religion is slowly dying?

[Rick O'Shez]

Jesus will return before 200 years...

Could you be more precise? I need to plan my retirement.

 

[Tiapan]

Then you don't really know enough philosophy or science to argue that

I bow to your superior intellect, but answer me one question do animals have emotions and feelings, and if so are we not just another sentient mammal.
cheers

 

[Robert Landbeck]

I can't remember where i read this, or perhaps heard it.. but i've heard/read that religions are slowl declining in favour of science.. would you say this is true? in 200 years from now might there be no religion ? your opinion I'm not sure, so I have no answer I guess..

While the health of religious traditions is highly variable upon location and culture, the intellectual hold religion has on the mind is very much dying out, particularly in the West. Questions are being asked about the efficacy of religion that would never have happened even ten years ago. The rise of atheism forcing may to rethink their positions. The sexual scandals facing many traditions has undermined the moral cred of many. And culture itself, so imbued by the with products of Enlightenment thinking, for example the very computer I'm typing on, brings a 'faith' conception, unable to accomplish anything, at variance with everyday experience. For myself, who is still prepared to believe in God, I no longer consider theology, the very foundation of tradition, to be a valid human intellectual endeavor. Theology only exists because nothing has, as yet, been revealed! The Final Freedoms

 

[Reverend Richard]

Okay, I've been away for a while, but I couldn't help but respond to this thread. I have moved around quite a bit on my spiritual journey (fundamentalist Christian > Catholic > Agnostic > Science of Mind). As an ordained minister, it is a fascinating topic for me.

Are religions dying out? Yes and no. Religions are very adaptable based on the social and cultural environments they enter. Christianity for example co-opted several pagan beliefs as its own, such as Christmas, Easter and Halloween. I guess the ends justify the means. But as many in this thread have already suggested, I think science will win the day (over time), but even then some scientists are arguing that quantum physics "proves" that there is an organizing intelligence behind the Universe. (See physicist Amit Goswami's book - God is Not Dead).

An *no*, I am not referring to a God that is behind the fake science of "creationism". That is a non-starter for me.

 

[miodrag]

hmm but if religions are renewed/adjusted to go hand and hand with science.. what does that say about religion? isn't it pretty much admitting it was wrong? if so, whats to say everything else isn't wrong also?

A domain of science is strictly physics, domain of religion is metaphysics. So there will be always room for religion, since science is not making compromise with metaphysics. An extreme atheism with the ultimate metaphysical achievement is - Buddhism. Religions may become less popular as it become more evident how illogical they are, when their inner inconsistency was exposed. Science is not such a threat, since Bible for example was not meant to be a scientific book, or authority on mathematics, geography, history, biology... - there are many scientific errors in Bible. Purpose of the Bible was not to be a scientific manual. It deals with this world merely to provide a model for understanding reality at the particular moment to a particular society. But the message of Christianity is that we are not of this world. Science is inconvenient for religion because it promotes critical thinking - something that religion desperately needs.

Then again, everything that has a beginning is doomed to end, sooner or later. So, religions that were started will surely end, but not any time soon. Hinduism predicts decline in religiosity, we now live in Kali yuga, the dark age, that will last for another 427000 years. At the end of Kali yuga, humanity will reach the peak in degradation and irreligiosity, after which another golden age will come and religion will be established again.

 

[suzy smith]

I can't remember where i read this, or perhaps heard it.. but i've heard/read that religions are slowl declining in favour of science.. would you say this is true? in 200 years from now might there be no religion ? your opinion I'm not sure, so I have no answer I guess..

The religions of the world, when looked at in the light of modern science are literally unbelievable. Often on debating sites like this one we get reminded of all the crazy stuff we are asked to believe in by the theists. The flood, Mohamed flying up to heaven on a winged horse, talking snakes, the world being less than 10,00 years old and so on.

But religion continuing to be around 200 years from now in the sense that people will still think there is an intelligence behind ‘everything’ is a given fact in my opinion. Thats just how the human mind [brain] works. Thanks for that evolution, nice one!

