A realistic yet perfect world to an atheist

[Saracen]

Peace...

Greetings to all..I am a theist...Just thought I should mention that first..

As an atheist what would consider to be ideal conditions for humanity? If the world were relatively perfect what would that look like to you?

[Sophus]

Roughly: a non-judgemental, peaceful world where people aren't trying to control the lives of others. One without mindless wars and killing. A world void of discrimination but full of love. In a nutshell, a world of hippies.  

Oh and welcome!

[notself]

A perfect world would be without greed, cruelty.

[Whitney]

Roughly: a non-judgemental, peaceful world where people aren't trying to control the lives of others. One without mindless wars and killing. A world void of discrimination but full of love. In a nutshell, a world of hippies.  

[Will]

I can only speak for myself, as there are as many kinds of atheists as there are kinds of any other not-a-thing (atheists don't share a set of beliefs, but rather a single disbelief).

A perfect world within reason, in my opinion, would be one in which greed is collectively curbed so that it never leads to negligent suffering. Call it a shift in priorities from self to collective. Not a complete shift, mind you, but one large enough so that it would make things like war and poverty incredibly rare. We have it within ourselves to do this on an individual level, I see it every day, so I have to conclude it's possible on a community, national, and even global level.

[The Magic Pudding]

Welcome Saracen.
I would like to see a world where people treat each other better.
Religion doesn't seem to do the job.
Sophus doesn't want to control others, I wouldn't mind a bit of control.
I would like people to learn from an early age that meanness and cruelty to others is unacceptable.
In my perfect world teenagers wouldn't be driven to starve themselves to death.

[Saracen]

Peace...

Roughly: a non-judgemental, peaceful world where people aren't trying to control the lives of others. One without mindless wars and killing. A world void of discrimination but full of love. In a nutshell, a world of hippies.

This sounds wonderful....However....

Is it possible to have a world order wherein there is a all encompassing peace, yet there is also the lack of directed judgement toward individuals?  Would such a world mean that humanity becomes unconditionally tolerant of any and everything?  In other words are these ideas opposing?

I am leading up to the idea that there must be a normative behavior which undergirds social order.  Such norms would have to be imposed on the masses.  

Despite the terrifying track record of religious movements in this regard, without the belief in some innate and higher authority is it possible to achieve social order without force?   Without social order is it possible to acheive a generally prevailing peace?

[Sophus]

This sounds wonderful....However....

I am leading up to the idea that there must be a normative behavior which undergirds social order.  Such norms would have to be imposed on the masses.  

Despite the terrifying track record of religious movements in this regard, without the belief in some innate and higher authority is it possible to achieve social order without force?   Without social order is it possible to acheive a generally prevailing peace?

Do you mean like a political system or a general mindset? I was under the impression you meant the latter, simply the behavior of people. If by realistic you mean the former then I would simply say reasonable laws. If I tried to go into great detail about what those would be we'd be here all day.

Is it possible to have a world order wherein there is a all encompassing peace, yet there is also the lack of directed judgement toward individuals?  Would such a world mean that humanity becomes unconditionally tolerant of any and everything?  In other words are these ideas opposing?

By "non-judgemenal" I mean within reason. Probably should have said "not judging someone for who they are (granted it's not harming anyone else)" or simply a world "without prejudice".

A world full of peace wouldn't need government to attempt to sustain it. But unfortunately that's never been the case. The good news is we, as a species, may be, slowly but surely, getting less barbaric as time moves on. It's only a mindset shift so I don't see why it's not realistic, or at least possible. Still, you won't see it happen anytime soon.

[Asmodean]

My "perfect" world would revolve around me.

Failing that, I'd settle for a world where honesty is so common a thing that it's not considered a virtue

[Whitney]

Is it possible to have a world order wherein there is a all encompassing peace, yet there is also the lack of directed judgement toward individuals?  

If you take not controlling people to be along the lines of not unnecessarily pushing views on others then yes.  It would be along the lines of the pagan golden rule:  Do as you will but harm none.

Despite the terrifying track record of religious movements in this regard, without the belief in some innate and higher authority is it possible to achieve social order without force?

Yes, it is easily possible to achieve social order without violence (not without discussions) and without thinking some man in the sky will smite them if they are bad.  Not only do I see it done all the time in small groups of atheists but there are also major countries who are doing great (Sweden for example plus others http://www.adherents.com/largecom/com_atheist.html note that these are old numbers the percent of nonbelievers in the USA is now closer to 14%) while being largely secular.

Btw, don't be too nit picky about our original answers...half the time a religious person posts here for the first time they forget to come back so we kinda just throw out a response and wait to see if there will be a discussion or not.

[Martin TK]

A perfect world for me would include NO hunger, NO poverty, NO religion, NO politicians, NO war, NO diseases, and sex, drugs, rock and roll for everyone!

[karadan]

A symbiotic relationship between humans and AI, free of superstitious dogma. That's a perfect world.

[Whitney]

As observed by @PeriodPiece on twitter...."Realistic and perfect?"

[pinkocommie]

As observed by @PeriodPiece on twitter...."Realistic and perfect?"

Yes, exactly.

[Saracen]

I can only speak for myself, as there are as many kinds of atheists as there are kinds of any other not-a-thing (atheists don't share a set of beliefs, but rather a single disbelief).
.

Point taken....

A perfect world within reason, in my opinion, would be one in which greed is collectively curbed so that it never leads to negligent suffering. Call it a shift in priorities from self to collective. Not a complete shift, mind you, but one large enough so that it would make things like war and poverty incredibly rare. We have it within ourselves to do this on an individual level, I see it every day, so I have to conclude it's possible on a community, national, and even global level.

I agree that extreme greed is a degenerative force in society, however, in what manner would someone "curb" greed and when does this become social pressure to redistribute wealth and resources?  How much of a persons wealth should be shared?  

Once again I did ask for a realistic protrayal of perfection because I wanted to know if in the absence of a social order which arises from religious ethos such as we see today would the atheist be prepared to offer an alternate system which would work as well or better for that matter.