Religion will exist no matter what our level of scientific understanding is.

Some people just have spiritual needs that will never be solved by science.

(January 25, 2014 at 12:42 pm)kilojordan Wrote: At the moment, many people rationalise their faith with arguments from ignorance. Because there is no definitive answer yet to the origin of the universe they choose to claim to have the answer. I was just wondering how rationalisations of faith would change if science did provide the correct answer.

As Stim has pointed out, one has nothing to do with the other.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...monia.html

Quote:Parents found guilty of murder after SECOND child dies from pneumonia because they prayed instead of seeking medical attention

"Never mind;" the most accurate description of people who believe an omnipotent deity saved the world. Quoth the gullible; "nevermind."

(January 25, 2014 at 1:31 pm)ChadWooters Wrote: Now imagine a world in which God came into the world to save...wait a minute, that already happened. Never mind.

Quoth the passive aggressive raven "Nevermind"

God dammit I love that one. XD

Religions began with the forest/river/mountain spirits. we moved beyond those though they still exist.
The modern types made claims regarding the origins of the world, science has moved beyond them and whilst some continue to hold that position others try to make claims regarding the origins of the universe, they've already been pushed back to Planck Time. Frankly I have no time for such dishonesty, The deist position does not impress me. If anything you have to go back to the original forest/river/mountain spirits, they at least have a certain integrity which the more 'developed' forms distinctly lack.

There will always be gaps for the religious to squeeze God into, because God is the literal essence of human ignorance, the go-to explanation for every question which currently lacks an answer.

That's why humans concocted the idea of the supernatural: a plane of bullshit which exists only in the imagination, with infinite dimensions so that there will always be a safe place to relocate the goalposts.

If there's one thing religions are good at(other than sex with children), it's finding a way to justify their belief in their god. Religions will continue to be justified and recycled forever.

Two things. First, religion doesn't have to be incompatible with science to be full of shit. Look at Buddhism and the Dalai Lama. He's quoted as saying that if science disagrees with Buddhism, then Buddhism must change. This is the classic move of reversing the burden of proof, demanding the skeptic prove him wrong, rather than him proving Buddhism right. Buddhism can be made almost reality free and still be stupid, immune to logic, garbage.

The second is that we have evolved as a species to have robust mechanisms for passing knowledge from one generation to the next. The family and the tribe band together for support, but also because it allows the efficient transmission of knowledge. And it doesn't matter if what is transmitted is true or not, if the adults believe it, they will efficiently pass it on to the young. It's how we're built. The most reliable predictor of what a young person comes to believe is what the adults in their family unit believe. It being true or false is irrelevant because the mechanisms of transmission are many times more reliable than the mechanisms for correcting false beliefs. Fortunately, in the modern world that is changing, but looking to family and elders will likely always remain the first source of truth and belief. And that means, no matter what, religion will carry on as a result of the inertia of that process, regardless of whether or not better beliefs and truths are available. (And it goes beyond just teaching; we have built in biases which lead us to trust those sources and distrust others. The process is, truly, robust. It had to be to yield us. But that's a major obstacle in getting rid of religion.)

I cut Buddhism some slack myself. I think the whole not harming other organisms clause as well is reincarnation is illogical. Regardless though, the practice of meditation as commonly practiced that religion does lead to me feeling better. Nothing wrong with feeling good. Its nice to clear your mind for a while when it runs non-stop at full speed every second of waking life. I don't see any harm in Buddhism.