 

[Serenity7855]

I can't remember where i read this, or perhaps heard it.. but i've heard/read that religions are slowl declining in favour of science.. would you say this is true? in 200 years from now might there be no religion ? your opinion I'm not sure, so I have no answer I guess..

I am sure that someone has already picked up on this, but why do you pit religion against science, or visa versa. Do you think that religion is dying in favour of the new religion, called science. Both are synonymous in as much as their source of knowledge so to say that religion is dying is to say the same of science. This is yet another attempt to segregate and agitate two disciplines that are on common ground by saying that "my dad is bigger then your dad"

I have a gut feeling that situations will be ripe for Armageddon long before 200 years, so the question is irrelevant, not withstanding that it has lasted for 2000 years now. It has also been prophesied that the church would fall from within before the great and terrible day of the Lord. The decline is in church attendance and was prophesied of by ancient prophets. There is still a majority count of Christians in the UK, probably more in the USA. It is the individual religions that are becoming untenable, as a result of their false doctrines, which losing them their congregations. Christianity is still quite strong and thriving.

 

[thau]

I can't remember where i read this, or perhaps heard it.. but i've heard/read that religions are slowl declining in favour of science.. would you say this is true? in 200 years from now might there be no religion ? your opinion I'm not sure, so I have no answer I guess..

Science, despite itself or despite its objectives, is proving God far more than disproving God. E.g. The Shroud of Turin.

 

[Serenity7855]

The religions of the world, when looked at in the light of modern science are literally unbelievable. Often on debating sites like this one we get reminded of all the crazy stuff we are asked to believe in by the theists. The flood, Mohamed flying up to heaven on a winged horse, talking snakes, the world being less than 10,00 years old and so on.

But religion continuing to be around 200 years from now in the sense that people will still think there is an intelligence behind ‘everything’ is a given fact in my opinion. Thats just how the human mind [brain] works. Thanks for that evolution, nice one!

It is funny what some people claim about scriptures and what is exactly said. I have never seen anything in scriptures that is unbelievable and certainly not crazy stuff asking us to believe the unbelievable. The flood is a parable, as is the talking snake. The suggestion that we should believe it actually happened is not made in scriptures.

 

[Seablade the Heretic]

Religion never dies because the collective we (being all of us humans) haven't found the answers to the burning questions we seek: why am I here? What is the purpose of all of this? Is there anything after this life? What does any of this mean if it means anything at all? Although some would argue that those questions are already answered from both a religious and secular standpoint, dependent upon personal beliefs and/or the evidence and therefore the answers to the questions are settled. I argue that nothing is settled. Similar to the law of conservation of energy, religion only changes forms and we are seeing a fundamental shift, at least in western thought, from a generalized previous belief in a God which inculcates an afterlife to the atheistic ideals that there is nothing else after this life and everything is by chance and accident.

The answers to these questions are not settled, and moreover, are still burning to this day. Religion, both secular and non-secular (i.e., religion, non-religion, and science), attempt to answer these questions, but only can do so from a historical context of previously gained and/or understood knowledge and thought experiments written in holy books (yes, even science has holy books such as "The Origin of Species"). The problem with any belief system (science included) is that once the particular world-view foundation has been laid within the individual's mind, the questions then become settled with little room for debate later. To the religious mind, regardless of the branch, be it Hinduism or Christianity, or the new religion of Science, the questions of life are settled: we know our origins, we know why we're here and we know where we're going. It therefore becomes very difficult to progress with any new understanding or knowledge because all new knowledge gained must fit into those pigeonholes and be viewed through the lens of the particular worldview and if it does not, it's an anomaly, worthy of discard.

No, religion is not dying nor slowly dying and never will die. It will undergo metamorphosis many times over, merely changing shape, but won't die, because, as the song says, "I still haven't found what I'm looking for" and neither has any of us; we only believe we have.

