Which Religions Will Die Out?

[Kirran]

Well a nice mixed bag of responses here, thanks for the perspectives on this everyone.

One trend which may prove pretty major is the growth of Christianity in China...

Given the number of churches, synagogues, mosques, temples being built I'd say God is alive and kicking. Remember, I said society has changed, religion largely hasn't. The Catholic Mass is still the Catholic Mass, Passover is still Passover, Ramadan is still Ramandan, Hindu festivals are... well... beyond count. Saints and religious figures and leaders come and go, but the core religions have remained largely unchanged ove the past 10 centuries.

Well, we may be doing many of the rituals the same, but this doesn't mean the way we think about religion is the same. Not to mention the vast numbers of new sects and movements within existing religions, and changes taking place in existing ones, such as the Catholic Church.

It seems these past 30 years or so people seem to equate "I believe in God" to Christianity. Like, I mean to say, it's a vanilla response for a lot of people. Like polls ask what religion are you, and you aren't a Jew and you're not a Muslim, so what else do you say? Language, understanding... why isn't "theist" just an option?

For example, I live in the United States and I don't think this country is anywhere near as Christian as reports would otherwise suggest, while the level of overall spirituality isn't too far off over the same course of time.

I think this is a very good point. I've noticed this in a big way here in the UK as well.

 

[Politesse]

Religious membership follows politics to a large extent; I don't know how to predict religious futures without knowing more than I do about the future of global society. Even if you were just asking about 50 years. Are we railroading toward another series of world wars? Will the economy of the West recover, or be replaced? Will the radical Muslim insurgency survive the depletion of certain oil fields that currently fund much of it? At a thousand years, these questions become unanswerable even by speculation. Not sure how to answer the other more specific question, as what tradition I belong to is a tricky question to begin with. I think there will always be people like me; I see brethren throughout the pages of history, and in many places. The world will always have a place for heretics and students of humanity. But who can say what labels will get stuck to the weirdos of tomorrow?

 

[ChristineES]

Within the next thousand years, which major religious traditions of today (Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Judaism, whichever others you'd like to talk about) can you see dying out entirely? If any.

Will your own religion die out? I imagine not

Other side of the coin, which ones do you think are likely to flourish, grow, spread? What'll be the changes to such religions as they grow? Might they include religions that are currently pretty small, like the Baha'i Faith, the Rastafari movement, Raelianism, Cao Dai?

I'll be interested to hear people's opinions.

Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Christianity, Taoism, etc. have been around for Millennia. They are still thriving today. There are a few newer religions, like B'ahai, that have only been around a couple of hundred years. As of right now, I don't see them dying out.
A forum such as this one shows that people are still very much interested in religion, even those who hate religion and don't follow it.

 

[Laika]

I doubt that religion will die out entirely, but it would have to be incorporated into a secular, humanist and atheist philosophy as religion does represent some innate psychological needs to know our place in the world, not simply in a rational way but on an intuitive and emotional level.

The specifics of which religion will go where does very much depend on politics as Politiese rightly pointed out- though liberal secularism has broken this bond more than would be the case, so religion is not necessarily any longer tied to the nation state as happens in theocracies. Globalization will radically change the face of religion as they inter-mix. That in itself could spawn new faiths.
Technological change will also be a factor, as it will create new areas of human knowledge, new controversies and the necessity of new perspectives. I can well imagine a religion about a promised land on another planet, or that God is located somewhere in the universe just waiting to be found.

I would say the fate of Communism (as a pseudo-religion) is heading towards extinction unless it changes drastically within the next century. The intellectual climate is deeply hostile to it and it was pretty heretical form of enlightenment thinking to start off with. I think it is however extremely unlikely that there won't be sudden bursts of militant or pseudo-scientific atheism or revolutionary humanism in the future and there may be successor ideologies to communism, particularly if the human race screws up big time on climate change or nuclear war and the problem of evil becomes an immediate issue. People generally don't want to build a new world unless they reach the conclusion there is something profoundly wrong with the old one. It may also be the case that scientific knowledge leads to greater secularization and more widespread atheism, but what is clear is that this is not a linear process. Religion is deeply in-built in our social fabric and only revolutionary politics could ever hope to create a world without religion.

 

[Kolibri]

A form of worship involves 2, does it not? The one worshiped and the ones worshiping?

If the one worshiped has any power, then he would have some say on what continues to exist and what does not as far as valid forms of worship go.

If the Bible is to be believed all organized forms of worship unapproved by that God will be actively destroyed by the political elements of this world. And when these political elements (Gog) finally turn on the approved form of worship, that will signal the moment God acts in a way so that all will have to recognize him instead of just those that want to.

 

[Augustus]

Any religion that was around 1000 years ago and is still popular has a fair chance of still being here in another thousand years.

Don't think that you could really say any particular one of the major faiths is more likely to be around in a thousand years than any of the others. All have long histories, and trying to use contemporary trends to interpret long term futures is horrendously unreliable.

