(September 15, 2008 at 9:50 am)Tiberius Wrote: The only reason science re-interprets evidence is because some new evidence comes along. Religion has no new evidence, it has supposedly infallible books that never change. All that happens is people try to change the meanings of the words to make it compatible with science. This is a ludicrous way of doing things, and nulls the possibility of any of their claims being infallible or even true.
Religion is turning more and more into a mirror of science, just with a weird supernatural message placed on top. Years down the line the only way of separating the beliefs of one from the other will be to see which one denotes a supreme being.
In order for a religion to survive to the next generation, it has to be able to evolve in such a way that it adapts to the prejudices of the populace from which it seeks contributions. Religions that cannot adapt die out.
For example, Catholicism has drawn too deep a line in the sand with the prohibition against birth control. The population explosion will highlight the necessity of birth control for everyone, and future generations will turn from it in droves. Fundamentalist Islam is in its death throws now. Of course, there will always be a few nutjobs that cling to these old beliefs, just like the ones that still worship the Norse gods.
However, I don't think that your prediction will be entirely true. There may be a religion like the one you predict, and it might be the main religion. But I think there will be others on the fringe that play to people's prejudices and make absurd claims to justify those prejudices. That is part of the lure of religion for most people. And it is how religions like Christianity have survived for so many centuries. They have scripture to justify every possible prejudice anyone could ever have, and escape clauses to let each person ignore any scripture he or she does not like. It's brilliant, really. So Catholicism will die soon, but Christianity will live on in one form or another.