 

[Serenity7855]

I don't recall reading that. Verse?

That is because it is not scripture.

 

[Serenity7855]

I think its great that some of religion is dying , it needs to be relevant for today and not for the past that was full of ignorance and superstations, out of its death I think a more personal religion will arise, we will find our own inner being, or own connection to the Cosmos, the word god will be no longer needed, for it only kept us away from ever discovering our own inner connection. This realization is already happening throughout the world, to me its the second coming of the Christ Consciousness.

The principles, precepts and allegories are timeless. They are not dependent on fads and fashions. To commit adultery is equally as bad today as it was 1500 years ago.

 

[SaintMalachi]

ROFL BAHAHAHA

Science is a tool not a philosophy. Materialism is the philosophy that people are clinging to now

I agree completely agree with you.

 

[Moishe3rd]

The new religions of secularism, science, global warming, environmentalism, etc, will probably all fade away as have some of their predecessors such as communism, fascism, etc. and all the dictator cults of personality that come and go in every generation.
Religions come and go.
There is no reason to think that the religions that have stood the test of time for the last several thousand years will disappear.

 

[epizano1]

Religion is very much alive. There are new interests in spirituality and many are rediscovering traditional faith in Christianity esp. Catholicism the largest Christian church and oldest. We are seeing secularization but science for its own sake is aimless and dangerous.

This is the secularization thesis by which "the belief that as societies progress, particularly through modernization and rationalization, religion loses its authority in all aspects of social life and governance."

As Liberalism has grown over the past two or three centuries, so societies have become more secular, with legal recognition of the separation of church and state and a wider acceptance of the idea that religion is a private rather than a public or political concern. The advance of scientific knowledge has helped increase our understanding of the universe, but we are really struggling with moral knowledge about the nature of man.


Right now our society is having problems with the very concept of progress. the twentieth century threw up some really unexpected surprises (two world wars, the great depression, the horrors of communism and Nazism/fascism, and the near collapse of liberal-democratic systems in the thirties), and so it is very difficult to accept linear conceptions of progress that societies evolve towards a higher state. It's really shaken our collective confidence in progress, as well as science and reason. Science, instead of being an instrument of enlightenment, became a weapon of war, such as with the development of the Atom bomb, or of totalitarian systems as both communism and fascism made claims to be based on scientific knowledge of what man could become.

This is why popular culture is so saturated with ideas about dystopian societies (i.e. the opposite of utopia) and apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic landscapes as we are still really trying to come to terms with this. Another aspect is the overall crisis of 'progressive' centre-left politics which is being pushed to support free market economics because it is more 'realistic' than having ideals whilst expecting society to experience moral progress, as well as widespread fears over environmental problems because we don't think we can 'progress' beyond our current reliance on fossil fuels and may therefore regress to a barbaric society as we run out of oil or as climate change gets underway.

All the chaos of the twentieth century is pinned on the fault of "human nature" without really knowing exactly what that nature is in a scientific sense. Our understanding of man is still largely based on philosophy, to a greater or lesser extent derived from religious teaching, presented as fact. 'human nature' is a concept roughly equivalent to the soul in belonging to an immaterial conception of man in which mind and body are separate; hence the moral attributes of man are assumed to be separate from our physical being and socioeconomic life and therefore beyond the scope of scientific understanding. Whether we can have scientific knowledge about man and morality as the basis for further secularization is still up for debate.

The picture is further complicated by the fact that the trend towards secularization has somewhat gone into reverse over the latter half of the twentieth century; The US has completely broken with this trend and despite being the worlds largest economy, it is also one of the most religious developed countries. The collapse of Communism also put this idea in doubt because it brought into question not only ideas about social progress, but also the possibility of atheist societies (because communism utterly failed to convince its own population that there was no god despite having every advantage to do so). The rise of Islamic Fundamentalism also gives weight to this, as people like ISIS and Al Qaeda are straight out of our history books representing something deeply medieval. In some ways the rise of the New Atheists such as Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and co, is a revival of a secular trend, but it's still very early days to see where this is going.

