Do you think humans will ever give up religion in future?
Day by day, the advancements in human knowledge has caused us to know so many things. Many religious arguments have been debunked in an awesome manner. Many religions have to soften themselves now, in order to be accommodating to the modern mind. Do you think that in our future, say 2060 or 2100, will we humans have religions as we have now or will we all reject God and other supernatural and pseudoscientific hypothesis and become atheists?
52 replies
Not unless stupidity also ceases to exist. And by the looks of things, stupidity ain't going anywhere.
No. Religion is too useful as a means of control.
I do not believe in leprechauns, pixies, ghosts, werewolves, jujus, angels, Tooth Faeries, Odin, Thor, Zeus, Ra, Brahma, Athena, Hera, Poseidon, Yahweh, Allah, or the Trinity, demons, devils, Astrology, the Tarot, Satan. For the same reason in every case: there is not the tiniest shred of ๐๐ง๐ฒ ๐๐จ๐ซ๐ฆ ๐จ๐ empirical, ๐ฅ๐จ๐ ๐ข๐๐๐ฅ, ๐ก๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ๐จ๐ซ๐ข๐๐๐ฅ, ๐จ๐ซ ๐๐จ๐ซ๐ซ๐จ๐๐จ๐ซ๐๐ญ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐๐ฏ๐ข๐๐๐ง๐๐ ๐๐จ๐ซ ๐ญ๐ก๐ ๐๐ฑ๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ๐๐ง๐๐ ๐จ๐ any ๐๐จ๐ and the burden of proof rests with those who wish to believe. Even given no evidence for specific gods, we could make a case for some unspecified "intelligent designer" or "prime mover" or begetter of "something rather than nothing"? By far the most appealing version of this argument is the biological one - living things do present a powerful illusion of design. But that is the very version that Darwin destroyed. Any theist who appeals to "design" of living creatures simply betrays his ignorance of biology. Go away and read a book. And any theist who appeals to biblical โevidenceโ betrays ignorance of biblical scholarship. The burden of proof rests with those who wish to believe. Even given no evidence for specific gods, could 'his ignorance of modern scholarship. Go away and read another book. As for the cosmological argument, whose God goes under names such as Prime Mover or First cause, again no evidence. Because physicists are closing in, with spell-binding results. Even if there remain unanswered questions - where do the fundamental laws and constants of physics come from? Obviously, it cannot help to postulate a designer whose existence poses bigger questions than he purports to solve. If science fails, our best hope is to build a better science. The answer will lie neither in theology nor - its exact equivalent - reading tea leaves. In any case, it is a fatuously illogical jump from deistic Unmoved Mover to Christian Trinity, with the Son being tortured and murdered because the Father, for all his omniscience and omnipotence, could not think of a better way to forgive "sin". Equally unconvincing are those who believe because it comforts them (why should truth be consoling?) or because it "feels right". The wife of a former UK prime minister may stand for theโ feels rightโ brigade. She based her belief on โan understanding of something that her head cannot explain but my heart knows to be true.โ She aspired to become a judge! Myโlud, I cannot provide the evidence you require. My head cannot explain why, but my heart knows it to be true. Why is religion immune to the critical standards we apply not just in our courts of law, but in every other life?โ
Sadly, no. And itโs probably gonna have a resurgence soon with all the calamity
the Abrahamic ones or new age type ones? I personally think Christianity and Islam will be the future leading religions (maybe some percentage of Judaism) but rest of religions I think will die out.
Just good ole Jesus times bullshit. In America specifically, I see a rise of the shopping mall and mega churches.
And orthobros
At some point in the future, yes I think so. Religion continues to exist because it fills many needs at the societal and individual level beyond just belief in the supernatural. People use religion for community, a sense of (greater or worldly) purpose, a moral compass, to accept mortality, deal with loss or big emotions, plain boredom, to control themselves or others, get power, make money, etc.
Assuming humanity doesn't wipe itself out in the future, people will find other ways to fill the needs or answer the questions they currently use religion for. Religion will cease to exist but that doesn't mean the things that replace it will be better.
No. Humans by and large are idiots.
