The Great "what ifs" of History Thread.

[mathew101281]

The thread for postulating how history could have played out differently

For example:

How would things have been different it Al Gore had won the 2000 election?

What if China weaponized gun powder sooner?

Feel free to add your theories and scenarios.

[Old Man Ollie 1962]

What if Adam and Eve had flat-out rejected Satan's offer of eating the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Bad? Had that been the case, the Almighty ( יהוה YHWH) Jehovah would have destroyed Satan right then and there and the question of universal sovereignty (who has the right to rule/govern humanity) would have been answered. Humanity would now be living in a paradise earth and enjoying perfect health and everlasting life. This whole current timeline would never have happened.

[samking]

What if Adam and Eve had flat-out rejected Satan's offer of eating the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Bad? Had that been the case, the Almighty ( יהוה YHWH) Jehovah would have destroyed Satan right then and there and the question of universal sovereignty (who has the right to rule/govern humanity) would have been answered. Humanity would now be living in a paradise earth and enjoying perfect health and everlasting life. This whole current timeline would never have happened.

LOL
wrapped all the discussions this thread had to offer

[Ghost Rider TheHellfireDemon]

What if the Bills had made a fg to beat the Giants. Bills fans would still not be waiting for a super bowl title.

What if the jets drafted brady? No doubt jets could have 3 or 4 super bowls.

What if the South won the Civil War?

[Kusanagi]

What if plague and disease hadn't killed off such a huge portion of Native Americans before colonization?

[Ghost Rider TheHellfireDemon]

What if the atomic bomb was never created?

[CSTowle]

Think the last two were inevitable. Eventually some humans would have come to the Americas (whether Asian, European, or Native Americans going elsewhere) and those microbes would come with them. Same with scientific development leading to knowledge of the possibility of an Atom bomb and then that being used as a weapon. It's human nature. As to the God/Satan one, that just brings up more questions (never mind whether any of those in the scenario existed/do exist in the first place). Why would an all-powerful god need the rejection of temptation by Adam to destroy Satan? Why create him in the first place? Why create humans as curious and disobedient? And then why be surprised when they're curious and disobedient?

South and the Civil War, gosh so many possibilities. First, we wouldn't be the world's most powerful country. Neither one likely would have become one. Still a lot of natural resources, but the advantage of being isolated from enemies by oceans would have been negated (I'd imagine our relations wouldn't be as friendly as the US and Canada, more like North and South Korea). Slavery would have ended later (though if they wanted to continue doing business in Europe they'd have had to give in some time). They'd likely still be waiting on a Civil Rights movement. We might have had further wars, and might have stayed out of WWI. Maybe the South (or ruling white Christians there, anyway) would have identified with the racial superiority/eugenics movement (that I believe was popular here before Hitler) and sided with the Axis powers. Probably wouldn't have dropped those A-bombs on Japan, or been much help against Hitler in Europe. Wouldn't have been a check on Soviet expansion (maybe socialist movements in urban areas/the north could have swung us Yanks that way). How would Native American relocation in the post-Civil War era have happened differently? Too many off-shoot possibilities to consider.

[DrNewGod]

What if the atomic bomb was never created?

A very large ground war with the Soviets in the 1950s would have been a lot more likely; we might, just now, be putting Europe back together again. The moon landings might not have happened; there wasn't any other weapon that could have made developing an orbit-capable booster vehicle worthwhile. Assuming the Soviet economy still fell apart, it might have taken a lot longer. I'd imagine the US and Soviets would each have tried to colonize the Middle East to control the oil as the British withdrew; the Middle East would probably be only a decade or so past that occupation (assuming one colonial power or the other collapsed).

[WillieMorgan]

South and the Civil War, gosh so many possibilities. First, we wouldn't be the world's most powerful country. Neither one likely would have become one. Still a lot of natural resources, but the advantage of being isolated from enemies by oceans would have been negated (I'd imagine our relations wouldn't be as friendly as the US and Canada, more like North and South Korea). Slavery would have ended later (though if they wanted to continue doing business in Europe they'd have had to give in some time). They'd likely still be waiting on a Civil Rights movement. We might have had further wars, and might have stayed out of WWI. Maybe the South (or ruling white Christians there, anyway) would have identified with the racial superiority/eugenics movement (that I believe was popular here before Hitler) and sided with the Axis powers. Probably wouldn't have dropped those A-bombs on Japan, or been much help against Hitler in Europe. Wouldn't have been a check on Soviet expansion (maybe socialist movements in urban areas/the north could have swung us Yanks that way). How would Native American relocation in the post-Civil War era have happened differently? Too many off-shoot possibilities to consider.

The way that human history unfolded during the twentieth century would certainly have been massively different if the South had won the US Civil War.

What if Constantine hadn't experienced some kind of surreallistic dream before the Battle Of Milvian Bridge in 312 AD? The one that caused him to adopt Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire after his victory.

[Ghost Rider TheHellfireDemon]

What if napster was never created? It was shown in the 2000's a decade in review on national geographic it was brought up that since ITunes became a legal version bringing up Itunes likely would not have been created if Napster wasn't created.

[CSTowle]

Again, I think that was inevitable. If it wasn't Napster or iTunes, it'd have been something else where people shared files over the internet. It might have delayed the demise of the record industry, it wouldn't have changed anything if it happened 10 or 20 years later.

[KOSLOX]

What if winds and current in the AST region ran in opposite directions. Perhaps you'd have seen, for example, The Calusa delelop as a naval power and eventually land in Europe.

[Silvermoth]

I've always wondered what would happen if Japan had gone communist instead of China?

[dzub]

What if aliens visited our ancestors?

[CSTowle]

Depends on the alien beings I suppose. Carnivores? Food. Enlightened beings looking to communicate with our planet's higher lifeforms? Sent a probe to scan us from space, scanned us from afar and said "no thanks." Travelling scientists who, despite probably developing on a planet with an atmosphere/climate/environment/etc. nothing like ours, are somehow humanoid despite how few species that developed on our own planet turned out that way? Too ridiculous to contemplate. Seriously, you can probe from outer space, you probably have the technology to spy from light years away (especially if you can travel that far in one of your species lifetimes), and you're going to choose to expose yourself to who knows what in the way of germs/disease in order to abduct and stand face to face with us? And you have all this technology but can't perfect the memory wipe? And do it by travelling down to Earth in a ship equipped with strobing/blinking bright lights able to be spotted for miles and miles so everybody watching can see you coming?

I briefly looked to UFOs as a child (7-8) when I realized I was never going to be able to swallow the story being told to me by my mother's church, found the book "Chariots of the Gods" that talked about that ancient alien possibility. It seemed less ridiculous than what I'd been taught in Sunday school, but quickly realized it held up about as well as the fairy tales about arks and angels and demons when you stopped to really think about it for more than 30 seconds. A crutch for those seeking "truth", to explain things not yet explained by science, or to gain attention/fame for yourself. But did help pique my interest for "the X-Files" when it came on the air. So I'll give it that.