# Colonizing space w/o organised religion. **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 12, 2010, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colonizing-space-w-o-organised-religion/532201 "2010-03-12T03:36:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Claude\_Remains](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@Claude\_Remains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claude_Remains)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2010, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colonizing-space-w-o-organised-religion/532201/1 "2010-03-12T03:36:22Z")
Will Humans ever be able to drop it like a hot potato no matter where we go? ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2010, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colonizing-space-w-o-organised-religion/532201/2 "2010-03-12T03:43:51Z")
If religiosity is something we are genetically predisposed to, then we will eventually be able to edit it out. If it purely a cultural phenomenon, then it can be educated out of existence like any other random misconception. ---
**Author:** ![Claude\_Remains](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@Claude\_Remains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claude_Remains)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2010, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colonizing-space-w-o-organised-religion/532201/3 "2010-03-12T03:43:54Z")
Sorry, should have put more into my OP. When we get to mars, will it end up in a whole new mess of turf wars and siding due to religious matters? ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2010, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colonizing-space-w-o-organised-religion/532201/4 "2010-03-12T03:52:35Z")
> [@Claude\_Remains](#): > > Will Humans ever be able to drop it like a hot potato no matter where we go? It’s more likely that religion will be benefitted by space colonization. If the Vatican, for instance, builds a new space station or is the first to arrive at a new planet, they will obviously only transport Catholics. And so on and so forth. Now contacting alien life out there could maybe throw a wrench in the works, but that’s not part of your question. ---
**Author:** ![Claude\_Remains](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@Claude\_Remains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claude_Remains)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2010, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colonizing-space-w-o-organised-religion/532201/5 "2010-03-12T04:08:23Z")
Well it is now. If we find “others” I think the end result would be a kill em in the name of Jebus kind of thing. and just like earth the killees will have no idea what the killers are on about. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2010, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colonizing-space-w-o-organised-religion/532201/6 "2010-03-12T04:31:29Z")
You might want to read _A Canticle For Leibowitz_, in which Catholic priests strive to see to it that the Church and some of its followers survive a threatened nuclear holocaust, by commissioning a space ship. Or the _Hyperion_ novels, where the Church has settled an entire planet. There’s also a Jewish world, a Sunni world, and a Shiite world. I guess the Lutherans didn’t make the cut. I also think that in one of the later _Dune_ novels, set several thousand years in the future, we encounter a community of interstellar Jews, who fled persecution on Earth. ---
**Author:** ![Locrian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/locrian/32/14146_2.png) [@Locrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Locrian)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2010, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colonizing-space-w-o-organised-religion/532201/7 "2010-03-12T04:46:29Z")
Well, if we ever even get to having Moon colonies where there is no atmosphere, no gravity, no air and no food, the highest and most dedicated religion better have a dogma of worshipping science and scientists sans sky daddies. At least there’s not enough water to start a flood. 😃 Seriously, there should be a test for people who want to go into space. The test should include agriculture, chemistry, astronomy and the ever hated evolution. You don’t get an A, you don’t go, despite your prayers. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2010, 5:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colonizing-space-w-o-organised-religion/532201/8 "2010-03-12T05:13:36Z")
> [@](#): > > Seriously, there should be a test for people who want to go into space. The test should include agriculture, chemistry, astronomy and the ever hated evolution. You don’t get an A, you don’t go, despite your prayers. I don’t see the relevance. There are plenty of people who accept science, and who even work in those fields, who are religious. Likewise, there are also idiots who are atheists. ---
**Author:** ![SteveG1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@SteveG1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG1)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2010, 5:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colonizing-space-w-o-organised-religion/532201/9 "2010-03-12T05:18:30Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I don’t see the relevance. There are plenty of people who accept science, and who even work in those fields, who are religious. Likewise, there are also idiots who are atheists. Maybe we can talk the idiots into boarding the ships, so they ummmm, like, go away? ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2010, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colonizing-space-w-o-organised-religion/532201/10 "2010-03-12T05:19:10Z")
> [@Locrian](#): > > Seriously, there should be a test for people who want to go into space. The test should include agriculture, chemistry, astronomy and the ever hated evolution. You don’t get an A, you don’t go, despite your prayers. All you really need is a test for rationality. The rest will follow. ---
