Religion is a blind faith, a belief in an invisible man, or a worship of the unknown (aliens or ourselves from the future). At any rate, it surely will die in time, but spiritualism will continue to be a substitute for the unknown.
Will religion eventually collapse?
- Thread starter Globex
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Globex
President Scorpio
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If science debunks religious beliefs all of the time, doesn't it compromise the credibility of religion?
There are many purposes of religion other than to give spiritual satisfaction. Explaining things was once a very important purpose of religion. Now that science has better explanations for the workings of nature, much of the basis for belief in a supernatural entity is weakened.
If you believe that a supernatural entity is the cause of all natural phenomena, than every time you witness things such as sunrise, sunset, low tide, high tide, eclipses etc. would affirm your belief in that entity. Now that science explains these things, these occurrences no longer strengthen belief in the supernatural but instead puts the existence of a supernatural entity into doubt.
How populated a relgion's ranks are has nothing to do with whether its true or false. No doubt there will still be people who take up religious ideals but less people would do so in a secular nation than in a non-secular nation.
mangxema
I
I doubt religion will collapse entirely. Maybe decay a bit in terms of percentage of the population, or of breadth, but it can't disappear. Why? Because fundamentally, we can't prove that the world started with or without some kind of intervention... which means that that door will always be open.
aneeshm
Deity
Eventually could be a very, very, very long time.
First, nobody thought that Hinduism would take root in India at all. Then, the Buddhists thought that Hinduism would die out in a few centuries. So did the Muslims. So did the Christians. Now, so do the modernists.
I have no idea how long we will continue. I just hope that before the end, we'll have left something behind which made it worth it.
aneeshm
Deity
To answer the topic:
I divide religions into two types, the ones created by winners and the ones creates by losers.
The ones created by winners derive their power from self-affirmation. They're all about the individual, about personal growth and the growth of power, about the community as a vehicle or means for the individual enlightenment, and not as a goal in itself. The only way this sort of religious tradition can maintain itself is by keeping its distance from the "common" people, by making sure that the strong derive strength from the strong, and do not fall to degeneracy.
The other is the weak man's religion. This is all about the individual as inherently weak or hopeless, as the community or some external source as the meaning and purpose of existence, about how power and the powerful are the evil ones, about how, though they fail in this life, they will gain in some mythical afterlife.
There will always be these types of religions. The elite religion for the strong, and the insipid religion for the weak. They may mutate, they may evolve, but at the core they remain true to their genesis - the type of man they come from.
(Yes, I've been reading Nietzsche.)
Today, I just bought a few booklets from a Ramakrishna Mission stall. One of them was on methods to increase willpower, one on methods to increase strength of character, and the other two on meditation. Guess that answers which type our tradition falls into.
The religions of the weak will also always exist. Bearing witness: Oprah.
I divide religions into two types, the ones created by winners and the ones creates by losers.
The ones created by winners derive their power from self-affirmation. They're all about the individual, about personal growth and the growth of power, about the community as a vehicle or means for the individual enlightenment, and not as a goal in itself. The only way this sort of religious tradition can maintain itself is by keeping its distance from the "common" people, by making sure that the strong derive strength from the strong, and do not fall to degeneracy.
The other is the weak man's religion. This is all about the individual as inherently weak or hopeless, as the community or some external source as the meaning and purpose of existence, about how power and the powerful are the evil ones, about how, though they fail in this life, they will gain in some mythical afterlife.
There will always be these types of religions. The elite religion for the strong, and the insipid religion for the weak. They may mutate, they may evolve, but at the core they remain true to their genesis - the type of man they come from.
(Yes, I've been reading Nietzsche.)
Today, I just bought a few booklets from a Ramakrishna Mission stall. One of them was on methods to increase willpower, one on methods to increase strength of character, and the other two on meditation. Guess that answers which type our tradition falls into.
The religions of the weak will also always exist. Bearing witness: Oprah.
I've given this a lot of thought, and I think the general trend is that it is on the decline. We probably won't see any noticeable difference in the US for at least a few decades though. It will definitely not disappear completely. What religion offers is hope. Take a poor person living in a third world country. Their life sucks. What would they rather believe? That when they die, there is nothing and it was all one big joke? Or that when they die, they will live happily ever after in a magical fairy tale land where everything will be peaches?
