Will we ever see a world without religion?
I doubt it'll be in any of our lifetimes but do you think it is possible there will exist a day when religion is practically gone from society?
Forgive my quoting Wikipedia in this case but I think it's pretty safe to take for these statistics, and I also didn't know where else to look for information like this:
*Nonaffiliation (atheists, agnostics, humanists, and deists) in USA: Increased from 8.1% in 1990 up to 16.1% in 2008
*Europeans appear to be way ahead of the curve, as "Belief in a God" has dropped well below 50% of the population in many European countries.
Is it just me or is this a huge increase over a rather short period in the USA? I also think the actual percentages are much higher than that because most self-identified Christians that I know, in all honesty, don't know much about their own religion at all. They also never go to church or practice it in any way. I don't consider that being Christian. I think many people identify themselves as religious simply because their family identified them as religious and they don't care enough to say otherwise.
Assuming this rate is linear, Christianity will be for the most part extinct in the USA in 157 years or so. Knowing that this rate isn't linear, but rather exponential (as we put the word out there), it's going to be a lot sooner than that even. Of course this is a huge assumption as there are so many other factors to account for such religious extremists vs moderates, change in church policies, etc. I was just doing a quick brainstorm of the statistics so don't think too much into them.
The question still stands though: Do you think there will exist a day without religion? Do you think that maybe one religion will fall and another take its place (possibly Christianity falling and Islam rising)? What are your thoughts in general on this?
I am hopeful that everyone smartens up within the next 100 years but I know there are always going to be those who won't let it go, whether out of need of a god to provide comfort or out of ignorance of facts stemming from uneducation or out of total reliance on faith for answers, I don't think religious practice will ever be 100% gone.
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Matt on -
I'm not of the opinion that we will see the end of religion any time soon, however I'm betting there will be some kind of "religious war" that occurs in our lifetimes. I think it will be along the lines of Christianity v.s. Islam, if history shows us anything it's that they love to fight. However the reason for this particular war will be because of a mixture of political ideals, i.e. the accepted ideals of western civilization v.s. the ideals of the middle east. Over all I 90% sure that Christianity will come out on top in this fight in the long run as people become more and more educated to the world they live in. I reserve my 10% because of the valiant efforts of the creationists and intelligent designers to put us back into the dark ages.
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Permalink Reply by Brady on -
Maybe the religious would just kill each other off leaving Atheists to inherit the world when it's over. Of course this is assuming that the religious wouldn't actually attack Atheists first for being the reason of religion declining in the first place...
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Permalink Reply by Brady on
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I kind of thought about that too. Fanatics will only be able to be pushed so far before they really do have to fight for the survival of their religion. I think if anyone were to spark a religious was first, it would be Muslims, considering Islam is more aggressive by nature than other religions. Who knows who would win though? If anything, a war sparked by the religious for their religion would only help our cause though :)
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Permalink Reply by elaine kilshaw on -
What a wise head on a young person. I do not think how ever much we delve we will not find out how many people actually believe in religion yet a god,or how many are Atheists.
I think I would give up now if I believe that the day will ever come when religious practice will ever be 100% gone.
As I have previously said that in the UK the people practicing religion has gone down, except of course fundamentalists always seems to rear its ugly head, breeding hatred of others who are without the same beliefs.
one good thing I see is that the membership of this web site is growing day by day, so we are doing our bit to bing peace to this World without conflict due to religious bigotry.
i
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Permalink Reply by Brady on
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I still think that there will be a day when it's gone but on the other hand, I think the hardest is yet to come....
As our influence grows, it'll wake up the religious (in particular the fundamentalists) and they will fight more and more perhaps even to the point of violence. I don't think religious fundamentalism will just fade away without a fight.
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Permalink Reply by Brady on
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At less the religious partner convinces the nonreligious one to become religious. Yes, I've seen it happen before....although rarely. What's even more strange is I have a friend that is very Atheist married to a very Christian woman and they're still together. I don't know how, I guess they just must avoid talking about religion or anything related to that at all. I wouldn't be able to do that though....
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Permalink Reply by James on -
I'm Atheist, married to a Wiccan. So it can work. But we both easily pull apart our former Catholic faith and the other Abraham religions. We actually enjoy talking religion. She agrees with pretty much all science. She believes in types of magic and the like. I don't buy it, but do let her know that I'm open-minded to the possibility if any evidence were to become available. I'm being honest, and that's great by her. :) She'll admit that some of what she believes is supernatural, but continues to say that maybe someday, science will explain it, and it'll become natural. Unlike Christianity, she would embrace the science, rather than reject it in favor of dogma.
There may be a time when religion is in the minority. I fear that it'll be a long road until that though.
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Permalink Reply by Brady on
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I guess it's probably more likely to see a religious person marrying an Atheist than a religious person marrying someone of another religion. Granted, we don't like religion but we can at least be accepting of religion instead of trying to push it on others.
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Permalink Reply by Nehemoth on -
Some fellows and me were talking about this days ago on a Google wave concerning the Deluge, there I exposed my Theory that maybe in like 100 years we will leave religion aside and the most people will be Atheist.
Take for example our country (Dominican republic) years ago you even can say that you were an Atheist, now I'm perplexed how many people define thyself as Atheist or no religious.
To me religion came by culture or tradition in countries like ours but everyday people are waking up.
But maybe I'm too naive.
:-D
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Permalink Reply by Brady on
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now I'm perplexed how many people define thyself as Atheist or no religious.
I think a lot more people or not affiliated with religion than these statistics show, they just haven't come out yet either because of fear of dealing with religious family or friends or they just don't care enough about the subject to render it worth actually 'coming out'.
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Permalink Reply by Nehemoth on
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I think this too, its not easy take the decision to tell everyone that you are Atheist when you can hurt some feeling.
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Permalink Reply by elaine kilshaw on
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If this person cares about you then your non-religion will not influence them on how they treat you.
I am quick to say that I am an atheist and that is my priviledge and if they dis-respect me then I do not want to know them. Being an atheist to me is having an open mind and working out by reason and logic that anything that promotes being nasty and telling someone they will go to hell, is wrong and cruel.
When all are equal and poverty has vanished then perhaps they can talk about religion but up to that time I cannot believe in a god who they say can do anything.
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