Simply what has remained popular for a very long time is likely to remain popular for a very long time in the future as it has proved resilient to numerous challenges.

Maybe all will be around, maybe none. But it would be far too speculative to try to predict which specific religions are most likely to survive.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Sigh. That isn't what Nietzsche(Philosopher, not me) meant when he said "Gott ist tot. Gott bleibt tot. Und wir haben ihn getötet"/"God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him".

I meant what Nietzsche meant. Of course we did not literally kill god. Rather, we do not have god being the ultimate source of morality, of guiding principles, and approval. His position can be seen in Western society as we steadily went from a world of demons and the hand of god controlling everything to a world of science, logic, and reason. We no longer believe in cosmic order, and we know good and evil, right and wrong, are not concrete definitions just because the Bible (or any other source of "morality") says "Thou shalt" or "Thou shalt not."
People can say god is not dead, but with the state of affairs today, god is most certainly definitely dead. If he is alive, at best he is the king of an arid wasteland where the dead reign and nihilism and having a false sense of security are virtues.

Given the number of churches, synagogues, mosques, temples being built I'd say God is alive and kicking. Remember, I said society has changed, religion largely hasn't. The Catholic Mass is still the Catholic Mass, Passover is still Passover, Ramadan is still Ramandan, Hindu festivals are... well... beyond count. Saints and religious figures and leaders come and go, but the core religions have remained largely unchanged ove the past 10 centuries.

Religion has changed. Religion is finding itself having to change itself to survive being in contemporary times, such as allowing blacks, gays, and female priests. Religion largely no longer acknowledges demonic possession and witchcraft as real forces. The Catholic Mass is still Catholic Mass, but how many of them today believe god will literally strike them dead over an act of transgression? How many of them worry about being sinless because they may not live long enough to make it to confession again? How many of them would take up arms if Pope Francis calls for a Crusade?
Even what is focused on has changed. Whereas Christianity was once fixated with Hell, damnation, and punishment, and suffering as an integral part of life, today we focus more on the positive, on being happy, and enjoying things in life rather than abstaining from the pleasures of life. Even just about 250 years ago it would have been unthinkable to put "in god we trust" or "one nation under god" on any official government documents, as a secular state was a goal/ideal for non-believing political leaders and church leaders alike; today though religion expects god to be a part of the state and the issues and concerns of mixing religion and government are ignored.

 

[Nietzsche]

A form of worship involves 2, does it not? The one worshiped and the ones worshiping?

If the one worshiped has any power, then he would have some say on what continues to exist and what does not as far as valid forms of worship go.

If the Bible is to be believed all organized forms of worship unapproved by that God will be actively destroyed by the political elements of this world. And when these political elements (Gog) finally turn on the approved form of worship, that will signal the moment God acts in a way so that all will have to recognize him instead of just those that want to.

So why are the Pagan faiths, the various Buddhisms, Shinto, Hinduism, Sikh, the menagerie of African and Australasian folk beliefs, the Mesoamerican pagan faiths so on & so forth still doing so well?

Even in Europe, where Christianity was rather successful, belief in the Old Faiths(mostly in the Baltic, Scandinavia & Finland) never died out.

 

[ChristineES]

The trend isn't so much of religions dying out, but kids actually abandoning the faith of their parents. It used to be that children felt as though they were being disrespectful to their parents if they abandoned the faith/religion (no matter what it was), they were raised in. People have learned that it isn't disrespect if you leave the religion of your family.
My mother raised me without any religion and she was an atheist; she did not get upset when I decided to become a Christian (for example).

 

[Guy Threepwood]

Within the next thousand years, which major religious traditions of today (Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism, Judaism, whichever others you'd like to talk about) can you see dying out entirely? If any.

Will your own religion die out? I imagine not

Other side of the coin, which ones do you think are likely to flourish, grow, spread? What'll be the changes to such religions as they grow? Might they include religions that are currently pretty small, like the Baha'i Faith, the Rastafari movement, Raelianism, Cao Dai?

I'll be interested to hear people's opinions.

With freedom of religion returning to large parts, billions of people of Asia, I think atheism is dwindling as a belief system there.

 

[Kolibri]

So why are the Pagan faiths, the various Buddhisms, Shinto, Hinduism, Sikh, the menagerie of African and Australasian folk beliefs, the Mesoamerican pagan faiths so on & so forth still doing so well?

Even in Europe, where Christianity was rather successful, belief in the Old Faiths(mostly in the Baltic, Scandinavia & Finland) never died out.

eh. my post was about power applied. Not about cultural growth. If there is a truly powerful being out there, then his power can be used to change things when his time for tolerance ends.

 

[gsa]

If they don't die, the twin Abrahamic universal faith traditions will be changed beyond recognition. Religion will be largely reduced to culture and metaphors. Traditional believers will be a curious oddity, much like the Amish.

