Will religion ever die out and make the world a better place?

Surely with all the science facts on evolution the end must come for religion in the future, the only sticking point is that the religious fanatics don’t open their eyes to the facts.

If all the time and money put in to religions and the associated wars was channeled in to worth while causes the world would be a much better and progressive place.

*backs out of thread*

nuke the whole of the middle east…………..sorted 😀

the only sticking point is that the religious fanatics don’t open there eyes to the facts.

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhh

I suspect we will die out before our religions do.

That, and not all religions necessarily contradict the ‘facts’.

The thing about religion is that it explains what happens when people die. If you think about your father dieing or your wife, death is tragic and awful. For some it’s just too much to consider that life. just. ends. It’s much nicer to believe they go on somewhere else and are happy, it makes people fell better to believe that. Then man came along and took that need and created all the rubbish that we know as organised religion and now it’s all a mess. So no I don’t think religion will ever die out, humans are spiritual.

People use religion as an excuse for a war. There would still be wars even if there was no religion. What’s happening now between the two branches of Islam in Iraq and Syria isn’t really anything to do with religion its about power and control. I am sure if we took some time to look back the various wars in the last 200 years very few would have a genuine link to religious differences.

By the way there many religious people who do not believe in creationism.

Don’t often find myself in agreement with Jambalaya – but in this ^^ I do.

As diseases go it’s far too mild to die out naturally as it doesn’t kill the host quickly enough, so no, I can’t see it ever going without a massive global vaccination campaign.

If some day, a group of scientists prooved conclusively that God exists, would it cease to be religion?

Science doesn’t have all the answers to all the questions. In fact many key questions cannot be asked from a scientific mode. So your original assertion is a little flawed OP. We have philosophy to ask and answer some of these other questions though…

War is never about religion – is about power and greed.

However I do agree that organised religions have too much money and do not really need more!

This thread is wrong in so many ways. Wake up

Just a tip – the fact that you started this thread shows that you don’t know what the point of religion is in the modern world.

On the bike forum there are people talking about stems, forks, tyres and whatnot. To the rest of the world, this is as pointless as religion is to you.

And don’t blame religion for wars – most of the wars are when religion is also aligned with other things.

There will always be humans who want to believe in things for which there is no supportive evidence, being as we are at the dead end of this particular strand of evolution and unlikely to mutate into an improvement.

So, no. Essentially.

Religion is based on faith.
The more scientific evidence there is that contradicts religion, then the greater an affirmation of faith it is to carry on believing.
Using facts to counter belief is ultimately self defeating.

On one hand, it sounds like a wonderful idea to end religion. On the other, would we have to work Sundays and other such faith holidays? Universal Peace & Love vs Time Off – tricky choice..

People dont like the idea of death being final.. its better for some to believe in an afterworld paradise as a comfort to dying. Depends if you have ‘Faith’ and believe… or dont.

The two biggest conflicts in history (afaik) have had nothing to do with religion, unless I’ve missed something along the way that is, which is vey possible. As jamba says, It’s a crap excuse for a fight. Relgion has caused a lot of bother throughout history though, you can scrap it for me.

Well I’m not religious at all i think religion can have a positive impact on society.

The thing about religion is that it explains what happens when people die

Well some people believe it does. I belong to the “That’s all folks” school of thought.

One of the (many…) problems with people is that we look for ‘meaning’ in things. Some people use science, some use religions and some use a mixture of both to find this ‘meaning’ or knowledge as they see it.

I am sadly coming to the perspective that there is no real meaning to life. The only thing that seems essential is to do as little harm as possible and do as much good as possible.

The totalitarian regimes of the 20th Century were the cause of more ideologically driven death through war and mass slaughter than any religious extremism. I’m no great fan of religion, but I think you need to look to extremism generally, with religion sometimes providing the moral justification in some but by now means all cases – ethnic, nationalistic and political ideology will do equally as well.

Well I’m not religious at all i think religion can have a positive impact on society.

Some positive religious impact, earlier…

Lest we forget…

Religion serves an evolutionary purpose especially in the development and spread of settled agricultural civilisations. Basically as society gets bigger than kin groups then something else to hold you together gives you an advantage. Religion fits with the evolutionary trait in humans to see pattern and meaning in disparate signs , it also gives our overdeveloped and complex brains a comfort blanket and sense of purpose to avoid thinking about the empty blackness before and after our brief sparks of life.
In short religion is tosh but really useful harwired tosh so we won’t be able to edit it out.