However, as education and wealth improves globally, religion will decline. Where poverty and suffering reign supreme, religion will spread like wildfire.
However, as education and wealth improves globally, religion will decline. Where poverty and suffering reign supreme, religion will spread like wildfire.
silver 2039
Deity
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I certainly hope so. It reduces the number of excuses people have for being idiots.
Leonel
Breakfast Connoisseur
Cheezy the Wiz
Socialist In A Hurry
No it's not.
Well, we're getting more and more understanding of why people allow themselves to be tricked into believing their religions, and the absurdity of the current crop of faiths will be apparent as people learn more and more about avoiding self-deception.
That said, the insights into avoiding self-deception seem to propagate very slowly in society. Maybe more slowly than our growthrate.
That said, the insights into avoiding self-deception seem to propagate very slowly in society. Maybe more slowly than our growthrate.
Holycannoli
Deity
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Most of you guys are real sure of your superior atheistic beliefs aren't you?
Don't be too holy-horse. You think that most of the planet is deceived (self-deceived or otherwise) on this topic as well. On the plus side, we're getting more and more understanding of why people allow themselves to be tricked. So don't worry too much.
Nylan
Characters Welcome
Indeed we are.
Berzerker
Deity
I've noticed whenever you claim my arguments are bad, they turn out to be your arguments (he who dealt it, smelt it). I said religion will survive because science cant explain existence and that's where religion comes in. I didn't say everything that is unexplainable is religious nor did I say religion doesn't try to explain the explainable.
Perfection
The Great Head.
Simply unexplained things doesn't lead to religion. I can't explain why I am in this universe and not any other, but I most assuredly do not to use religion to explain that.
Take a chill pill, Nylan, I'm jus' razzin' ya.
Nylan
Characters Welcome
Sure Perf, whatever you say.
Berzerker
Deity
Maybe not for you, but you dont speak or think for everyone else. Are you suggesting no one came up with the belief in superior being(s) after witnessing natural phenomena they couldn't explain? That no one ever "invented" god to explain existence?
So what? Other people do, hence religion survives and will survive science.
not really. the tough thing about being an atheist is that really your life has no intrinsic meaning. you have to find one for yourself. and if tragedy strikes you, there is no silver lining. you won't get to relax in heaven. if your friends die young, you'll never see them again. they're gone. forever. you have to deal with the harsh realities of life. so its definitely tougher. hence a lot of people are afraid to abandon their faith.
it was easier for me, because i believed most of my friends and family (who were atheist) were going to burn in hell in eternity anyway, so abandoning that belief and accepting that death is final wasn't so bad. it was an improvement. if i had picked a faith where there was no concept of hell, i probably would have stuck with it longer. luckily, the harshness (and silliness) of the christian beliefs allowed me to finally consider the overwhelming evidence (and lack thereof) against the christian god.
that's just a cop out though. "god did it" is just the default knee jerk reaction when you don't know the answer to something. as time goes on, and we discover more about the universe, there is less inclination to use "god did it" and instead find real, actual, satisfactory solutions. why are there earthquakes? the ancients said: god did it. well now with the advance in science, we know its not god, its plate tectonics. we may never find answers to everything, but the general trend is that the more we know about the universe, the less a need to use "god did it" to answer the unknowns. hence why very few scientists are christians today, whereas a few centuries ago the majority of them were.
'God did it' is an analogy of 'I don't know'
You can't know everything.
Hence, religion will survive, and I wouldn't be surprised to go forward a millenium and find a special room in every spaceship where people rub beads all day.
People are gullible.
You can't know everything.
Hence, religion will survive, and I wouldn't be surprised to go forward a millenium and find a special room in every spaceship where people rub beads all day.
People are gullible.
Berzerker
Deity
it aint a cop out, its how the ignorant respond to amazing unexplained phenomena. Many intelligent and informed people today still attribute a "god" to the origin of the universe. Its just a word or concept to describe a belief in some unfathomable power possibly lurking beyond what science can tell us about existence.
