Is Science The Top Reason People Abandon Spiritual Pursuits?

[Twilight Hue]

What do you think is the top reason people leave religion and spiritual paths? I think it’s science. However, I don’t think science is intentionally trying to lead people away from these things. I think it’s just happening. The only other reason I can think of would be killing in the name of religion. Are there more you can think of?

Science is a direct observation and engagement of reality as it stands. If it conflicts with a religion then that religion is no longer viable so people leave and drop it.

 

[ChristineM]

What do you think is the top reason people leave religion and spiritual paths? I think it’s science. However, I don’t think science is intentionally trying to lead people away from these things. I think it’s just happening. The only other reason I can think of would be killing in the name of religion. Are there more you can think of?

For me is was a hateful congregation.
However
A friend was on an interdenominational inquiry as to why religion is in decline. The premier cause was though to be the internet with its easy access to information.
I guess you could call the internet science.

 

[Jimmy]

People don't usually abandon spiritual pursuits but change their spiritual pursuits. People looking on may not understand what they are doing, however it’s not abandoning a spiritual pursuit. They might be anesthetized, but they don't abandon. The pursuit is still there, like a smoldering coal.

Some yes

 

[Jimmy]

. . .

Science is a top reason I developed religious pursuits.

Science is an inherently religious pursuit. It stems from precisely the same impetus as the more flexible and whimsical narrative storytelling of religions - a strong desire to understand, make sense of, and find meaning in the world around us. Science is why I do not have "faith" in my gods, I know my gods. They're literally studied by the sciences themselves as one method of many to get to know them.

That’s different

 

[Jimmy]

I'm curious about what you're imagining here. How exactly do you think science causes people to leave religion (maybe look up what the word actually means first)?

I can understand (and have witnessed) new or different knowledge and understanding shifting people's religious beliefs and practices, but that isn't necessarily due to science (or even factually accurate). People can leave religion for flawed or irrational reasons just as they can join them for flawed or irrational reasons.

Anyway, in my experience, people tend to move away from religion slowly over time, even without really noticing for a long time. This is especially true when those beliefs and religion came from their childhood upbringing. Of course, that doesn't automatically mean they move away from religion entirely, and certainly not some form of abstract spirituality, even if you don't perceive, recognise or accept that.

Getting more informed about how the world works. How life began etc.

 

[PureX]

What do you think is the top reason people leave religion and spiritual paths? I think it’s science. However, I don’t think science is intentionally trying to lead people away from these things. I think it’s just happening. The only other reason I can think of would be killing in the name of religion. Are there more you can think of?

I think organized religion turns more people away from a spiritual path then science does. Partly because they try to preach against practical knowledge and to promote superstition, ignorance, and fear.

The real culprit, however, is the omnipresence of greed and dishonesty and selfishness that comes with capitalism.

 

[Jimmy]

I think organized religion turns more people away from a spiritual path then science does. Partly because they try to preach against practical knowledge to promote superstition, ignorance, and fear.

I can’t speak for other religions, but the story of Jesus Christ is pretty awesome and full of great wisdom in my opinion. I don’t think it turns people away from spiritual paths.

 

[F1fan]

I can’t speak for other religions, but the story of Jesus Christ is pretty awesome

Yeah, myths are often entertaining because they are fantastic and implausible to what we understand as reality. We love to escape from our mundane lives, and this is how religion can manipulate some to believe in irrational stories.

and full of great wisdom in my opinion.

How is it wise to believe implausible stories are real and true? The irony is massive here. Belief in false ideas is easy, reasoning and wisdom is hard.

I don’t think it turns people away from spiritual paths.

I don't see much that is spiritual in believeing implausible dogma. A head full of dogma doesn't lead anyone to wise decisions or right, moral action. Just ask any of the Catholics and Lutherans who committed the Holocaust. Becoming a Christian is no guarantee of anything good.

 

[Jimmy]

Yeah, myths are often entertaining because they are fantastic and implausible to what we understand as reality. We love to escape from our mundane lives, and this is how religion can manipulate some to believe in irrational stories.

How is it wise to believe implausible stories are real and true? The irony is massive here. Belief in false ideas is easy, reasoning and wisdom is hard.

I don't see much that is spiritual in believeing implausible dogma. A head full of dogma doesn't lead anyone to wise decisions or right, moral action. Just ask any of the Catholics and Lutherans who committed the Holocaust. Becoming a Christian is no guarantee of anything good.

I’m not escaping a mundane life. If you can’t grasp the Christian belief that Jesus died, was risen from the grave, is now in heaven and will return, then I can’t explain it to you. I guess some people get it while others do not.

