no sense of anything after my death.  We know we will not be greeted by loved ones already dead.  We will not “pass” as though there is somewhere else to go.  We will park, turn off the engine and never move.  We will not stand before a deity and be judged for our actions.  We have had our life and it is over.  Period.

As a species we would be intolerant of misery, pain and anguish.  If this is all we have, if today is all we get, then we have an obligation to ourselves to improve the quality of today as best we can.  We quickly realize that improving the quality of my life requires the improvement of the quality of all lives.  The tide raises all boats.  We can no longer promise those who suffer that they shall be rewarded in the next life because there is no next life.  We must fix the problem now.

If we knew the above and had followed such beliefs I think we would be much further down the road to a real utopia.  Disease would have been vanquished, hunger and thirst abolished.  Heartbreaks due to loss of a loved one would remain, but the understanding that we will never see them again is likely to make our time with them here and now much more meaningful.  Why care for my aging mom if I believe I will spend eternity with her?  Why mend fences with others if I believe I am either religiously justified in my offense, or I will have eternity to build a new fence?  I believe we would take each other much more seriously and would be much more supportive.  The numbers who have acquiesced in their misery due to a promise of a better life would drop to zero. 

Science would have made many more advances un-restricted by ancient sayings that we prove to be false.  There would be no persecution for new discoveries, there would be celebrations.

All those who died and suffered in wars triggered by religious belief would not have done so.  No one would care to fight for their faith if there was no such thing as Christianity or Islam, etc.  We would not have had witch trials or the Inquisition.  We would not have had lynch mobs.  If we worked to improve the quality of human life across the board, we would have no need for firearms or armies.

We would have an incredible amount of resources that are now and have been tied up in religious operations.  We would not need clergy, we would not need churches, and we would not need missionaries.  We would all be missionaries for a higher quality of human life and we could pursue such goals much better with more resources.

We would be healthier if we were living without fear of the after-life, the judgement yet to come, and the guilt for failing to achieve perfection.  We would have more time off and could celebrate our loved ones rather than spend the hours we do sitting in silence listening to fictions on Sunday morning.  We would be supportive of individual rights regarding our bodies and lives.  Those who choose to die could be helped and supported rather than treat them as criminals and mentally ill.  Those who choose abortions would not be treated as killers but would be treated as anyone is treated when they opt to remove a tumor.  Human life would not be viewed as de facto “sacred.”  It would be viewed as a once in a lifetime experience with each human making decisions regarding how they will live and end their lives.

We would have more understanding of our appetites and would have found healthy ways to satisfy those appetites without committing harm to ourselves or others.  Food, sex, drugs, and other addictions would not be judged but would be sated sans judgement.  Human physical reality and appetites would not be viewed as inherently evil, but would be viewed as simple attributes of our life forms.  You have brown hair, green eyes and love to eat.

I see a planet where the quality of human life is much better than we have it today.  I see a planet with less war and conflict.  I see a planet with a greater appreciation for each other and the common good.  I see a planet that is in fact more moral than our current planet where religion runs rampant in the streets.  We would learn to trust ourselves and each other because trust in imaginary friends and deities never really existed.

I can imagine that.

I’m off to buy breakfast for a stranger.