IMAGINE A WORLD WHERE NO ONE HAS A CONCEPT OF GOD OR OF A SUPERIOR BEING. WHAT WOULD THIS WORLD BE LIKE? WHAT, MOST SIGNIFICANTLY, WOULD BE MISSING?

OUR YOUTH IN DEER PARK, NEW YORK ARE ASKING THIS QUESTION AS THEY STUDY A CASE OF SUCH A WORLD.

WHAT DO YOU THINK OF SUCH A PLACE? OUR YOUTH ARE INTERESTED!

HERE IS MY INITIAL THOUGHT - TO BEGIN THE DISCUSSION ...

IF THERE IS A WORLD WITHOUT A GOD, THEN THAT WORLD WOULD HAVE NO SENSE OF AN INNER SELF. WHAT AN EMPTY PLACE!

NOW WHY IS THIS SO? ONCE ONE LOOKS TO THE INNER SELF, THE CONCEPT OF ETERNITY EMERGES. CAN WE REALLY THINK OF OUR INNER SELVES AS FULLY MORTAL, OUR BODY ... YES ... BUT OUR SOULS???

ONCE WE ANTICIPATE ETERNAL SELVES THEN WE NEED A CONCEPT OF A CREATOR, A GOD.

SIMPLISTIC THINKING PERHAPS BUT, I TRUST, WORTHY OF STARTING THE DISCUSSION AND ARRIVING AT SOME SUGGESTIONS AS TO "WHAT WOULD A WORLD WITHOUT GOD BE LIKE?"

WE ARE ALL, YOUTH AND YOUTH LEADERS IN DEER PARK, LOOKING FORWARD TO YOUR THOUGHTS. THANKS, TIM.

In the 20th century there arose a system of dictatorial governments based on the writings ok Karl Marx in which Communism was the be all and end all of the countries that were ruled by this system . All religions were persecuted and driven out of existence with the exception of a small underground movement . Communism was the state religion and those religious leaders that did not knuckle under and remained visible were imprisoned , the most famous case was Joseph Cardinal Mindszenty in Hungary . The Communist system had no moral grounding whatsoever , the end justified the means . There was no right and wrong there was what the commissar wanted and how much force , extortion, or bribery that would be exerted to get it . There must be a moral touchstone for a society to enjoy longevity . This does not mean that there must only be Christianity ,because Judaism and Islam and Buddhism have strong moral building blocks in their teachings . Christians and for that matter all religious people are not perfect , all have fallen short of God's glory but your salvation is through your faith and your works . God has given mankind free will , humans will make bad choices but our faith will show us how to right the wrongs that we do and forgive those who have wronged us . You can not prove or disprove the existence of God in a scientific way we must take the existence of God on faith alone and realize that God calls people to faith in different ways . We must be open to that call .