Do you think the age has passed when there can be no new religions?

by truthseeker 23 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  designs

  I believe King Geoffrey is coming back and we must rally to the cause.....
• 

  Maat13

  Absolutely not...unfortunately the same religious story has been taught for the last 4000 years...just recycled with slight changes...once the masses of people realize this, there could be many new ones...

  Maat
• 

  jgnat

  Religion will continue and new ones will rise up. I predict that Islam will have to abandon its apparent unity and will split. Current religions will slowly modify their core beliefs to catch up with modern mores. We don't see large scale competitors because they will start small as all new religions do.
• 

  Island Man

  I think it's possible to see new non-theistic religions developing. Religion as a concept will slowly evolve to the point that it moves away from the supernatural. Instead of being devoted to superstitious beliefs and supernatural beings, the religion of tommorrow will be devoted to particular philosophical and moral world views. We already have the makings of this in movements like secular humanism.

  Humans are social creatures and for societies to funtion healthily, certian implicit laws have to obeyed. In turn, the obedience to law requires motivation. Religion along with the legislative and judicial arm of the state, have traditionally served as the prime sources of this motivation to obey moral laws that maintain a healthy, orderly society. Fear of invisible god(s) watching over you motivates many people to do the right thing even when they can get away with doing wrong without the police knowing, or which aren't criminalized by state law.

  With fear-based theistic religion on the decline, something new has to evolve to fill its role. Perhaps Morality will develop as a fundamental science that is taught from kindergarten to university alongside English and Math. Then, maybe governments will create a new, non-criminal law system to tackle certain vices and unethical conduct which aren't strictly illegal or criminal but proven nonetheless to be detrimental or disadvantagous to society over time (e.g. sexual infidelity = non-consensual promiscuity, price gouging, non-petty lies, public drunkenness, etc)

  This can be something like a financial credit rating but applied to a person's morality. Maybe everyone is issued a default maximum morality rating at birth then when you reach a predetermined age of responsibility your morality rating gets lowered everytime you commit an infraction against the non-criminal moral code. Different infractions will carry different point penalities. Your rating can also be increased/repaired by doing altruistic deeds, selfless acts of bravery in the face of danger, community service, etc. Your morality rating serves as a metric that can be used by universities, companies, clubs and other institutions when deciding if to accept your application.

  This could actually be a very good system for undoing some of the undue power of money to infuence others' appraisal of a person. Showing undue favortism to the wealthy can be an infraction that carries a stiff penalty. It may not completely eliminate undue favor to the wealthy at the expense of others but it will go a long way to greatly reducing it. Applicants will tend to be evaluated on their ability and their morality rather than on how wealthy they or their family is.