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Do you think that one day religion will become a thing of the past
December 13, 2015 at 9:50 pm
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.
Also....what do you think the world would be like if religion has never existed?
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RE: Do you think that one day religion will become a thing of the past
December 13, 2015 at 10:01 pm
#1 - No. There are too many stupid people who have to be led around by the nose.
#2 - Marginally better.
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RE: Do you think that one day religion will become a thing of the past
December 13, 2015 at 11:17 pm
I find it unlikely that religion will ever completely die out. First because it does serve a positive purpose for some in that it provides a sense of community and belonging, it helps alleviate some stresses about death and the indifference of a large impersonal universe, things like that. In talking to theists I find that many have a hard time grasping an indifferent universe or the finality of death. They want to live in a just universe, they want to matter. So they hang onto belief for this, and it comforts them. Second because some people like to think that they have knowledge that others don't. Remember conspiracy theories and flat earthers are still a thing.
As to the second question, I don't know. Religion has been part of society for so long that it's hard to really think. But let's assume that we're only getting rid of "serious" religion, and not the tepid religions that lacked sincerity. In that case, I'm not sure. It might be a wash. While the church was responsible for heinous acts and the retardation of progress, it is to be noted that it did preserve a great deal of ancient writings. So if it hadn't been as prominent we might not have had the inquisition, but neither would we still have the works of Horace of Cicero.
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RE: Do you think that one day religion will become a thing of the past
December 13, 2015 at 11:31 pm
One day maybe it will, maybe. Maybe. Maybe not.
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RE: Do you think that one day religion will become a thing of the past
December 13, 2015 at 11:32 pm
I think the push against religion is going to hit a critical mass like many revolutions have, and then happen very quickly. I could be totally wrong about that, but it's what I predict, and my wild guess is that it will happen some time in the 2020s or 2030s.
People are underestimating how fast things are changing. "The rise of the nones" is truly a tidal wave. Now, "none" doesn't always mean "atheist", but I think that even the nones will fade out fairly quickly. There is an explosion in media and communication going on right now, and it is only accelerating. People get disabused of their beliefs very quickly, because you can't walk 3 inches without someone picking them apart. That's what happens on the internet, even despite so-called "filter bubbles" that form. There's really no such thing as isolation. Plus you have the rise of millions of videos and other forms of content of atheists speaking out. Where could you find that before? A few books in the philosophy section of the library? Now it is in your face, and extremely accessible.
Christianity fell from 78% to 70% in America from 2007 to today. That's called plummeting. People like to say "X will be around forever", and they are right until they aren't. Things do change, and when it happens, it can happen fast. Whoever said "marijuana will be illegal forever" would be dead wrong. Same with any number of things; that happens to be merely a recent example. But we all know people who said that. We probably said it ourselves. Look what happened.
Science is percolating into the mainstream like never before. That is an absolutely new phenomenon. It wasn't even the case that top intellectuals and thinkers were usually atheistic until a couple hundred years ago. Now they are teaching that evil-lution in public classrooms. Pessimists just aren't taking in all the facts, they are essentializing the world. There are definite reasons to think that things are very much changing, very quickly.
Will there still be pockets? Yeah, for a while. But get ready for religion to die. It's pretty obvious what's happening if you ask me.
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RE: Do you think that one day religion will become a thing of the past
December 13, 2015 at 11:42 pm
The OP is not specifically talking about the US or even xtianity.
While I agree that the US is following Western Europe in dumping jesus remember that xtianity is still expanding in Africa and parts of Asia. And then there is islam which may wipe itself out one bomb at a time but not in the foreseeable future.
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RE: Do you think that one day religion will become a thing of the past
December 13, 2015 at 11:43 pm
(December 13, 2015 at 11:42 pm)Minimalist Wrote: The OP is not specifically talking about the US or even xtianity.
While I agree that the US is following Western Europe in dumping jesus remember that xtianity is still expanding in Africa and parts of Asia. And then there is islam which may wipe itself out one bomb at a time but not in the foreseeable future.
The same wave of communication and media is going to be available in the rest of the world only a few years later. So yeah, the West will go first, but it's not like the rest won't follow.
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RE: Do you think that one day religion will become a thing of the past
December 14, 2015 at 12:20 am
Neither of us will live to see it.
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RE: Do you think that one day religion will become a thing of the past
December 14, 2015 at 12:36 am
I think it's evident that religion is fading away. Slowly, very slowly, but fading nonetheless. In America at least, the number of people identifying as "nonreligious" rises every year. Many kids are being raised in households that teach increasingly loose religious values, or otherwise completely secular and God is just a non-subject. And those religious teachings will fade a little more with each successive generation, until one day humans of the future will look back on the past and think "huh, we believed that?" The mocking of religion also gets less taboo every passing year, allowing more people to see the sense behind not believing it. More developed countries are taking a secular stance in their government and societies. I guesstimate that within a couple centuries, religion as a whole will be quite endangered, and a couple centuries after that it'll be virtually extinct.
I think the greatest threat to the death of religion is underdeveloped countries and places like the Middls East. It'll take longest to shift from theism to atheism/agnosticism in areas such as those.
But like I said, I believe it's inevitable that religion will be dead. The only question is how long.
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RE: Do you think that one day religion will become a thing of the past
December 14, 2015 at 1:28 am
(December 13, 2015 at 9:50 pm)godzilla_22 Wrote: 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.
Also....what do you think the world would be like if religion has never existed?
If humanity had never invented gods, one of two possibilities:
a) Agricultural society would never have arisen, and we would still be able to live off the land as we wander happily through it with shorter and harder lives, but they would be far more peaceful and fulfilling for all than now.
b) We would have been colonizing the stars centuries ago.
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