Question of the Day #50: Hypothetical
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7 comments
If you met a scientist with a "mind-control ray" who told you he was going to "zap" you and change you from an atheist/agnostic/skeptic into a religious person, but would give you the choice of the religion you would become, which one would you choose, and why?
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7 Comments:
Yikes. What a terrifying prospect to be brainwashed into being religious... again.
I haven't researched enough religions to really say for sure, so I'd probably just stick with the devil I know, so to speak, and go back to the ol' local Baptist church.
Voodoo. Definitely voodoo. Lots of devils and bloody chickens, and freaky-ass trances. I'd make some big bucks where I am.
I don't really care the religion- as long as I have the ability to pursue a monastic lifestyle. It's a curious trait of monks- unlike priests, who are primarily concerned with theological minutiae, monks from all religious contexts turn their thoughts inward, and find a close kinship with each other, no matter what their particular theological persuasion. I'd much rather be able to use my religion to make connections with others than to find ways to divide humanity.
Solipsist, even though it's tough to organize. I'd start the First Church of "No you're not, I am!" We could sing hymns with titles like, "That's What You Think", and "Not By Me!", and "What a Friend I Made Up In Jesus!"
No starch please!
As long as I can be individualistic and study consciousness... I'd say Buddhism. But only if I can't physically kick his ass first.
One of those Koresh/Jim Jones types - people giving me free money and poontang, and then they all die when I lead them to doom. The world experiences a net loss of theists, theism is tained by yet another loony, and, of course, I get free money and poontang. Win-Win-Win all the way around.
Except for my followers, of course, but that puts them no worse off than if they stayed in their regular churches.
Buddhism, it's the least destructive, and I've always wanted to find more time for meditation--I find it pleasurable and relaxing.
Recent Harvard research has shown that people who meditate regularly have less age-related degeneration of the cerebral cortex.
I could deal with that. The compassion/reincarnation guilt trip would be a drag. But oh well, this wasn't really a fair question anyway!
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