Will religion one day disappear?

Godfather.

o.k....anger aside.
no it will not,believe it or not Jesus is real and so is God..beliefe in God in one for another goes back thousands of years,people that never heard of "God" knew that there was someone special that looked over them or brought the rain or just life in general and here's the shocker....you ready ? ..millions and millions still do so I'm positive that people will believe right up to the last days of earth...and some of us will be with him

Godfather.

whygohome

Godfather. wrote:

o.k....anger aside.
no it will not,believe it or not Jesus is real and so is God..beliefe in God in one for another goes back thousands of years,people that never heard of "God" knew that there was someone special that looked over them or brought the rain or just life in general and here's the shocker....you ready ? ..millions and millions still do so I'm positive that people will believe right up to the last days of earth...and some of us will be with him

Godfather.

Well, then, I hope Satan is a Pearl Jam fan.....though I think I may be subjected to Last Kiss and Backspacer played on repeat :(

PJFAN13

In all seriousness, and no more Carlin references - the fundamental answer to the original question (which has had me thinking hard for hours - thanks PJ fans!) is this: Religion will ALWAYS be there to help people cope with uncertainties, pain and life in general. Moreover, Mormons & Christians tend to have many more kids than do atheists, so I doubt religion will ever truly disappear, at least not in the near future. That being said, I'll take that response back once someone shows me the answer to everything
Sadly, in particular as evidenced on these boards, until the tolerance for others opinions and belief structures is fully embraced by ALL, its hard to imagine. When we respect each other (and only then) it will eventually lead to the road of speaking about science and athiest views...until then
What would be nice is if we can get rid of religion in the government 100%...

Godfather.

whygohome wrote:

Godfather. wrote:

o.k....anger aside.
no it will not,believe it or not Jesus is real and so is God..beliefe in God in one for another goes back thousands of years,people that never heard of "God" knew that there was someone special that looked over them or brought the rain or just life in general and here's the shocker....you ready ? ..millions and millions still do so I'm positive that people will believe right up to the last days of earth...and some of us will be with him

Godfather.

Well, then, I hope Satan is a Pearl Jam fan.....though I think I may be subjected to Last Kiss and Backspacer played on repeat :(

I am in no way perfect (duhhh) but I can tell you....it's not too late

Godfather.

musicismylife78

its an interesting topic. Im a huge fan of Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Dan Dennett and Hitch, and have watched countless hours of them talk about these same issues, and think they all are incredibly brilliant. But I disagree with their notions that belief in God is bad. I think religion is entrenched in society. And then you have the split between spirituality and religion. Religion definitely has MAJOR issues and problems, but I dont agree with Harris, Dawkins and the like that it is the MAIN problem.

Cosmo

My take... I believe religion will exist as long as it remains a viable tool for a few men in power to exert authority over many.
I'm not talking about God, here... I'm speaking of the various religions that claim to know what God's intentions are. Religion and God are not one in the same. The religions were all created by Man to explain the unknown and bundle them all under the God concept.
The truth is... we don't know the origins of the universe... we are learning and have some knowledge of it. As for God... we don't know squat about Him(/Her/It) so we make Him in our image and pour all of our emotions into Him and turn Him into this vengeful... spiteful... judgemental being in order to keep us in line.
Truth is.. we should be good people... not for some kind of reward after this life. Maybe, we should be good... just because.

DriftingByTheStorm

one day the distinction between "science" and "religion" will disappear, sure.
Then we will have the "true religion".

musicismylife78

DriftingByTheStorm wrote:

one day the distinction between "science" and "religion" will disappear, sure.
Then we will have the "true religion".

ive never understood why at least spirituality and science couldnt coexist. Its not like evolution couldnt have been an act of God. One can believe in the tenets of science, of mutations, and genes, and cells, and evolution and still believe in God. Even the big bang could be understood as what it was in the scientific sense, and still believe that the originator, or the person or thing that ordered such a collision is God. Even the thing that continually is talked about, how old the earth is, could be understood in both disciplines simotaneously.

Godfather.

Cosmo wrote:

My take... I believe religion will exist as long as it remains a viable tool for a few men in power to exert authority over many.
I'm not talking about God, here... I'm speaking of the various religions that claim to know what God's intentions are. Religion and God are not one in the same. The religions were all created by Man to explain the unknown and bundle them all under the God concept.
The truth is... we don't know the origins of the universe... we are learning and have some knowledge of it. As for God... we don't know squat about Him(/Her/It) so we make Him in our image and pour all of our emotions into Him and turn Him into this vengeful... spiteful... judgemental being in order to keep us in line.
Truth is.. we should be good people... not for some kind of reward after this life. Maybe, we should be good... just because.

Religion and God are not one in the same.

great call ! that's the truth.

Godfather.

Cosmo

DriftingByTheStorm wrote:

one day the distinction between "science" and "religion" will disappear, sure.
Then we will have the "true religion".

...
In a nutshell... that is it.
I believe life is a journey of discovery. Where Science is a search for answers, religions claim to have all of the answers. To seek God is a journey of discovery... not taking the words of men written 2000 or 5000 years ago as the absolute truth. Where science feeds our logical thoughts, religion should be a journey to fill our spirit. They don't have to be at odds with each other... both can live within us.

musicismylife78

and also i'd add, the OP seems to distance religion and Greek and ancient beliefs and religion. I'd say they are pretty similar. In that they were and are beliefs people organize their lifes around. People dont believe in Zeus anymore, you are right, but they believe in Buddha, Jesus, Allah, and personally, I think its all related. Just different names for God. Zeus symbolized the same thing for people that Allah does now. Its just a different time and name.

