What is Utopia?
{{otheruses}} [[File:Hieronymus Bosch - The Garden of Earthly Delights - The Earthly Paradise (Garden of Eden).jpg|thumbnail|right|200px|Left panel (''The Earthly Paradise'' – [[Garden of Eden]]) from [[Hieronymus Bosch]]'s ''The Garden of Earthly Delights''.]] '''Utopia''',<ref>{{pron-en|juːˈtoʊpiə}}</ref> otherwise referred to as '''[[Heaven]]''', '''[[Paradise]]''', '''[[Pure Land]]''', '''[[Kingdom Come]]''' or '''Fairyland''' or the '''[[Overworld]]''', '''[[Upperworld]]''', '''[[Higherworld]]''', '''[[Elsewhereness]]''', '''Garden of Pleasure''' or '''Land of Happiness''' or '''Oworld''' for short, is an imaginary [[community]] or [[society]] with a perfect system of laws and politics.<ref>{{cite book|url=http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2130|title=Utopia|first=Thomas|last=More|editor-first=Henry|editor-last=Morley|date=1 April 2000|publisher=|via=Project Gutenberg}}</ref> [[Sir Thomas More]] invented the word for his 1516 book ''[[Utopia (book)|Utopia]]''. The book was about a fictional [[island]] in the southern [[Atlantic Ocean]]. The word has been used to describe both a perfect society, and societies in [[literature]]. A related idea is [[dystopia]], the opposite of a dystopia. There have been many utopias based on politics, economics, religion, ecology. Some of these have been propagated in books and pamphlets, some as actual communities. In practice, attempts to create utopias seem doomed, as good intentions run against problems. Most of the literary utopias are actually [[satire]]s of existing societies. There were several attempts to create such perfect societies (they did not work). The word utopia can also refer to a society of such an attempt. '''Utopia''' is [[Greek language|Greek]] for ''no place''; related words include '''eutopia''', meaning ''good place'' in Greek, [[paradise]], [[Shangra La]] and [[Xanadu]]. == [[Religious experience|Religious]] utopias == The ideas [[Christian]]s, [[Jew]]s and [[Muslim]]s have of the [[Garden of Eden]], and of [[Heaven]] can be seen as such utopias.