I was not going to post this question in a single forum with limited audience (e.g. less than the Internet at large) but given the lively and informed dialogs I have seen so far, I thought it would be interesting to get everyone's insights. Please feel free to copy and propagate the questions asked in this question to any outlets where people will THINK about the answers.
Does the continuation of separate churches cause MORE social disparity and (ethnic) hatred, or in other words, if there could be a unified religion encompassing all faiths and beliefs, would the world be a better place?
If each religion essentially has the same core beliefs (God, creation, faith, dedication, morality and salvation), is it only our own human short-sightedness or inadequacies that prevents us from uniting in common goals?
Is greed and corruption the key factor that limits the success of ANY organization? Examples: corporate greed leading to misconduct in the name of personal gain, ecclesiastical greed leading to institutional power and abuse thereof, media-centric overload leading to financial arrogance (e.g. self-absorbed "stars" like P. Hilton asking for a million just to show up) such as anyone being paid $10 million a year!
Along these same lines, if we could manage to create a single but decentralized (distributed) government, which protects its citizens and meets their civil needs (water, sewer, power, roads), would the world be a better place?
If "communities" could follow a "cellular" architecture with each limited in size to sustain the population of an finite area, including through means such as trading and commerce at standardized rates, society as a whole would become resilient to the effects of drought, poverty or economic downturns (for purposes of this question a downturn is one based on temporarily diminished demand for a class of products such as housing due to decreased births).
We talk about human rights but we don't agree on how much they should cost (per person) or how to go about raising the money to meet them. Everyone needs and should have access to the same basic essentials of life, so what is it about "US" that neutralizes our ability to cooperate with each other? Money? Nationalistic stability? Lack of true vision (imagination)? Fear of over-extending resources and failing your "own" people? Aren't we all our OWN people?
