by highdose 30 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
I don't think so. We are always attached to something that gives us if not directly religious, similar feelings. It could be new messias you choose to follow, it could be that you follow your favourite band with religious mindset, or it could be that you are willing to do whatever for gods in your favourite sports team.
CP
Norway, Finland, Sweden, Denmark are making progress away from religious dominated culture.
I think people will believe in a different way. Spirituallity and skepticism will be big. Literal belief will fall. The elites willl not be religious but the underclass probably will be.
I'm already glad to see that so many people do not read the bible literally, but allegorically (like Aesop's Fables). Not all, but quite a few have taken this tack. It's refreshing to see. Others (like myself) have skipped the religious search for the most part and moved right to Agnosticism or Atheism. Still others are SPIRITUAL, without being RELIGIOUS.
Progress is made, albeit sometimes it's one generation at a time and with mixed results...
But it's still progress, nonetheless.
I would like to think that people will be able to see through the deceit of many a religious leader, and also that things are not just the way we were all told they were. But I don't think that will happen in our lifetime. Or in many lifetimes.
I used to believe that secularization would proceed and that religion would lose more and more ground as time went by. That is not the case.
I'm currently reading "God's Revenge", by French author Gilles Kepel (http://www.amazon.com/Revenge-God-Resurgence-Christianity-Judaism/dp/0271013141/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1324515289&sr=8-8). Mr. Kepel shows the way that the three Abrahamic religions are fighting back, and they are winning.
Mr. Kepel says that the Oral Roberts and Jim Bakker of this world touch the faithful and give him or her something that secular minds do not fully comprehend. People are given the idea that God has created a direct channel to them. They may be old, destitute, they may belong to a minority, they may be sick, whatever, but the pastor gives them the feeling that they matter. And secularism just cannot give that. Just compare the idea of being no more than a speckle in the universe to the idea of having a loving father who is personally and individually interested in you. He sees your every act and decided to die for you so you would be saved.
No, I think religion in some form will always be with us.
The gods will come and go, the beliefs will change and evolve but the basic idea of attaching intelligence, love and other human traits to the unknown will likely persist.
One can only hope that John Lennon's words come true - imagine.
I doubt it. Humans psyche seems to possess a need for mythology and a need to lead or follow. That means people will always be pushing forth ideas of faith that others will want to grasp onto.
No. People love a magic show.
From the absolute beginning...bronze age man created worship from nothing... I guess. It's what man does. The rituals and celebrations are what humans enjoy. Don't think religion is going anywhere.
