Do you think that one day religion will become a thing of the past

[Wyrd of Gawd]

If something could be done about extremist ideologies from any religion and fundamentalists poking their noses into schools and politics, I could give a rats ass what they do. If every religious person was a cherry picking theists, the world would get along a little bit better.

Are any religions more extreme than the governments that they bunk with?

[Nontheist]

I've got my fingers crossed that religion will die out one day, but I think it will be a long time coming. On the second point I think it's impossible to say one way or the other, I think one thing is for sure though before it does die out, there will be lots more misery caused by it...

[The Grand Nudger]

If humanity had never invented gods, one of two possibilities:

a) Agricultural society would never have arisen, 

......um......whaaaaaaaaaat? Out of curiosity, where does this notion come from (even if it were in jest)?

[God of Mr. Hanky]

If humanity had never invented gods, one of two possibilities:

a) Agricultural society would never have arisen, 

......um......whaaaaaaaaaat?  Out of curiosity, where does this notion come from (even if it were in jest)?

Not really in jest, call it a chicken-or-the-egg conundrum. Also, I present it only as a hypothetical, against an alternative which I hope people would have been good for, although unfortunately I cannot speak for the likelihood of that.

There is evidence of isolated and limited agricultural practices in transient human communities going on tens of thousands of years before permanent cities arose in the Fertile Crescent, and you should understand it took at least one strong god to make the rise of any of those cities possible. People would settle for a few years and till the land, and then their yield would be discovered by passing raiders. Sooner than later the small alliances of agriculturalists would not be enough to fight off all the hordes which are on to their "free food" production, and then they too would have to move on. It takes a strong leader to get large groups of people to stand together and fight, and challenging their imagination with the idea of an ultimate power behind said leader is what would be needed to get said people to change the nomadic history of our species.

I would not consider this alternative as a negative, any more than I consider it negative that apes have lived for 10 or so million years without really changing their lifestyle as apes. Nomadism is a tough life, but it is also relatively peaceful.

[The Grand Nudger]

I'm as mystified by this one as I was the last one.  Essentially, drilling it down another layer...such that ag may not have needed a god but now cities needed gods to be possible?

("The hordes" were better fed than early agriculturalists, as a sideline that might make you smile, h/g provides a more stable and nutritious diet -when you have the range to support it- than ag ever could. Less work for more food.)

[Clueless Morgan]

Basically, do you think that there will be a time when things like Christianity and Islam will be looked at like how we view Greek Gods now?

If history tells us anything it tells us that this will most probably be the case, yes.

Also....what do you think the world would be like if religion has never existed?

Different. The role of religion would, IMO, have been filled with some other ideology - maybe we would all be more political since we would be losing one of the methods by which humans controlled other humans and that hole would need to be filled with something. Our art would certainly look different, and the timeline of the development of some things would change.

[God of Mr. Hanky]

I'm as mystified by this one as I was the last one.  Essentially, drilling it down another layer...such that ag may not have needed a god but now cities needed gods to be possible?

("The hordes" were better fed than early agriculturalists, as a sideline that might make you smile,  h/g provides a more stable and nutritious diet -when you have the range to support it- than ag ever could.  Less work for more food.)

I'm just pointing out that early cities were agriculturally-based, and would not have been possible in a non-coastal region without this - this is agreed on as fact by anthropologists and historians. Agriculture required no god, but getting people to stand together in large groups and defend each other's homesteads when running would be much easier is unlikely without a leader of surreal qualities, that is he's surreal in that he inspires them with stories of unreal origin (i.e. his god).

The hordes were fed a better balanced diet, when they could eat at all - which was a problem.

Another problem was that nomadic peoples were becoming pressed for range in the areas which gave rise to agricultural as a solution.

Less work for better food, yes.

Less work for more food? Not in high-traffic geographic regions. The rich soil can only produce enough food naturally to feed so many foragers, who will flood a rich area because they heard it was so good, and then if you want to stick around and eat too you will have to work that soil.

[RobbyPants]

Seems like religion is only used to control people, like large amounts of people. Now it seems like religious institutions are barley hanging onto that last little bit of power and influence they have. Basically, do you think that there will be a time when things like Christianity and Islam will be looked at like how we view Greek Gods now? Just kind of a way to explain things, but aren't scientifically true. 

I think that given enough time, all of the modern religions will not exist as they do today. Just like how we can trace the origins of modern religions through various ancient ones, this will probably continue going forward. As far as the fate of religion in entirety, I think it will continue to dwindle in educated areas and will continue to grow in uneducated areas. That seems to be the trend that's been happening for a while. I don't see it fully going away, but I can see it having a much smaller impact on everyone's day-to-day lives.

[Whateverist]

I used to think religion would come to an end. Now I don't know but I doubt it.

We could really have used an intelligent designer but given nature's handiwork I don't see us going all Star Trek anytime soon.

[Kingpin]

So long as there remains unanswered questions of the four major questions (morality, meaning, origin and destiny) and human suffering exists, so will religion. Its not going away, it may evolve as our understandings do, but it will never disappear.