NationStates Jolt Archive

:headbang: Is that possible? Can I create a government where the people are forced to worship nothing and make idols to It. It's a paradox I know, but it has a nice ring to it. Any suggestions, comments or questions are apprecieated. :mp5:

There seem to be no problems with that plan. With remarkably little effort, humans can be made to worship almost anything, even nothing. Best of luck to you, and may the Machine God bless your faithless faith.

From:
His holiness, The Iron Pope of the Cult Mechanicus

I think it's possible. Originally, I called my government a "Representative Theocracy", so I'm guessing if one can hold elections and deify a leader, one can reject deities altogether and insist on the total non-worship of them - and embody that in the government.

I'm not sure quite how it would work from an issues standpoint, but you could definitely have a nation in which atheism is the sole legal belief system.

However, making idols to a concept, and worshipping the lack of worship, would be somewhat hard, I imagine. The very idea of atheism as it is usually practised is the rejection of religion, and in particular the trappings of organised religion.

OOC

It's rather hard to worship the concept of no God(s). Communism/socialist is not pure atheist either as people worship the "state" in some way as nationalism and is not theology although there is Communist theology of sorts. If you worship a person, then it's a cult (which is then moving towards a religion again).

IC-wise my nation is 100% opposed to this concept.

Communism/socialist is not pure atheist either as people worship the "state"

Um, while people on welfare are presumably thankful for it, it's rather doubtful they worship anyone for it, any more than you worship your place of work for giving you money.

Chellis did it quite well. Tell the people they arent allowed to learn anything else, heavily propogandize the media and education systems, and persecute those who show any form of religious belief, no matter how small. You cant get those who show nothing and hold that silent belief in their minds...but few will hold out that strongly, and the future generations will replace them. It would only work in a fascist/totalitarian government though, where you can watch people at all times.

Um, while people on welfare are presumably thankful for it, it's rather doubtful they worship anyone for it, any more than you worship your place of work for giving you money.

There are other forms of worship than just turning up to Church, Synagogue or a Mosque.

A Capitalist system is rigged to turn all activities to the pursuit of money and hence indirectly money is new God which drives the state policies. A Communist system replaces God(s) with the state and everything you do is for the better of the state, which is "everything" in their lives.

My definition of worship is not restricted to how organised religion work.

:)

A Capitalist system is rigged to turn all activities to the pursuit of money and hence indirectly money is new God which drives the state policies. A Communist system replaces God(s) with the state and everything you do is for the better of the state, which is "everything" in their lives.

Definitions:

wor·ship 1. The reverent love and devotion accorded a deity, an idol, or a sacred object.
2. The ceremonies, prayers, or other religious forms by which this love is expressed.

worship n 1: the activity of worshipping 2: a feeling of profound love and admiration [syn: adoration] v 1: love unquestioningly and uncritically or to excess; venerate as an idol; "Many teenagers idolized the Beatles" [syn: idolize, idolise, hero-worship, revere] 2: show devotion to (a deity); "Many Hindus worship Shiva" 3: attend religious services; "They worship in the traditional manner"

In the capitalist system acquiring money is seen as positive, but money is not genuinely adored so much as regarded as a means to an end [owning lots of things, becoming powerful, etc]. Loving having money is not the same as loving money itself. Certainly, no rituals to money are carried out in any but the loosest possible sense.

Equally, in a socialist system the state does not become the be-all and end-all of a citizen's existence; the state is a mechanism put in place to organise the distribution of citizens' wealth collected as taxes.

Both capitalism and socialism are economic mechanisms, not systems of belief; the fact that they do not contain positive statements of belief does not mean they advocate a lack of it. Plumbing does not contain a positive statement of belief either; does this mean that plumbing seeks to cause its practitioners to worship pipes?

Well I'm a democratic dictatorship... so i guess anything is possible.

:headbang: Is that possible? Can I create a government where the people are forced to worship nothing and make idols to It. It's a paradox I know, but it has a nice ring to it. Any suggestions, comments or questions are apprecieated. :mp5:

OCC: Doesn't sound possible. Human nature dictates a kind of leader/follower society that relies on a supreme commander to function, and in an athiest government, government itself is "god."

ICC: I am Archbishop Hesphophles, voice for the great Emperor Maximus IV from his chair in the Altogether, the Holy capital of the Empire of Sidestreamer, and I am thoroughly repulsed by such a suggestion! May your pitiful, godless society immolate in its own sin, sodomy and filth! May the people otherwise overturn your godless leadership and institute a warrior state under the Pope! The emperor Maximus IV shall guide them!

OOC: Being an atheist myself IRL, I can give you a direct perspective. All you need to do is have it so your atheist community has an agreed upon moral standard and base the theocracy on the ideals instead of the idols of other theocracies. Yes, even Christianity has them. What else would the cross be?