You said what was in my heart
Short answer probably not, but I don't think the trend of less religion in public life has maximised yet. Some amount of people are just really geared for religious faith and enjoy that certainty too much to accept things as they are.
Certainty is probably the real enemy in a lot of cases.
Not totally, no. People will always seek comfort and there will always be no shortage of people eager to exploit them.
Religion is the primary reason weโll never achieve a utopia. I couldnโt fathom participation to drop to zero.
I think that too.
You don't think money is?
It's definitely right up there.
No. We're only months away from watering crops with Brawndo.
what is brawndo?
It's a gatorade-like drink featured in the movie "Idiocracy". The commercial claims it has electrolytes. The stupid people who run the country use brawndo to water their crops, which all start to die. The stupid people can't understand that brawndo is the problem. When the one kinda smart guy from the past suggests they use water, the stupid people just parrot the commercial. "But Brawndo has what plants crave... It's got electrolytes."
idiocracy is a movie name? damn I thought it is a recent term. Interesting
Yeah. I rewatched a couple of Mike Judge movies recently, they're still quite relevant and hold up pretty well. I'll summarize without many spoilers.
Office Space came out in 1999. It's about an ordinary guy who works in an office doing boring computer work with his weird coworkers. He gets hypnotherapy and is told to relax. He continues going to work, but stops actually working, and fails upward while his coworkers face being let go despite doing their jobs.
If you've ever seen the meme where a guy in business attire holding a coffee mug says "yeahhhh... I'm gonna need you to come in Saturday" or similar, that's from Office Space. It's the main character's boss.
Idiocracy came out in 2006. A US army librarian is deemed the most average candidate for a hibernation experiment. He and a prostitute (because the military lacked a viable female candidate) are put in suspended animation for hundreds of years. When they awaken in the future, everyone is significantly stupider than in their own time, making the pair of protagonists the smartest people in the world. But the stupid people rarely listen to reason, even when clearly presented. If you've ever heard of President Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho, that's from Idiocracy.
I think they're fun movies that are clever and sometimes intentionally stupid, I recommend them.
It's what plants crave.
It has electrolytes.
I forget that I'm on the old side and many people probably don't know the movie. For me, at my age, living in the US, it's like having previously seen alternate reality these days. SnoopSqueak is right, it's a silly comedy movie that flopped but "called it" as far as the great dumbing-down of America.
Turns out reality is worse than that.
Well I am not even from US.
The number of religious people will never be zero. Religion is a method to control population by surrendering their free will. Over the very long term, religions do go extinct, or nearly-so. Look at Zoroastrianism, Norse paganism, Egyptian panopoly, the ancient Sumerian and Mesopotamian city-god cults.
They fall apart and lose adherents when their political backing collapses. In some cases, they get replaced by more wide-ranging systems, like how Chrisitanity's relatable themes of suffering, the promise of love and deferred salvation displaced the older, more esoteric power-based Norse religion. Norse mythology sort of makes sense in cold, forested, sparesly populated Scandinavia, but as those cultures learned more about the rest of the planet, the stories of trolls, giants, gods and monsters as an excuse for banditry and raiding starts to look silly.
Convesion and Displacement, but generally because The Leader of these societies decided at some point through genuine faith, political convenience, their wife's faith or just pragmatic cynicism that it was a good idea to move in a different direction. Hence, religion is a matter of political, economic and moral control. That's never going to go completely out of style, as there's always going to be bastards who want to use superstition to control people.
Isn't it strange though that they are the huge proponents of free will and then make people surrender their free will? I do not believe in free will yet I live more freely than those who believe in free will.
Religion has all the answers.
Whether they are the right answers is irrelevant.
And when it has no answers, shut up and believe anyway or you don't have "faith".
That really depends on the religion.
Let me insist that humanism is a real philosophy, and blueprint for society. Jesus's speech was consistent with humanism. Christianity quickly erased Jesus from Christianity in favour of "coequal matter" with the demonism of Moses chosen people genocidal privilege of the emperor, and anyone who believed in what Jesus said is a heretic. All previous Christian sects that believed in Jesus were exterminated.
