This isn't a thread about what you believe. I'm curious about the progression of religion in society. Assuming the species endures what do you think will be the eventual fate of religion? Be it a hundred or a thousand years, do you think people will eventually, for the most part, put religion behind them? If not, do you think the religions present today will last as long as the species, or will it be others? Personally, I think that religion will eventually disappear, but it will take a long time. Well, I actually think we'll destroy ourselves before it happens, but if we didn't.
It's hard to say. Around my area, I really don't even know many religious people anymore. Even my Grandmother, who is in her late 70's (and grew up with it) says she is surprised if anyone says they're religious or if they go to church.
Well, the athiest community is slowly growing larger and larger, and though science cannot disprove the existence of a god, it will eventually discredit the majority of religious claims (like miracles) some way or another
Based on the way some extremists act today and the way religion is currently recieved I would put money on religion destroying itself. There are examples of this already with the way Muslims were killed on the streets by Buddhists in India. Im not talking about religions killing eachother but the fact that people are generally becoming sick and tired of all the idiocy and barbarisim that is commited in the name of religions.
It'll disappear eventually. Give it two or three hundred head years, perhaps sooner if religion ignites a war or some large scale tragedy.
no religion will never disappear. As history progresses it becomes less and less relevant in Western society and there is a decent argument to be made that is how it will happen outside of Western culture, but I have extreme doubts it will ever disappear. Even if it gets to the point where literally everyone can look at the stories of religious texts and go "yeah those are weird and probably not true" it doesn't erase the cultural importance and influence that is has had to build cultures to that point. Those who are characterizing secretarian violence in this thread as religiously motivated need to stop minimizing the effects of in group/out group, political greivences, and personal issues that are playing roles with the current sectretarian violence in... well... everywhere in which violence occurs. It also minimizes that there is something innate in humans with a propensity for group on group violence. Is that sort of violence perpetuated by religious fundamentalism? you're damn right it is. Is it the prime motivator for violence? no it is not. there may be a case to be made that fundamentalist religion will eventually burn out in some areas, but the political and socioeconomic climates that case backlash of reactionary fundamentalism will still create fundamentalism if those types of conditions are met. There's also the trend in the New Atheist community that is something like "well if science just comes along any rational person won't be religious". There are still pragmatic reasons to believe or have faith in something. You're probably going to have a hard time erasing the actual reasons people believe, which aren't the Kalam Cosmological argument, they aren't the argument from absolute X, they aren't the argument from best possible worlds. tl:dr; no religion will never stop being an important force on the progression of history and will always be around in some form.
I agree with SomeLeviathan. I doubt that religion will ever disappear. People are very prone to believing things without evidence (i.e. by faith), whether it's for comfort, or because they feel they've had a personal experience with their god, or because that's just the way they were raised.
I don't think religion will disappear, but I do hope it'll morph more into something like deism, so that people can believe in a god if they want to, without condemning anyone or ignoring evidence.
I think religion, at least in my neck of the woods, will dwindle and be in obscurity, be it in a hundred or five hundred years.
Humanity needs something to give them meaning, in general; there are exceptions, obviously. For those who need something, what is God today, will be Siri tomorrow. Whatever provides a purpose or distracting stimulant, will always be a candidate for religious-like sentiments, because it is often a defeating and humbling thought, to tolerate the idea that we are, essentially, meaningless. How we know religion may vanish, but what religion represents will not; at least not as easily.
Religion will stick around. It might not be how it is today, but faith, at least, will certainly stick around. The concept of God isn't even necessary to have a belief system-(Theravada) Buddhism is a faith of sorts, but it doesn't say anything about a god. Furthermore, religion and reason are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Religion in and of itself is not bad.
I think it will pretty much be what is today, maybe on a smaller scale. People won't be very devout, but will still follow the basic guidelines of their religion and their will be a few devout people, but I think they will be much more accepting than they are now.
Eventually after a long time I think religion will disappear. But I think the main driver of that will actually be life extension. Why believe in an afterlife when your life is as long as you want anyway. I think the extremists in the world now are just fighting the change. They feel the demise of religion and are going down kicking and screaming. But eventually they will go down.
Nice to see you read the original post ___ I've decided to expand on what I said before. Yes, I believe religion will eventually disappear. I don't think it will happen because of science, though, or religious wars. Rather, I think that a decline in religious fundamentalism is instrumental in the development of a mature and enlightened culture, and that in the absence of a force to keep the masses believing in what they're told, even non-fundamentalist believers stop believing. Given enough time, any culture is likely to develop to a point where it can sustain itself without oppressing its citizens and destroying the environment, or destroy itself in the process, I do see the eventual disappearance of religion.
I doubt that, realistically, there will ever be a point that not a single person in the world believes in some sort of deity. I definitely think that society will progress to a point that religion is irrelevant to us, but there is not a chance that it will be forgotten, considering that it has been present in society as long as we have been intelligent enough to consider it. ---------- Post added 28th Sep 2014 at 10:40 PM ---------- I think science will continue to be a big factor in the demise of religion. Among my peers probably 1 in 25 at most actually practise a religion
Faith and religion are different things. It isn't a religion if a few disparate people believe in a deity; religions are institutions with some measure of power, and it's that I foresee the downfall of.