(April 8, 2014 at 8:58 am)cromwell Wrote: I am as you say, talking more about america, it's worrying that the leading country of the world seems to not be able to shake old religion, and then we constantly hear over here about all these other batshit crazy new religions that are taking a hold of people in mass numbers over there. Mainly through celebrities endorsing them I would suppose.I think we're a few decades behind in the process, is all. We seem to be at the point where most people identify as being religious, but a lot of them are apathetic in practice. The number who actually let go of religion is increasing slowly but steadily (14% or 16% was the last I recall reading). Religion still has a political power base and some money, so it will hang on for a while, but disinterest is a very powerful force over the long term.
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."
-Stephen Jay Gould
-Stephen Jay Gould
