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Is religion dying?

Hyacinth

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I think religiosity comes and goes in cycles.
 

Mole

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Across the world religion is growing.

And it is growing in countries whose spoken culture is the content of the electronic culture.

However in countries where whose literate culture is the content of the electronic culture, religion is dying, the churches are emptying, and in the census more and more say they have no religion.

Interestingly everyone here comes from a literate culture that is now the content of the electronic culture, and so being parochial and culture bound, it seems to us religion is dying, when in fact religion is growing in leaps and bounds across the globe.
 
S

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specific religions might die, be born, change, split, etc', but religion in general will probably never die.

i think folk religions are struggling due to globalization as they have being since the early colonization days, but one can only hope that at some point we'll go back to spreading as a species again (you know, for long-term survival & crap), and then the trend towards folk religions and splinter religions is likely to grow. before you know it there's a group of martian muslims that believe god brought abraham to mars to scalp the giant face, and that the stone of mecca is only a fragment of it.

then there's philosophical changes. right now monotheism is loosing philosophical grounds as a "needed explanation", i think a strong argument for monotheism and deities is the simulation probability principle, you know, the whole "if every universe can have an absurdly huge number of simulated universes within it, any given universe is more likely to be a simulated one then a real one". at the core of that argument there is a suggested designer, a divine server admin.. that might sound a bit off whack right now, but would it sound the same for generations growing up with functional VR (you know, better then WoW)? this in turn creates a metaphysical reality to speculate on, a "real reality" around us. you can even combine it with a belief of chosen people, and claim that while some of us are actual beings from the outside universe with "souls", most are merely zombies, simulated beings made to behave sentient. dangerous belief but its certainly one people might adopt.
 

entropie

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specific religions might die, be born, change, split, etc', but religion in general will probably never die.

i think folk religions are struggling due to globalization as they have being since the early colonization days, but one can only hope that at some point we'll go back to spreading as a species again (you know, for long-term survival & crap), and then the trend towards folk religions and splinter religions is likely to grow. before you know it there's a group of martian muslims that believe god brought abraham to mars to scalp the giant face, and that the stone of mecca is only a fragment of it.

then there's philosophical changes. right now monotheism is loosing philosophical grounds as a "needed explanation", i think a strong argument for monotheism and deities is the simulation probability principle, you know, the whole "if every universe can have an absurdly huge number of simulated universes within it, any given universe is more likely to be a simulated one then a real one". at the core of that argument there is a suggested designer, a divine server admin.. that might sound a bit off whack right now, but would it sound the same for generations growing up with functional VR (you know, better then WoW)? this in turn creates a metaphysical reality to speculate on, a "real reality" around us. you can even combine it with a belief of chosen people, and claim that while some of us are actual beings from the outside universe with "souls", most are merely zombies, simulated beings made to behave sentient. dangerous belief but its certainly one people might adopt.

I think a single "why" does suffice already when someone says there is only one religion or one God. Since all religions are build on assumptions, they all lack proof of any kind.

But I agree with what you said :)
 
S

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another possibility comes to mind:

here, i have explained how scientific understanding does in fact pose a threat to the religious mindset. from that explanation, one could understand that with further understanding and more widespread education of scientific knowledge, monotheism as we know it would in fact be on the decline.

but the exact same situation can also lead to a rise in spirituality, by increasing the tension within the Fermi paradox. by trivializing bio-genesis, the diversification of life and even the rise of sentience, we create a rising expectation of finding it elsewhere.

the more we trivialize the origin of life the more places we can imagine it happening, and the more we progress the more places we could find them happening... so what happens each and every year that we don't? our solar system has no proof of being colonized by aliens, our interstellar neighborhood shows no proof of radio utilizing civilizations, mars and titan provide no sign of biochemical processes, what happens when Europa has no life, when spectrum analysis of more and more Goldilocks zoned planets show no signs of biochemical processes, when we can detect not only planets but also smaller objects in other solar systems and yet see no touch of civilizations anywhere?

within this period - between understanding life and finding life elsewhere - explanation to the fermi paradox would have of increasing value and could very well become the next source of religions and domgas.
 

Venom

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I would say that "religion" defined as BOTH something "civic" AND something "spiritual" has been declining. It would appear to me that wiccans, pagans, (western practitioners of) Buddhism, Taoism, chakra, yogi, etc are all very into the spiritual aspects of their religions, but have for better or worse conveniently left the civic portions of their faith in the history books. Thus these people have a very private, almost a secrative nature to their practice.

Catholics, Mormons and Muslims would appear to still have thriving "civic" aspects of their religions. Given their high birth rates, we could definitely be back to civic religions in 200 years. Currently, your "run of the mill" Christian has been less dominating of civic life and when this combines with the private nature of the modern day pagan/eastern it creates an image of religious decline.

Disclaimer: I should note that almost all religions have both civic as well as mystic aspects. Christians, Jews, and Islamists definitively have Gnostic, kaballic, mystic etc sects ...
 

