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When will religion become irrelevant and die out?
I've been pondering this question for a while, When will religion become irrelevant and die out? Is there any hope for that? There are probably many arguments for the reason it should be relevant but to me it serves no purpose not even to give people hope. To me you are responsible for your actions and how you ended up the way you are and only you can change that and not some invisible man in the sky.But of course not everyone sees it that way and believe there is a man above. Or they are so indoctrinated that it's hard for them to part ways with what they knew since they were a child and is a part of the up bringing. But will there be a time and place that the world may see that religion serves no purpose or will another religion just take over the previous one like history has shown time and time again. Or maybe am I naive in thinking there is any hope of that happening or for even asking such a question.
I would like to hear some of your opinions on this question.
I would like to hear some of your opinions on this question.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Dave Rogers on -
You can see some opinions to a very similar question I posted a while back.
It's going to be a while depending on what part of the world you live in. It will probably never go away completely. There's the old quote that goes something like, "As long as there's one charlatan around to preach to one fool, you'll have a religion."
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Permalink Reply by Atheist on -
I see you like to post form another post from another post lol but yeah I Live in Brooklyn New York USA so yeah I can see a decline in religious ideals but for the rest of the US idk. It seems like people just love there GIANT SIZED CROSSES and there Patriotism. I can't stand it.
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Permalink Reply by Adam Sweet on -
As long as there have been humans, there has been some form of lunacy. Even now, in the 21st century, lunacy reigns. Look at our political system! You can't get elected to public office unless you claim to be religious. I don't think it will happen any time soon.
Science Fiction authors have talked about this topic for years. Writers such as Heinlein (Stranger in a Strange Land), Banks (the Culture series), even Tolkien, have composed well thought out stories of civilizations without religion, but they are just fantasy.
To be human means to be a pattern seeker, a safety and comfort needer and a ritual maker. These are universal traits across every culture in our world. No matter where we go or what we do, we will take these traits with us as they are part of the human experience, just as are music, art, literature and science.
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Permalink Reply by Tom Thompson on -
I'm reading 'Breaking the Spell' by Daniel Dennett right now and he explores the origins of religion and why it is a compelling meme. I recommend reading it if you really seek an answer to your question. It won't answer the question, I suspect, but it will give you insight into why religion lingers.
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Permalink Reply by Dave on -
There are highly plausible hypotheses, from the fields of evolutionary psychology and evolutionary anthropology, for example, that the adaptive role played by religion in the ecological success and survival of groups of H. sapiens, i.e. in terms of the species' biological evolution, has been co-opted by, and has interacted with, cultural evolution during the past 10,000 years ot so. Here, so such hypotheses go, it is accompanied by other evolutionarily inherited genetic and neurophysiological predispositions which may sometimes continue to be beneficial but are often not so for contemporary humans (e.g. nepotism, sexual promiscuity, violence attributable to group loyalty). How religion rates according to judgments of contemporary adaptiveness or maladaptiveness is the key question. As an atheist, I probably tend to see the maladaptive aspects more clearly. Cognitive anthropologist Pascal Boyer, who has written extensively on religion as a cross-cultural phenomenon, explains simply how various inherited cognitive characteristics of humans predispose us to faith (Religion: Bound to believe? Nature, Vol 455, 23 October 2008, tinyurl.com/4f84wm). He concludes pretty much that atheism is a hard slog. Our consolation must be that much that we have done as humans has been a hard slog against evolutionarily inherited predispositions, but that it has been well worth doing!
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Permalink Reply by Tarquin St John Sh'gn'sty on -
Don't hold your breath.
Religion was invented by humans to meet a range of human needs, such as explaining the weather, giving the illusion of order,purpose and control and of course to help face the fear of death.
Some of these needs have almost gone [in our culture]. Not many people still pray to storm gods for example. However, it seems the majority still have a need to feel special compared with other animals,and to feel in control of their life or at least have some transcendent right of appeal. The biggie still seems to be the fear of death.
The question for me is not if and when religion will disappear,as I don't believe I ever will,completely.Rather, when will it cease to dominate our culture and will we notice?
The end of religion will not make humans into something we are not.Viz a consistently rational species. Our strongest attitudes,values and beliefs are inculcated before the age of reason. Most human beings go through life without questioning their most basic beliefs,they are simply accepted. The reaction to any perceived threat to one's personal status quo is mindless and often vicious.. THAT is why there are so few atheists.
"If you could reason with religious people there wouldn't be any "(Greg House)
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Permalink Reply by Rob Steele on -
I think that evolution will take care of religion. Humans no longer need to rely on the fairy tales passed down from our ancestors to survive, our brains are taking care of that. Eventually reason will win out, and from that religion will die.
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