Some positive religious impact, earlier…

For balance:

I read a really good article recently, written by an anthropologist.

He argued that logically religion should’ve died out as more and more of the founding principles (intelligent design etc) were proved incorrect by science, and the fact it takes effort to follow. But it hasn’t died out.

So he argued there is some sort of evolutionary advantage to following religion, possibly relating to subconciously passing down key survival information from generation to generation.

edit – beaten by crankboy!

This obviously relates to those who actually follow the religion, rather than those who ignore it’s principles but use the name to promote violence a la IS

He argued that logically religion should’ve died out as more and more of the founding principles (intelligent design etc) were proved incorrect by science, and the fact it takes effort to follow. But it hasn’t died out.

Well you could argue it’s in the process of happening now.

You’re born, you live, you die. That’s it. There’s no ‘point’ or ‘meaning’, but if you can get through it (as others have already said) by generally not being a twat and doing as much nice stuff as possible for others without needing to be thanked or recognised for it, that’s great 🙂 Lots of people live in fear of ‘what ifs’ without actually enjoying what’s going on in their lives right now.

Everyone needs to believe something. I believe I’ll have another drink.

Losing our religion won’t kill the ‘isms’ though, will it? We humans can be quite dumb underneath it all. It is relatively simple to mobilise or even control people by tapping into their innate hunger for an easy-to-understand ‘white v black’, ‘them v us’, ‘good vs evil’ worldview that is so powerful we sometimes murder millions of ourselves while feeling wholly justified. We find it very hard to celebrate differences and look to compartmentalise and judge others based upon ill-conceived stereotypes and assumptions. Muslims vs Christians, Nazis vs Jews, Mods vs Rockers, Vans vs Crocs yadayada

I predict business as usual for a very long time indeed.

but where do all the calculators go?

You’re born, you live, you die. That’s it. There’s no ‘point’ or ‘meaning’

Hmm not sure I agree with that. I’ve been kicking around the idea of a set of natural moral absolutes without there being the need for a ‘god’ for a little while now.

My theory is along the ‘strong anthropic principle’ lines, i.e. that the universe is compelled to give rise to intelligent life that can observe it and colonise it.

The basic argument is that intelligent life, i.e. life that comprehend it’s own comprehension, must act in a way that promotes its own continuity and that of other species, as far as possible.

If we act in a way that is agaisnt that principle, then effectively you’ve broken the moral imperative.

Simples. No need for a god and yet the governing laws require us to obey quite a few of the ten comandments.

“For the faithful, no proof is neccessary. For the faithless no proof is possible” So, no religion will, unfortunately, never die out.

However, as has been stated, very few wars have been started by people who truly believe in the actual tenets of the chosen religion. War is started by power hungry, blokes that twist & distort “the message”

If God love us, how come extremists aren’t extremely loving? 🙄

but where do all the calculators go?

Same place as the biros.

All will be explained when the ‘creators’ return. They’ve just popped home for lunch as they work on different timescale to us. They’re going to be gutted when they see the state of egypt and the pyramids

…by generally not being a ****

If life has a meaning it should be this.

He argued that logically religion should’ve died out as more and more of the founding principles (intelligent design etc) were proved incorrect by science

I don’t think any of the founding principles of religion have been proved incorrect by science. Intelligent design isn’t a founding principle, its just a not very good theory put forward by nutjobs to explain away evolution. (And I don’t think Darwin ever denied the existence of God?)

And all this modern stuff about faith without proof is crap as well. Plenty of bright people saw the existence of God in the world they experienced around them (thinking of Newton, and Bishop Asser (the very bright guy who worked that the world was created in 3000BC)). The Science bit just explained how it all works.

And yes, religion has done a lot of good in the world. But perhaps its time we moved on.

I thought religion was dead the 80s, or at least the only religious types were about to die. Religion and the religous were universally mocked.

I blame political correctness. 🙂

The ten commandments, boiled down, distilled and rewritten in BASIC-

10 Don’t be a twat
20 Goto 10

run