What is the future of religion?

Discussion in 'Religion Archives' started by joepistole, Dec 21, 2007.

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  1. joepistole

    joepistole Deacon Blues Valued Senior Member

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    Religion has morphed has man as prospered. We began with tribal religions. Now we have a handful of major religions. Will those religions change? If so how and in what direction? Will there be new religions that arise? What will the religious landscape look like 100 years from now, a thousand years from now?
    As our technology and subsequent life styles change, how will it effect religion? Can the present religions adapt or will a new religion be invented or will we even have religion?
     
    Last edited: Dec 22, 2007
    joepistole, Dec 21, 2007
    #1

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  3. Cris

    Cris In search of Immortality Valued Senior Member

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    Knowledge has been eroding religious beliefs for millenia. That is likely to increase at an accelerated pace in line with current rapid development of science and technology.

    I would expect that religions will be near to non-existent within 100 years.
     
    Cris, Dec 21, 2007
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  5. S.A.M.

    S.A.M. uniquely dreadful Valued Senior Member

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    Since human beings are fond of recycling, I predict an increase in general extremism from both theists and atheists in the near future.
     
    S.A.M., Dec 21, 2007
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  7. cosmictraveler

    cosmictraveler Be kind to yourself always. Valued Senior Member

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    Since I don't believe in religions I don't care what happens to them all. I just

    wish they could leave their beliefs at their respective Church's, halls,

    synagogues, Moslem's or whatever they practice in and not bother

    others into indoctrinating them into a part of their beliefs. Believe what you

    want but let FACTS be known as to everything else. :itold:
     
    cosmictraveler, Dec 21, 2007
    #4
  8. lightgigantic

    lightgigantic Banned Banned

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    the general pattern of religiosity is that it falls in to disuse or gets corrupted and gets revitalized or undergoes a renaissance due to the efforts of saintly persons who appear periodically to re-establish them
     
    lightgigantic, Dec 21, 2007
    #5
  9. Medicine*Woman

    Medicine*Woman Jesus: Mythstory--Not History! Valued Senior Member

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    M*W: I concur with your estimation that the next century will be promising toward religious demise. I also see the value of forums like this that will educate the world in that direction. I can already foresee the death of evangelism as the church buildings and their ideologies crumble to the ground.
     
    Medicine*Woman, Dec 22, 2007
    #6
  10. sandy

    sandy Banned Banned

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    Never. Gonna. Happen. :yay:
     
    sandy, Dec 22, 2007
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  11. Orleander

    Orleander OH JOY!!!! Valued Senior Member

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    I think religion will never go away, yet no one worships Zues anymore...so yeah, it will die, but it will take a lot A LOT longer than 100 years.
     
    Orleander, Dec 22, 2007
    #8
  12. scorpius

    scorpius a realist Valued Senior Member

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    yeah ,Trekies worshiping sci-fi films and their characters sure seems like one.

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    so do sports car,and truck enthusiasts.
     
    scorpius, Dec 22, 2007
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  13. joepistole

    joepistole Deacon Blues Valued Senior Member

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    Religion seems to speak to a significant core of mankind. It is in all places and has been at all times. So I am not so swift to call and end to religion.
     
    joepistole, Dec 22, 2007
    #10
  14. Killian_1_4

    Killian_1_4 Registered Senior Member

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    Since not all dogs have brown fur, I think we can agree atheism will increase.
     
    Killian_1_4, Dec 22, 2007
    #11
  15. answers

    answers Registered Senior Member

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    Religion will always play a huge part in the world. Atheist like to believe that people in general are realizing that religion is flawed and that the world is heading towards atheism. However 80% of the world believes in some sort of religion, so there is no way it is dying out.

    I believe one possibility in the western world is that the religion of the future will be humanistic morality. It won't be a case of looking to God, but looking to yourself, finding your own set of morals and living by them. I also believe that the occult religions such as the new age movement, witchcraft, and demonism in its nicer forms, will also combine with humanistic morality to form a religious movement that is self serving. Christianity and atheism will be a very small minority.

    In the rest of the world it's pretty easy to see that Islam is taking over, its the fastest growing religion in the world. They view the world in two parts, those that are of the faithful, and those who are not. They will by force push their religion on the rest of the world which will cause conflict. What happens next? Who knows?

    But then have a look at china, the Christian church is spreading amazingly quickly over there despite the Chinese governments efforts to stop it. And China is going to be the next world power so you never know what might happen?????
     
    answers, Dec 22, 2007
    #12
  16. Carcano

    Carcano Valued Senior Member

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    I believe that religions will eventually die out, but the belief in a spiritual dimension will be gradually strengthened by science and technology.
     
    Carcano, Dec 22, 2007
    #13
  17. Medicine*Woman

    Medicine*Woman Jesus: Mythstory--Not History! Valued Senior Member

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    M*W: According to religious adherents.com, Is happening. Right now. You lose.
     
    Medicine*Woman, Dec 22, 2007
    #14
  18. John99

    John99 Banned Banned

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    That would take 100s of years, maybe between 200-400 and still probably not entirely.
     