And seeing as religion hasnt disappeared, that after people stopped believing in Zeus, that people continued to believe in SOMETHING of various names, that this is in fact probably proof religion wont die out.

brianlux

Cosmo wrote:

My take... I believe religion will exist as long as it remains a viable tool for a few men in power to exert authority over many.
I'm not talking about God, here... I'm speaking of the various religions that claim to know what God's intentions are. Religion and God are not one in the same. The religions were all created by Man to explain the unknown and bundle them all under the God concept.
The truth is... we don't know the origins of the universe... we are learning and have some knowledge of it. As for God... we don't know squat about Him(/Her/It) so we make Him in our image and pour all of our emotions into Him and turn Him into this vengeful... spiteful... judgemental being in order to keep us in line.
Truth is.. we should be good people... not for some kind of reward after this life. Maybe, we should be good... just because.

Great post, Cosmo. Especially the last part.

I don't think religions will go away. They will just slowly change like all institutions and land masses slowly change. It would be nice if they would change away from being controlling and become more spiritual and more focused on being helpful, kind and loving.

hedonist

We were just talking about this...and I got kinda pissed off in that religion - faith - the tenets of living a compassionate and decent life (which I know are not exclusively taught via religion, but ARE taught through that means as well) - can be so easily dismissed, even made fun of. (talking in general and not scowling at anyone in particular here)

I'm all for people finding strength, direction, peace...how they can.

"leave it to me as I find a way to be" - and I'll do the same for you. They don't call it the Golden Rule for nothing.

Cosmo, you always say it well on this subject. And, I always go back to religion...well, not even religion, but god - what guides the greater part of us - is ourselves. Nature.

(I will also say as a large disclaimer that we just smoked a mighty fine bowl, and then I had a "conversation" with the cats. They have insight, I tell ya!)

Cosmo

hedonist wrote:

We were just talking about this...and I got kinda pissed off in that religion - faith - the tenets of living a compassionate and decent life (which I know are not exclusively taught via religion, but ARE taught through that means as well) - can be so easily dismissed, even made fun of. (talking in general and not scowling at anyone in particular here)

I'm all for people finding strength, direction, peace...how they can.

"leave it to me as I find a way to be" - and I'll do the same for you. They don't call it the Golden Rule for nothing.

Cosmo, you always say it well on this subject. And, I always go back to religion...well, not even religion, but god - what guides the greater part of us - is ourselves. Nature.

(I will also say as a large disclaimer that we just smoked a mighty fine bowl, and then I had a "conversation" with the cats. They have insight, I tell ya!)

...
That is... I believe you get what you have from your humanity, not from some lessons taught to you from external sources.
And as you say, if people use religion for guidence... it is great. Unless that guidence results in the death of another because someone said something negative about their religion. Religion has that duality because religion is made of Man, by Man,

hedonist

Cosmo wrote:

...
That is... I believe you get what you have from your humanity, not from some lessons taught to you from external sources.
And as you say, if people use religion for guidence... it is great. Unless that guidence results in the death of another because someone said something negative about their religion. Religion has that duality because religion is made of Man, by Man,

We're inherently flawed, by our nature. And I think *some* facets of humanity are taught. Not all, but some.

Hate, among them, unfortunately.

Anyway, after my earlier post, I came upon a nice music stream of the Duke, Count Basie and then Benny Goodman.

I'm gonna continue to ponder this issue as I partake in some more aural goodness.

markin ball

Religion exists because of the need, by many, for certainty. I think it all stems from that. So as long as there is uncertainty and fear, there will be a need for an "absolute truth" to get most of us through the night. Although I do not believe in any god that we are aware of, I'm cool with others believing. The big questions, the inequities of or world, the suffering that humans inflict on one another...its just too damn much. Like I said, "whatever gets you through the night."

inlet13

Religion is as much of a weakness as science. Why can't both be good? Why is it the non-believers must trash religion to make themselves feel good? Insecurity much?

musicismylife78

i think people since the beginning of time have wondered why we are here. Whats the purpose. Whats the point of all this. And obviously thats something humans still grapple with. Its universal. And religion for some people answers those questions, or provides some answers. I dont forsee a time when people wont be asking existential questions. And whenever or whereever those questions are asked, religion, faith and spirituality isnt going to be far behind.

I think the fundamental question is, can religion be seperated from people who do bad things in the name of religion. And then I think you also get into the realm of deciding if religion is the driving force, or if something else like patriarchy, racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, expansionism, and civilization are the things that need to be addressed instead. Because theres lots of religions that do seem to promote great values, buddhism, jainism, the quakers.

PJ_Soul

God, I hope so.

JonnyPistachio

hedonist wrote:

Cosmo wrote:

...
That is... I believe you get what you have from your humanity, not from some lessons taught to you from external sources.
And as you say, if people use religion for guidence... it is great. Unless that guidence results in the death of another because someone said something negative about their religion. Religion has that duality because religion is made of Man, by Man,

We're inherently flawed, by our nature. And I think *some* facets of humanity are taught. Not all, but some.

Hate, among them, unfortunately.

Anyway, after my earlier post, I came upon a nice music stream of the Duke, Count Basie and then Benny Goodman.

I'm gonna continue to ponder this issue as I partake in some more aural goodness.

Hedonist, your post made me think -- I fear that as the planet becomes more and more populated, that religions will evolve, and as more and more religions are created, they will always butt heads. But I think a lot of people are abandoning religion for spirituality.

I wish we could all be impartial to all religion until age 20 or something, that way, we can believe in specifically what we want and what we learn and perceive, and not become a product of what is taught to us or fed to us. How many people are the very religion of their parents/family, and locale? And if some werent railroaded into specific religions, maybe (big maybe), some wouldnt be so offended by opponents of their religion, and possibly they might not lash out in the name of their "God." Maybe each persons religion should be their own, not a collective?