It is perfectly possible that in 200 years there may be no religion, but we lack the confidence in reason and science to be sure. I suspect that religion won't simply die out, but would probably have to be "killed" by a form of militant atheism, because it is so closely interwoven with our moral and social ideas. I'm not sure whether that would be a good thing as the problem with the idea of progress are pretty legitimate.

Bconfidence in progress, as well as science and reason. Science, instead of being an instrument of enlightenment, became a weapon of war, such as with the development of the Atom bomb, or of totalitarian systems as both communism and fascism made claims to be based on scientific knowledge of what man could become.

This is why popular culture is so saturated with ideas about dystopian societies (i.e. the opposite of utopia) and apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic landscapes as we are still really trying to come to terms with this. Another aspect is the overall crisis of 'progressive' centre-left politics which is being pushed to support free market economics because it is more 'realistic' than having ideals whilst expecting society to experience moral progress, as well as widespread fears over environmental problems because we don't think we can 'progress' beyond our current reliance on fossil fuels and may therefore regress to a barbaric society as we run out of oil or as climate change gets underway.

All the chaos of the twentieth century is pinned on the fault of "human nature" without really knowing exactly what that nature is in a scientific sense. Our understanding of man is still largely based on philosophy, to a greater or lesser extent derived from religious teaching, presented as fact. 'human nature' is a concept roughly equivalent to the soul in belonging to an immaterial conception of man in which mind and body are separate; hence the moral attributes of man are assumed to be separate from our physical being and socioeconomic life and therefore beyond the scope of scientific understanding. Whether we can have scientific knowledge about man and morality as the basis for further secularization is still up for debate.

The picture is further complicated by the fact that the trend towards secularization has somewhat gone into reverse over the latter half of the twentieth century; The US has completely broken with this trend and despite being the worlds largest economy, it is also one of the most religious developed countries. The collapse of Communism also put this idea in doubt because it brought into question not only ideas about social progress, but also the possibility of atheist societies (because communism utterly fai
It is pe

 

[Astrologer]

Religious rituals requiring animal sacrifice need to die. I don't want a world without mystical things. I like good science, but abhor the disrespect for Mother Nature. Humans aren't very special in the overall scheme of things. We are just another species. We can do special things if we set our minds to it. I hope that Science and Religious/Philosophical energies can work together to provide quality lives for all living entities.

 

[stevevw]

The traditional religions maybe slowing down, though Islam is growing and some aspects of Christian faith may come and go. There is a renewal of interest in the Catholic belief with the new Pope. But there has also been a rejection through the actions of some in the church because of horrible things done to children. There are many new age beliefs popping up all the time. They may have nothing to do with a God like the ones associated with nature and other cosmic beliefs ect. But I think there will always be an element of belief in something beyond science because the evidence in science is also pointing towards this. Though science will give it a different interpretation.

Science can only explain things so far. Evidence in the quantum world points to things happening outside the normal parameters of the known physics. Some scientists talk of other dimensions where things can happen beyond our understanding. Whether this is interpreted as there being a spiritual world or a intelligent being only time will tell. But I believe even science will have to consider something beyond their own boundaries of how they test and verify things. There are things they cant explain like the finely tuned universe and dark energy. We dont fully understand how life exists and the forces that make everything work. Especially with something coming from nothing.

So I think people will always be asking the questions about who they are and where they come from and where they are going. I am not sure science can answer those things or even try to. I personally believe there is a God and that we all have the knowledge of that God in us. So it may not be a matter of there not being any evidence for God but rather the noise of secular thinking which is becoming more atheistic drowning out that God so that many cant even hear his voice anymore. Its easier for someone to trust and believe something that they can see and touch. But that doesn't mean that there is something beyond that.

 

[Laika]

We are seeing secularization but science for its own sake is aimless and dangerous.