If I had to guess.

 

[Servant_of_the_One1]

It is from Islamic Prophecies that there will be smoke which kills off all muslims, leaving only polytheists and the people that reject faith. The earth will be filled by disbelief and people behave like satanists, committing adultery in public. Judgement day is not that far.

1. "Smoke will appear all over the earth which will cause believers to catch something similar to a slight cold, whereas the unbelievers will be hit harder by it. Finally, a cold wind will come and kill all believers, leaving only unbelievers on the earth who will then witness the LAST HOUR. The angel Israfil will blow a trumpet, and the resurrection of all human beings will begin." [At this point, the Day of Resurrection commences in which the skies and earth are destroyed by Allah.]

 

[Augustus]

Interesting short article on some minority religions in the ME that have persevered. Some points might be relevant to this topic.

Interview with Gerard Russell on Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms | On Religion – The UK's first magazine about faith, religion and society

 

[Deidre]

What is hard to grasp sometimes, is how some of these religions have made it this far, from how they started out. All of the Abrahamic faiths started out with extreme violence, and oppression of others who didn't fall in line with them.

Any religion or ideology will 'die out,' if its tenets are built on oppressing certain groups, and claiming that such oppression is a will of God.

 

[Poeticus]

The proselytizing, exclusivistic traditions are the only thing I know of which kills off other religious traditions or brings them to the point of barely holding on. What are the chances that the people of those traditions succeed in forcing out other major religions or that their Last Days events finally happen and supernatural help kills off the other religions? I think chances are very, very slim.

Taking advantage of isolated peoples who are very hungry, sick, vulnerable in general is one thing...forceful persuasion of a certain weak region is one thing...but the world religions are world-wide and pretty much set.

Do not worry, comrade. I long for the day when you and I can travel through Scandinavia and offer respects to the gods of those lands. However, you will have to show me how to do it properly. And for the kindness you have shown me as a spiritual brother of mine, I shall gift you one of the finest longbows Estonia currently produces, the Falco. I hope we have terms. And if so, let us clash our cups of ale and rejoice!

 

[Politesse]

What is hard to grasp sometimes, is how some of these religions have made it this far, from how they started out. All of the Abrahamic faiths started out with extreme violence, and oppression of others who didn't fall in line with them.

Any religion or ideology will 'die out,' if its tenets are built on oppressing certain groups, and claiming that such oppression is a will of God.

...

You mean that because Christianity became a state power two hundred and fifty years after its debut, it can never be seen as anything but that violent, oppressive state religion? Or that because the Umayyad Empire won a lot of territory very quickly, that we should see all of Muslim history as a period of unending conquest? I do not agree. Politics and religion are always intertwined, but one is never the sole cause of the other in the long term, or religions would die as quickly as empires. But no empire has ever had the staying power of any of the major religious traditions.

 

[psychoslice]

I personally think they all should die out, for most religions today are so out dated, death of those religions hopefully will bring into existence a more intelligent religion, that has no dogma, and therefor cannot become a fundamentalist belief system. Hopefully it will bring us to our true inner divine self, and everyone else will see that self in everyone else, for there really is only one self.

 

[Bunyip]

I would say all of them. And any that did survive would be as unrecognizable to the form that exists now as early Christianity is to the modern Anglicans.

 

[Caligula]

Superstition is part of human nature and I don't think 1,000 years is enough for that to change. If religion boils down to nothing but faith, it is of no concern. What really matters is its future influence.

The more abstract and less dogmatic a religion is or will become, the more chances it has to survive (but at the cost of almost no political power).

I think religion will still be a great refuge for superstitions but its political power will be diluted to an unrecognizable degree. The more assertion a religion makes, especially in terms of how one should live his life, the less likely is to maintain its political power/influence. Religions that fight against nature and technological progress, failing to adapt, will suffer greatly in terms of power & credibility on the long run.

As a side note, I believe that in the next hundreds of years there will be major religious disputes and schisms, mainly because of medical advancements. Why did I pick this one in particular? I think medical progress, as foreseen, has the greatest capacity of shaking dogmas and will be extremely controversial because of the conflict it produces when a promise of living much longer and better life, here, on Earth, is made. I mean some of the promises that come from that direction are controversial even for non-religious people. Unfortunately, this type of major conflicts will also strengthen the nucleus of some religions, allowing fundamentalists and extremists to grow in size and gain sympathy and influence. And, if you ask me, those people are the secret of survival for Abrahamic religions.

I picture religion as being a big sphere, composed of dogmatic people. If, at first, this sphere was made from a very solid material, in time its surface softened and we are able to distinguish a solid core. And, if we relate to the present dogmas, I have no doubt that this core will shrink even more in the next 1,000 years at a much faster rate that it did before.

IMO the "religion" of the future already has a name: government conspiracy. It will be interesting to see how society deals with that.