"Imagine" TRANSLATED

    Here is a thought experiment: there is no hereafter.  That's a pretty simple concept.  So there would be no sweltering underground realm inhabited by the spirits of the damned, and nothing overhead but the earth's atmosphere.  If everyone rejected the idea of a hereafter, they would exist in the here and now, and behave accordingly.
    Here's another thought experiment: sovereign states don't exist.  That's not difficult to conceive of either.  That would obviate war and other forms of mass violence; so would the abolition of spiritual belief systems.  Consider how many human beings would live in harmony as a result.
    You could credibly accuse me of being an impractical idealist for proposing these things but a lot of other people think about this stuff too.  If only everyone would see things our way ��� then we'd have a state of global unity.
    OK, another thought experiment: no one owns any material objects.  See if you can get your head around that one.  Such a paradigm would preclude everything from avarice to starvation and, again, foster comity throughout humankind.  One more thing: visualize everyone on the planet partaking equally of its resources.