RE: What date do you estimate atheism will overtake theism in the world population
September 8, 2017 at 7:27 am
(This post was last modified: September 8, 2017 at 7:35 am by Anomalocaris.)
If by atheism, you mean not just a disbelief in various fictional anthropamorphized beings concocted to assuage anxiety and pretend to answer haunting doubts, but also an embracing of rational attitudes towards these goals, then I have to say that it not on the horizon. Overthrow the deities, and they will substitute aliens or various mystical agents like Chi. There may no longer be a majority following for deity in the strictest sense of deity, but the reliance on, and the institutionalizations and privileging of, the make belief will remain just as strong.
You can beat the ridiculousness of this deity or that into people's heads. Religions and sects have been doing that to eachother's deity since time immemorial.
You can popularize the wickedness of this religion or that in exposes, Religions and sects have also been doing that to eachother's deity since time immemorial.
But it is difficult to inculcate intellectual rigor on a large scale when feeble minded make belief seem to assuage anxiety and provide appearance of answers. Feebleness of mind absence of intellectual backbone as the more typical attribute of men than the alternative is not something for which there is as yet any solution on the horizon.
If by atheism you mean not just disbelief in the deities in the traditional sense, but also in various mystical agents like chi, gurus, or aliens that may arise, then I'd say the ensure is not just so long it might as well be never, it probably is never.
You can beat the ridiculousness of this deity or that into people's heads. Religions and sects have been doing that to eachother's deity since time immemorial.
You can popularize the wickedness of this religion or that in exposes, Religions and sects have also been doing that to eachother's deity since time immemorial.
But it is difficult to inculcate intellectual rigor on a large scale when feeble minded make belief seem to assuage anxiety and provide appearance of answers. Feebleness of mind absence of intellectual backbone as the more typical attribute of men than the alternative is not something for which there is as yet any solution on the horizon.
(September 8, 2017 at 7:16 am)Hammy Wrote: I put "never" because there wasn't an answer late enough.
I'd say if atheism ever takes over... it will be in centuries; not decades.
If by atheism you mean not just disbelief in the deities in the traditional sense, but also in various mystical agents like chi, gurus, or aliens that may arise, then I'd say the ensure is not just so long it might as well be never, it probably is never.
