Philosophy Now Forum

Obvious Leo wrote:
Religion is dead and wont see the 21st century out and thank Christ for that
Already in my country it is universally regarded as a faint historical curiosity

I think that you should go and tell this to the two billion Christians and one and a half billion Muslims and nine hundred
million Hindus and eight hundred million Buddhists. These systems of belief have been around for least hundreds if not
thousands of years. Whatever you think of religion it is not going anywhere. Completely ridiculous to suggest otherwise

Let's just wait and see, shall we? They reckoned that a heavier-than-air flying machine was utterly impossible too, right up till the day they built one.

surreptitious57 wrote:

Obvious Leo wrote:
Religion is dead and wont see the 21st century out and thank Christ for that
Already in my country it is universally regarded as a faint historical curiosity

I think that you should go and tell this to the two billion Christians and one and a half billion Muslims and nine hundred
million Hindus and eight hundred million Buddhists. These systems of belief have been around for least hundreds if not
thousands of years. Whatever you think of religion it is not going anywhere. Completely ridiculous to suggest otherwise

We just need a flash point (there's probably a better term)... that instantly reveals how much of what we've been attached to has been based on fabricated stories. Then most people instantly stop believing... because there's no denying, in order to move forward with a new level of information. (Like when people stopped believing the earth was flat.) Beliefs cannot continue indefinitely as they are now... that's not evolution. We SURELY aren't at any pinnacle of development and awareness! It does not seem far-fetched to envision a point at which today's religions will be something that humankind looks back on as yet-another primitive state we passed through -- regardless of how long it seems to have lasted for us, it's still just a blip of time in the larger field. Today's religions are no more valid and realistic than ancient religions and stories which may seem child-like to us now. We are STILL child-like! And we've always been good at thoroughly convincing ourselves and each other of all sorts of things... only to discover over time that there was SO MUCH MORE.

It's also worth wondering how many amongst those quoted numbers are actually believers and how many just identify themselves with a particular religion for historical or some other cultural reason. There aren't very many believers around who actually believe what their religions are telling them to believe so statistics are meaningless. My personal view is that the vast majority of people are far more passionate about their football team than they've ever been about their god, which is healthy and as it should be.