**Author:** ![Claude\_Remains](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@Claude\_Remains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claude_Remains)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2010, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colonizing-space-w-o-organised-religion/532201/11 "2010-03-12T05:29:51Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I don’t see the relevance. There are plenty of people who accept science, and who even work in those fields, who are religious. Likewise, there are also idiots who are atheists. You should re read that post a couple of times. Sounds like you think folks in general are idiots, religious or not. It’s the “There are also idiots who…” part. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Claude\_Remains](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@Claude\_Remains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claude_Remains)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2010, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colonizing-space-w-o-organised-religion/532201/12 "2010-03-12T05:41:23Z")
Now that I think about it I see that you may have been talking about idiots like Steven Hawking and albert Einstein. :smack: Couple of maroons! Sorry Chronos. ---
**Author:** ![Locrian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/locrian/32/14146_2.png) [@Locrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Locrian)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2010, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colonizing-space-w-o-organised-religion/532201/13 "2010-03-12T05:54:17Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I don’t see the relevance. There are plenty of people who accept science, and who even work in those fields, who are religious. Likewise, there are also idiots who are atheists. Yes, there are idiots everywhere, C. But if the oxygen generator goes kaput, I won’t have to worry as much if the colony was inhabited mainly by fundies. The faith is in the people and their knowledge and ability, regardless of their beliefs-- as long as their beliefs are ranked a far second place. > [@panache45](#): > > All you really need is a test for rationality. The rest will follow. That’s good! If there’s a question asking, “How would organized religion benefit our Martian colony”, leave it blank and accept your invitation. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2010, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colonizing-space-w-o-organised-religion/532201/14 "2010-03-12T06:11:26Z")
> [@](#): > > That’s good! If there’s a question asking, “How would organized religion benefit our Martian colony”, leave it blank and accept your invitation. I can do better than that: Organized religion will benefit our Mars colony because the alternative is disorganized religion. Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t. Or god, as the case may be. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2010, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colonizing-space-w-o-organised-religion/532201/15 "2010-03-12T06:20:03Z")
> [@Tom\_Tildrum](#): > > Or the _Hyperion_ novels, where the Church has settled an entire planet. There’s also a Jewish world, a Sunni world, and a Shiite world. I guess the Lutherans didn’t make the cut. What sort of thinking is this? Religion might be genetically engineered out of existence? That religions and people can or ought to be segregated? Racial, political and religious purity with everyone with a lisp and pet name for God having their own world? Who would want to live in a world, in a universe, where everyone can find a find home of people just like them? New Socialist Men on Planet X, Lesbians on Planet Y and Mormons on Planet Z? This is a horror, not a utopia. ---
**Author:** ![Locrian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/locrian/32/14146_2.png) [@Locrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Locrian)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2010, 6:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colonizing-space-w-o-organised-religion/532201/16 "2010-03-12T06:23:31Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I can do better than that: Organized religion will benefit our Mars colony because the alternative is disorganized religion. Better the devil you know than the devil you don’t. Or god, as the case may be. No ticket for you. Here’s some bibles to hand out to the starving on Earth. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2010, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colonizing-space-w-o-organised-religion/532201/17 "2010-03-12T07:08:29Z")
So, do you have a refutation? ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2010, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colonizing-space-w-o-organised-religion/532201/18 "2010-03-12T07:23:03Z")
Unless there’s some sort of global power in place that segregates against religion in spacefaring, I don’t see how you would be able to eradicate it no matter where people go. Colonization is so far off as a reality, it’s anyone’s guess as to where the state of the world’s organized religions will be when the time comes to find homes elsewhere. Barring some global atheist crusade against all religions, I don’t see how humanity will ever be rid of religion in any form. Even if you could hit the red, shiny, candy-like History-Eraser Button, to cleanse the globe of all current and past religions, people will still make shit up to fill the gaps in their knowledge and philosophy, find some disciples, and behold!.. new religions will be born. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2010, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colonizing-space-w-o-organised-religion/532201/19 "2010-03-12T07:33:22Z")
Why would you want to make everyone more the same? Who would want to live in a world only with blue-eyed vegetarians? ---
**Author:** ![Claude\_Remains](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@Claude\_Remains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claude_Remains)\ **Post date:** [March 12, 2010, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colonizing-space-w-o-organised-religion/532201/20 "2010-03-12T08:00:55Z")
You asking me that, Paul? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/colonizing-space-w-o-organised-religion/532201.md?page=2)