Knowledge is power, and science can give us the power to change the world to suit our needs and is therefore potentially an instrument of progress. But science is amoral, and the scale of scientific and technological change has given us great power. At the moment the greatest enemy of progress isn't science but mankind themselves as we have not learned the humility and wisdom to exercise that power. Knowledge is not inherently dangerous- what people can do with it certainly can be.

It is possible science could be used to provide answers to moral questions and therefore incorporate an 'ethic' in the process of discovery itself, rather than coming from outside sources such as philosophy or religion, or even politics. But that represents a revolution in scientific thinking which we are a long way from achieving right now. necessity is the mother of invention, so maybe we will have to figure it out as time goes on and the growth of our powers becomes dangerous to it's own creators. We seem stuck in a time where we are frightened of unexpected consequences (e.g. Jurassic Park) and treat science with great suspicion and fear because we treat science itself as Frankenstein's monster, when in fact the problem may well be our own "Jekyll and Hyde" nature. Beyond a certain point, secularization poses great risks because the questions stop being about how we have control over the external world and instead become about having power over ourselves as the means towards further progress. So I agree it is dangerous, but not aimless.

 

[ThePainefulTruth]

I can't remember where i read this, or perhaps heard it.. but i've heard/read that religions are slowl declining in favour of science.. would you say this is true? in 200 years from now might there be no religion ? your opinion I'm not sure, so I have no answer I guess..

Science is in conflict only with revealed religion, but that' about all of them. Revealed religions can and should fade away, but they probably won't because emotion is so much easier than thinking things through. I think advancements in understanding of early Christian history will undermine it as a religion, slowly, for many people--but of course not all.

I think the religions that go against science are slowly dying. Very slowly. However, a lot of religions can go hand and hand with science (even if they're vastly less populous religions).

What religions? The only religions (which aren't actually religions per se) that don't go against science and reason are deism and atheism. And if either of them try to form a church, they'll become as corrupted by being fast and loose with the Truth as the rest.

Considering sciences are an outgrowth of the religious impetus - the search for truths and meaning - and considering sciences and religions have no intrinsic conflict, no.

Science and religion have no intrinsic conflict? Revelation and miracles are huge conflicts, their source being 100% hearsay.

ROFL BAHAHAHA

Science is a tool not a philosophy. Materialism is the philosophy that people are clinging to now

But materialism has one big problem, you can't take it with you. Science may be on the verge of providing some answers along those lines, but to understand and accept those answers, we'll need to abandon man-made revelations.

Jesus will return before 200 years....

JESUS IS LORD.

Jesus said he/the kingdom of heaven would return before his generation had passed. They've been rationalizing that not happening for 2000 years. Self-deception is vital component of all revealed religions. Without it, reason would have conquered the world long ago. But our fears are ripe for exploitation, in this world and the next.

 

[Midget01]

I can't remember where i read this, or perhaps heard it.. but I've heard/read that religions are slowly declining in favor of science.. would you say this is true? in 200 years from now might there be no religion ? your opinion I'm not sure, so I have no answer I guess..

If it is no one told all the churches who getting influxes of members. Those who have faith and believe the word are still spreading it. The devil and all the evil of this world would love to believe this. Until the world ends there will be religion. Religion is our way to express what we believe about the forces which appear to be beyond human control .This not even near coming to an end. Religion is a form of science. In fact Religion and Science co existed from it's conception. Science cannot take Religions place as well as Religion does not take Science place they need to co exist and be in balance in order to understand the purpose of both. The first and early Scientists were Priests of the Catholic Church. Look up Copernicus, Galileo, etc. some Scientists yes, has went off into left field thinking they can exist on their knowledge but this is not a truism. Religion is not fading out. It is stronger than ever in every part of the world. If you notice that when ever 2 large views come grow to a state where they appear to be equal in number wars or fights tend to break out and that is what is happening in the middle east. One is trying to out control the other. Religion is not dying it is growing in force and one type is trying to over take the other. But are they slowing down no.