    John99, Dec 22, 2007
    #15
  19. Medicine*Woman

    Medicine*Woman Jesus: Mythstory--Not History! Valued Senior Member

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    M*W: Yes, that's the trend, and for good reason. Christian evangelism is diving faster than Greg Louganis.
    *************
    M*W's Friendly Atheist Quote of the Day:

    "All the tales of miracles with which the Old and New Testament are filled, are fit only for imposters to preach and fools to believe." ~ Thomas Paine
     
    Medicine*Woman, Dec 22, 2007
    #16
  20. nikkmon

    nikkmon Registered Member

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    Atheists make up about 1% of the U.S. population with roughly 80% claiming to be Christian. I am in no fear of Christianity or religious belief going anywhere, anytime. Christianity and world views can adapt as our knowledge increases but the basic fundamentals of Christianity stay the same and are solid. Atheism cannot adapt because its a belief in nothing.

    People who truly believe in something will fight for that something, those who believe in nothing have far less motivation. History in filled with the blood of martyrs who believe so strongly they were willing to die for that believe, can Atheists say the same? No. People are willing to die for something they believe to be true, but not something they know to be false.
     
    nikkmon, Dec 22, 2007
    #17
  21. Fraggle Rocker

    Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    The two most prominent religions on Earth, Christianity and Islam, as well as their progenitor, Judaism, are still tribal. You're mistaken if you think there's been any transcendence beyond that. The Abrahamic faiths reinforce mankind's tribal instinct of "us versus them," and exacerbate our differences rather than bringing us together. Not only do their adherents make war upon each other, but when they can't find an enemy handy they split into sects whose differences are so slight that the rest of us can't even understand them, and begin warring among themselves. Sunni vs. Shiite, Catholic vs. Protestant, even Reform Jews in Israel have had rocks thrown at their ambulances by Orthodox Jews for daring to operate on the Sabbath. The Abrahamists demand "tolerance" from us but they don't even understand the meaning of the word. The inherent tribal nature of Abrahamism must be conquered if we are ever to have world peace, or else we must find a way for the religions themselves to decline into well-deserved obscurity.
    In Jungian terms, this is called an "archetype": a motif, idea, story, ritual, belief, etc. that occurs in all societies in all eras. An archetype is a type of instinct, something that is hard-wired into our synapses by the twisted pathways of evolution, and a religion is nothing but a codified collection of archetypes. Each archetype arrived via its own route. Some were doubtless survival traits in an era whose dangers we can't imagine, so only those who had them survived to reproduce. Others were doubtless mutations that a genetic bottleneck like Lucy made universal. Still others are doubtless the manifestations of the randomness that underlies evolution until a condition prevails that makes them hostile to survival.

    We believe archetypes unquestioningly because they feel true. That's what an instinct is. This is the same way we believe that we should not step off the edge of a canyon, long before we are old enough to understand the equations of linear kinematics and the physics of gravity. The same way we believe that we don't have to run from an unfamiliar 60-lb animal whose eyes are located on the sides of his skull, long before we've taken Biology 101 and learned why those are the eyes of a prey animal rather than a predator.

    Nonetheless, what elevates us above the other animals is our ability to override instincts with reasoned and learned behavior. Many people can step out of an airplane so long as they're wearing a parachute. Almost all of us do not panic when a St. Bernard walks into the room. Quite a few of us have overcome our religious instincts, after discovering that the scientific model of the natural universe as a closed system has been serving humanity well for half a millennium, and especially after seeing the chaos that the Stone Age throwbacks among us with their irrational supernatural model routinely cause with the tribal rivalries that inexorably accompany that model.

    Therefore it's not unreasonable to hope that eventually the entire human race will overcome its instinctive embrace of religion and move on toward a more rational and harmonious world. After all, civilization has been a ten thousand year struggle to overcome one of our most fundamental instincts: the pack-social instinct that our hunter-gatherer ancestors shared with our closest cousins, the gorillas, chimps and bonobos. We have made great strides toward becoming a herd-social species, living in harmony and cooperation in communities of total strangers. Religions keep digging up that pack-social instinct and making war between those communities. We can transcend that because we have the power of reason that allows us to overcome the power of instinct: the power of religion.
    Jesus Christ is a textbook example of an archetype: the creature who rises from the dead. This is a common motif throughout human culture: an instinctive belief with no rational substantiation. There is no respectable evidence that Jesus was a real person. The last shred of that evidence was in the writings of the Roman historian Josephus, and in the last century those portions of his writings were proven to be forgeries.

    Jesus is a metaphor. Metaphors are useful because they encapsulate important lessons that must be passed on through the generations. However, metaphors become dangerous when they are misinterpreted as factual history. Christianity, the belief that the Jesus myth is literal truth, has been one of the most dangerous belief systems ever to bedevil this poor planet.
     
    Fraggle Rocker, Dec 22, 2007
    #18
  22. joepistole

    joepistole Deacon Blues Valued Senior Member

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    Well said Fraggle. However, the only way I can see us overcoming religion is with the power of open unrestricted knowledge. Most all religious adherents especially Christian, Islam, and Jews want to modify knowledge in favor of their religous perspective. You have the Monkey Trials in the US and the more recent international violence when someone says something Islamist do not like about their religion.
    So knowledge will hurt the religions you referenced. But it will not replace the need for religion. So maybe it will be replaced with another form of religion. The religions you referenced are going to be in crisis as man and machine become more integrated and knowledge becomes more wide spread.
     
    Last edited: Dec 23, 2007
    joepistole, Dec 22, 2007
    #19
  23. sandy

    sandy Banned Banned

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    I believe: Jesus Christ doesn't NEED "rational substantiation". That is foolish to Him. He is too big for anyone to understand. He is about faith, not sight. Jesus is alive and well and living inside me and the rest of His children.
    God and Christianity are two of the best reasons to be alive.

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    sandy, Dec 23, 2007
    #20
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