Lark

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As a source of both individual moral conscience, individual regulation and social regulation religion has just about had it.

That said there is no alternative, no better one anyway, so perhaps it will just make a resurgence at some point.
 

Frosty

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Religion is becoming less of a staple in many cultures I believe. More has been introduced, life has become more complicated, and people are shedding the strict categories of their religion. I would think that it would follow a similar pattern in the future.
 

Sunflower_Moon

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I think religion is dying only in certain parts of the world, and in other parts of the world it's staying the same or increasing. For example, I think Islam is growing. . .not believing or adhering to the religion or Sharia Law is punishable by law in some countries. In the USA, I think religion is starting to die since it seems there's a growing number of Atheists compared to a couple of generations ago. However, for the amount of religion that still exists here, I think it's more diverse in the sense of the number of religions that we have here now, including non-Christian faiths.

I think religion may be dying out in parts of Europe, but I'm not sure overall. I do think that culture influences this because in some countries the religion is still the law. I do think that my culture plays a role in reaching my conclusion because being in the USA, I'm free to explore and adopt any religious beliefs I want, or none at all. In some countries, such as some in the Middle-East, I would guess that they may not feel that religion is dying because it's still around them everywhere they look, even being able to hear the prayers being played/announced from mosques five times per day. I'm not sure whether it's possible to separate religion in culture in countries like that since religion pretty much is the culture to a large degree. Overall, I'd say that religion isn't dying universally though, but perhaps it is in the western world.
 

Frosty

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I think religion is dying only in certain parts of the world, and in other parts of the world it's staying the same or increasing. For example, I think Islam is growing. . .not believing or adhering to the religion or Sharia Law is punishable by law in some countries. In the USA, I think religion is starting to die since it seems there's a growing number of Atheists compared to a couple of generations ago. However, for the amount of religion that still exists here, I think it's more diverse in the sense of the number of religions that we have here now, including non-Christian faiths.

I think religion may be dying out in parts of Europe, but I'm not sure overall. I do think that culture influences this because in some countries the religion is still the law. I do think that my culture plays a role in reaching my conclusion because being in the USA, I'm free to explore and adopt any religious beliefs I want, or none at all. In some countries, such as some in the Middle-East, I would guess that they may not feel that religion is dying because it's still around them everywhere they look, even being able to hear the prayers being played/announced from mosques five times per day. I'm not sure whether it's possible to separate religion in culture in countries like that since religion pretty much is the culture to a large degree. Overall, I'd say that religion isn't dying universally though, but perhaps it is in the western world.

Yeah I thought about that. I would say a certain emphasis on religion is growing in certain places, but I am not really sure whether the strenght of practice is. Maybe the strength of forced practice in some places, like those that practice islam might be increasing~ but once outside influence is gone I believe that the growth might just end up being temporary.

As the world gets larger and more interconnected, what is available might cause people to individualize a bit more~to explore. They might be able to look and see that hey, buddhism seems to make a good amount of sense to me, maybe I will try aspects of that out. Cherry picking might become more common, where hard individual distinctions between religions might start to become a bit more smudged.

Laws change with time and curcumstance. Though there are general laws that I believe will always be upheld, murder-the likes, acceptability will change too much to withstand a particular set of consistant guidelines. Much in the way of religion. Times change too often for the specifics needed for a religion.
 

Lark

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It is dead. And we have killed it.

I dont remember posting this thread.

I believe this is correct.

I spoke with someone lately who was a born again christian, consequently some major differences to myself, although it impressed upon me how little religion matters to most people and how little it influences anyones thinking or actions on a day to day basis. So far as a sociological and normative force goes, which I dont even believe is the primary purpose of religion throughout human history, its a dead duck too. As a political force I think its spent too, there isnt any Fremen coming out of the framework for a Butlerian Jihad any time soon.

Although what I find most concerning is that there is nothing in the place of religion to channel or meet the human needs which religion once addressed.
 

GarrotTheThief

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Religion will never die. When we go to a sports game or watch a show on t.v. we worship, wether conciously or not is irrelevant.

Wars death and killings have always been over economics and as an objective rule never religion.
 

Riva

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Where there is poverty, war, destruction and crime religion will flourish.

Where there is wealth, peace, growth and security philosophies will flourish.
 

Julius_Van_Der_Beak

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Wars death and killings have always been over economics and as an objective rule never religion.

Yes, people think some conflicts are about religion, but they really aren't about religion at all. Religion is the tool people use to justify the conflict, but not the cause of the conflict. A religious text or tradition is full of contradictions, typically, so what is interesting to see with regards to a religious person is what parts they choose to follow. This is really the relevant question.
 

Forever

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Maybe. But there's certainly an element to it, that science cannot reach with. Maybe it's a good thing, maybe it's a bad thing. Regardless if it's true or false, I believe it can curb someone's angers or passions. The less religion there is, the more people will have to rely on intellect to get by in this world, I don't see that as necessarily a good thing either.
 
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