If believers followed humanist ideology out of hope for eternal heavenly reward with their $5000 Trump cheque, then that would be not just harmless, but constructive. However the power of religion's only path is to corrupt souls onto evil. To answer your question, requires persecuting liars promoting their followers follow their evil. Without that persecution, liars will choose religious power.
We should. It's killing us all. If critical thinking and intellectual honesty catch on (and people recognize that defending the truth is akin to defending life itself), the average person will not accept claims without sufficient evidence.
I think humanity needs to mature or it will go extinct, and not enough people are acknowledging this.
Yeah, I feel sad for humanity and try not to damage the environment as much as I can, but I am not hopeful enough that we will save the environment. Although life is said to end in 5 billion years (when Christopher Hitchens wrote God Is Not Great, he gave that number), I fear that we humans will make it happen earlier.
No. A human needs something shaped like god and other humans will always exploit that
So what do you think is god if you are atheist?
God-shaped, not strictly god. For some people, its tarot cards and astrology. In this grimdark future we call the present, its sycophantic LLM chatbots (this is the worst god-shaped thing IMO, it enables the same 'do not think critically' behavior churches do). For me personally? I dunno. I haven't filled it. I like the hole, its kind of romantic to keep it empty
For me, it depends and each situation give me a different god or gods.
I think religion will always find a hold because of the philosophical "what happens when we die?" Couple this with government using religion as an extra arm to manipulate public opinion (Russia, U.S.A.) means even people who aren't religious will use religion as a tool.
If you can convince enough people heaven is waiting for them, they will put up with a lot of shit during their measly 80 years on the mortal coil.
I think the religion also is a reason why people don't speak up for their rights cuz if they start to look closely into this life and strive to make this world heaven rather than waiting for some imaginary heaven, the tyrants won't have a leverage above masses.
In my opinion,
The role of religion is mostly to scam the people into making them serve their (human) lord, in a eay where the life of servants doesn't matter even for themselves as long as they are good servant and it allows them to get the after death reward.
As long as their are lord exploiting people, or scammers willing to get an higher position thanks to their status in the religion, their will be people to believe them.
Yet a society that would not be based on overly exploiting the poors, and would not let scammers in peace, would have more atheists and non-religious deists...
Also, many would keep reminding the traditional mythology of their culture, but just as we know antic greek one, sannta clauss, etc.
Not until we have secular rituals around death, birth, and union, at least.
union? you mean marriage?
Yes, but I think that name might carry too much baggage, etymologically and culturally. (But, also, it might be necessary to use that name because of the legal baggage it carries.)
yeah
No, we're too stupid, literally, how we organize the world ,our religiosity being part of that but our politics and economy is all wrong.
Humanity seems a dead end species, we're on track to collapse civilisation and long ago lost our ability to live in ecological balance. All species go extinct, ours will.
I hope they do..but it will take eons.. we have people still believing nonsense from centuries ago despite evidence.
Every new brian is a blank slate and gets contaminated but the stupidity of it's peers.
No I think we'd go extinct before that would ever happen. A few countries religion is trending down slightly (China is the atheist outlier along with a few other nations in the link provided) yes, but globally it's still ~75% theist humans. edit: 10% less than I remembered it being.
https://ourworldindata.org/religion
I mean, technically yes when we go extinct, as it's hard to have religious belief when you're dead; but until then... no, certainly not. Human brains simply rely on heuristics too much for people to shake pseudoscientific thinking that leads to spirituality (even without organized religion).
I'm hopefully at least the number of people not believing in organized religion goes down, though. That's the current trend, even if it's just people answering "none".
There will be as long as there are narcissists and megalomaniacs sharing the world with ignorant lazy people.
Ask Cartman if he ever got his Nintendo Wii.
https://southpark.fandom.com/wiki/Go_God_Go
Humans evolved a need for religion to deal with their sense of mortality. It's partially hard wired into the brain because brain damage and trans cranial stimulation can trigger religious visions.
People cannot deal with the idea that life just ends.
No they evolved religion as a proxy for generational knowledge.
The bible is the most widely distributed public health guide.