Thread: You visit the future and your religion no longer exists, how do you react?

When in rome, do what the romans do...

Convert heathen!

Honestly, if that happened cuddley, I think the world would be a much better place. I think our science would have no more limits or "toes to watch" and we'd progress even more rapidly in terms of our knowledge, technology and as a species overall.

Originally Posted by Jeff777

Honestly, if that happened cuddley, I think the world would be a much better place. I think our science would have no more limits or "toes to watch" and we'd progress even more rapidly in terms of our knowledge, technology and as a species overall.

He didn't say religion would be gone; just different.

But I agree with you, if religion were totally absent.

I wonder if religion would ever spring up again though, even if everybody was brought up to think in a critical manner.

Originally Posted by Xei

I wonder if religion would ever spring up again though, even if everybody was brought up to think in a critical manner.

I don't think that the two are mutually exclusive at all. Take Richard Dawkins. He is, by is own admission, "in some sense" a deeply religious man. We live in a beautiful universe. Or at least some people on the scientific 'side' think so. That's a different statement from "the math that describes our universe is beautiful.", I'm just talking about the universe itself here.

So for some people, the need to explain the universe through science is, at the root, working from one of the same instincts that leads to religion. The universe is beautiful, it must be explained.

Where the two diverge is in faith. As Feynman said, (paraphrasing) "science is a belief in the ignorance of the experts." This doesn't imply that the experts are wrong, they certainly aren't about evolution, but only that we might be able to explain it better. But there are religions that do not require faith either. Buddhism is one example of this and Taoism is another. On the other hand, the argument could be made that they become philosophy in the absence of faith in their supernatural claims but I don't see the point really. The supernatural claims are only ever secondary in either of them.

The role of science is to answer the whats and hows of the universe. The purpose of religion is to give some framework with which to answer the question, "How do I live my life?" Another purpose that religion has is to answer the whys about the universe but that is in conflict with science and is slowly getting dropped because it demonstrably does it badly.

I call myself a "Naturalistic Pantheist" which means that I think that the universe is beautiful and that we don't need more of a god than that. If I was in the future and there was no religion, I would be happy. If there was a religion that suppressed scientific knowledge, I don't know what I would do. I would be very sad.

I would continue believing and continue worshiping God no matter what others thought.

Originally Posted by davej

I would continue believing and continue worshiping God no matter what others thought.

Aesop's Fables was a better read.

Did you just watch a sci fi movie?

Originally Posted by kingerman

Did you just watch a sci fi movie?

nah I was just thinking about it lol.

re⋅li⋅gion  [ri-lij-uhn]
–noun
1. a set of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of the universe

By that definition, there will always be religion. Right?

I've always been interested in ancient history and mithology and, because of it, I have often wondered that kind of thing myself.
The way I see it, current main religions (specially those on our side of the world) have benefited from better transports and comunication systems, widespread writing systems and some of the most powerful armies in the world.
I often think then, unless some kind of major disaster wipes out current civilizations, the religions that now exist are bound to be preserved in some extent by those same things. Most of the stuff that is still around from the dark ages should die out in favor of more "updated" approaches, if you will, because nowadays information is hardly contained anymore and priests can't just lead people around by the nose the way they used to. On the other hand, and we can see it already, it will also lead a lot more people to favor faith instead of religion.
We are at a point where a lot of stuff is happening for the first time in history. If we don't kill ourselves first, we're bound to see a whole new set of concepts emerge in a lot of fields.

If I went forward in time 5000 years, I would assume that I was being sent as a messenger to teach them.

I'd also pray over the matter.

If I went into the future and it was 100% religious people, I'd probably think to myself, "Where'd the revolution go?" I'd shutup because if I questioned belief then I'd probably be burned alive.

One thing is for sure... As long as we have Christian and Muslim fundamentalists running around, they will continue to make life interesting. Especially when they bomb abortion clinics, kill doctors, chant incoherent slogans about their freedom and march on to another man's land to get shot at.