Imagine

The following lyrics were written by a great poet...

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try

You don't actually have to try to imagine there's no heaven - all you have to do is look at the evidence for heaven (whichever form of heaven you believe in) and see that there is no real evidence.  Heaven doesn't exist - there's no need to try and imagine it isn't there as it simply isn't there.

No hell below us

Along with heaven, hell is a myth.

Above us only sky

... and 13.7 billion years of history in this universe.

Imagine all the people living for today

That's right - live for this life, the only one you have, and make sure this life is well lived and you leave the place better than you found it.  Don't bother to "store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal" as that place does not exist.  Make this life good.

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do

Right now with the way the Internet is reaching across the globe and, aside from a few places where it is being heavily censored, such as China, breaking down walls and boundaries this isn't really all that hard to imagine.  Sure, countries still exist and still fight each other for land (look at Israel as a prime example), but these days people have the ability to see what other countries are doing as and when they are doing it and learn from the mistakes that have been made throughout history.  Whether they want to learn or not is still an issue - but the lessons are all out there and available to almost everyone.

Nothing to kill or die for

Now, this will require some serious imagination.  As a species, we're good at two things: Exploration and Aggression.  At times, the aggression pushes our exploration to reach further than it would have (look at the early space race as an excellent example), yet other times our aggression hinders our exploration (look at the current state of space travel and exploration as an unfortunately excellent example).

And no religion too

Humans will always, I think, find something to fight over.  Religion is one of those things - people have different imaginary friends and will kill each other rather than admit those imaginary friends are, well, imaginary.  I don't care if you want to personally have an imaginary friend, but you cannot use that imaginary friend to restrict nor remove the rights of others - but feel free to have them restrict your own rights all you want.

Imagine all the people living life in peace

Peace.  Hhmmm...  Do we really know what that even means?  :(

You, you may say
I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one

I'm most definitely not - I know a number of people who would like to see religion used for personal reasons, not to control the will of others.  People like George Pell, Jim Wallace and Peter Jensen are on the other side of the fence, along with the radical Muslim clerics who are beating up this recent anti-Islam movie into something they can use to murder people - the other side of the fence wants to use their own personal religious beliefs to oppress others in various ways.  Homophobia, for instance, will result in the early deaths of more homosexuals than their "lifestyle" could ever cause.  Living with the hatred of your community for what your genes have expressed (ie, something you cannot control and have no choice over) cannot possibly be an easy thing.

I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Yes, that would be awesome.  Reality is awesome.  Though I'd like a few more people to accept reality for what it is and not feel the need to shield it with religion. Thinking is hard, sure, but the payoffs are great! :)

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can

Well, I don't know if I'd go so far, John, but I get your point.  We may not want to have a communist society (theoretically decent, but they are always corrupted by those in power - those who are "more equal" than their subjects) but there's enough wealth to go around that we really shouldn't have people living below the poverty line.

No need for greed or hunger

With the amount of food produced in the world today, there currently *IS* no need for greed nor hunger.  The amount of food that developed nations throw away is obscene - especially when there are way too many currently not only in poverty, but living without adequate food.

A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people sharing all the world

How is it that we pretty much all teach our kids to share their toys and play nicely, but we then willingly throw this valuable lesson out later in life?  Some of the lessons we learn as children are extremely valuable and this is definitely one of them.  No, I don't long for a society of free love, free food, free card and free, well, whatever, but we do have enough resources on this planet to be able to see more equity across the board.  I don't begrudge those who work hard and play hard and make good headway, but we also need to keep an eye on those further back in the class and help them along a bit.

Realising that we are all human beings, no matter what our color, gender, sexual orientation, personal religious beliefs nor anything else and that we all deserve a chance to live a decent life is something that as a species, we cannot afford to lose sight of.  The more critical thinking people start learning how to do, the more they will realise that their beliefs in mythology are unwarranted and they will start to give up on their magical thinking - then they will have the opportunity to experience the absolute awesomeness of reality and the understanding that we are *all* human beings.

You, you may say
I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one
I hope some day you'll join us
And the world will live as one

Yes, I truly hope that one day we can get past this magical thinking and we can all use our brains for working out ways to move us forward as a species.  That will be a wonderful day!


Regards,

The Outspoken Wookie