 

[F1fan]

I’m not escaping a mundane life.

Then why believe in an implausible religious story? The Jesus myth is not factual, so what is your real motive?

If you can’t grasp the Christian belief that Jesus died, was risen from the grave, is now in heaven and will return, then I can’t explain it to you.

What is there to "grasp"? The story is not factual. It's not plausible. It's even absurd if interpreted literally. Why? Because God decided to impregnate a women so she could have a son, that would eventually teach some new ideas that conflicted with Judaism (God's own religion) that ended up causing social tension, and his torture and execution. This is what allowed God to forgive the sins of mankind? God couldn't just decide to forgive the sins without killing a guy? If God needed to correct his religion (Judaism) why not just create a new testament conceptually?

And what did salvation actually accomplish? Many Christians think their belief in Christianity gets them a free pass to heaven. All others are automatically condemned to hell. Is that accurate? Is that what God designed and intended? So all the people who never heard of Christianity and had their own religions found temselves in hell after death? None of this ideology makes sense. The Bible actially says that the sins of mankind are absolved, and that means all humans, everywhere, no strings attached. So why believe in Christianity when we don;t have to as access to heaven?

I guess some people get it while others do not.

The "getting it" seems to be non-rational indoctrination at work. Do the manipulated and indoctrinated know they have been duped? No. That's how indoctrination works. And of course, the indoctrinated think they "get it". No, they got duped.

 

[PureX]

I can’t speak for other religions, but the story of Jesus Christ is pretty awesome and full of great wisdom in my opinion. I don’t think it turns people away from spiritual paths.

But the story is not the religion.

 

[Jimmy]

But the story is not the religion.

Care to elaborate?

 

[Regiomontanus]

What do you think is the top reason people leave religion and spiritual paths? I think it’s science. However, I don’t think science is intentionally trying to lead people away from these things. I think it’s just happening. The only other reason I can think of would be killing in the name of religion. Are there more you can think of?

My career in science is what led me to Christ.

 

[Jimmy]

My career in science is what led me to Christ.

Unusual

 

[Regiomontanus]

Unusual

Perhaps, but it happens. A well-known example is

Francis Collins - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

And of course some of the greatest scientists (Newton, Kepler, Galileo, etc.) were devout.

 

[Jimmy]

Perhaps, but it happens. A well-known example is

Francis Collins - Wikipedia

en.m.wikipedia.org

And of course some of the greatest scientists (Newton, Kepler, Galileo, etc.) were devout.

That doesn’t mean science led them there

 

[F1fan]

That doesn’t mean science led them there

Science has to follow evidence and can't make judgments beyond the evidence. That measn humans can ask questions that can't be answered by science. If the person really, really wants an answer they can turn to religions. Of course religions don't follow facts or evidence, just their traditions of belief. These tradtions of belief can soothe anxiety and make them feel as if there is some meaning beyond nature. Not all humans need this emotional comfort, and they can cope with life's hardship via their own wits. When peovle turn to religion to cope it tells us something about the person, not about religions. Any dogma will help create emotional stability in those who seek it.

Oh, feel free to answer my questions in post 30, if able.

 

[Regiomontanus]

That doesn’t mean science led them there

Read his autobiography. It is quite good.

 

[Soandso]

In my case it wasn't science that led me away from religion, but religion that led me away from religion. More specifically: being raised with and immersed in christian apologetics. The real world vs. the idea of what the real world is via christian apologetics doesn't line up

Not saying Christianity or any religions out there aren't honest in they way they approach or try to define the real world, but the upbringing I've had has definitely shown a light on the lies and manipulation that are possible via apologetics

 

[Quintessence]

That’s different

Yes and no.

For better or worse (personally, I'd say worse) there's a lot of ignorance about the contribution established religion has made to the development of the sciences throughout history. The main reason the West is a literate culture at all - a baseline requisite of a culture that can do science - is because of the influence of Christianity, an inherently literacy-based religion given the central importance of the Bible. The push or literacy largely came out of wanting the peasants to be able to actually read the sacred text of Christianity. Add to this the rich tradition of the more well-educated clergy being schooled in the classics - philosophy in particular which was the antecedent to the sciences and modern science today is still grounded in it - and pretty much all the scientific revolutionaries were some flavor of Christian wanting to study what they interpreted as "God's creation." But these stories don't get told because it's all the rage these days to pretend that science and "religion" (simplifying religion to some particular type of Christianity, of course) are at odds with one another.

I'm different in the sense I'm not Christian. But not in the sense of religion and science having a long history together.