[user104658]

Originally Posted by Nedusa

was kinda hoping for a bit more comment than a one line quip and a shocked emoticon...????

how long do you think religion will survive.....

My emoticons represented a thousand words! The shocked emoticon was to represent my fear for your safety after stating such things. The latter emoticon, because I dream of the world that you imagine in that post. My problem isn't with religion, or the religious, you see... it's more what the entire concept represents. People who are fearful and want to be "told" and "comforted" rather than to think and wonder and just be amazed by the Universe and all of its mystery. And a world where people need a reason, or bribery (heaven) or blackmail (hell) or an instruction manual to be good and moral people instead of just being good and moral people because they want to be and because it is right and fair.

I dream of a world where people don't need a book or preachers or anything other than their own philosophies and imaginations to be good, and to be inspired.


Sadly, I don't think there will ever be a day where that happens entirely. I think mass religion will be around for a long time to come - although I guess maybe not in terms of the entirity of human history. Maybe 500 years? However, I think for as long as there are humans, there will be pockets of religion. Most likely viewed by most as strange cultists. Some people seem to need (completely) that direction and instruction, those predefined safety nets to fall back on. People offering "answers", eternal life and salvation will always be able to find someone to follow them. Because the Universe is too impossibly complex and multi-layered for us humans to ever know or understand... and some people are just not ok with that uncertainty. They want to know, they want an answer, they want "it's God".