As an atheist, and a highly informed (at least I would like to believe) one at that, I'm often preoccupied with thought about the world's religions, how many people are still religious, and how powerful organized religion is. Sometimes, laying down and trying to fall asleep on my dorm room bed, I often speculate about what the world (in terms of religion) will look like ten, twenty, fifty, one-hundred years from now. I was interested to hear what some of your opinions on this matter are.
I've come to a simple yet profound conclusion, which is, in my own opinion, the most likely outcome for the future of religion in this world.
As levels of education, technological advancement, and economic development increase around the world, the old appeals to dogmatic authority and ancient texts become less influential. There are however substantial arguments that a need for religion is embedded in our psychology as a result of our evolutionary history as a means of dealing with the pains and uncertainties of life. Therefore, a large number of scholars doubt the probability that the concept of religion will ever completely disappear from human societies.
However, time and time again, we find our own modern moral advancements conflicting with the divine dictates of the world's various established religions. The vast amount of interpretations that can be gleaned from their texts has shown time and time again that our own moral beliefs originate from within ourselves rather than through divine revelation.
Case in point: American slavery. Both sides (secularists and Christians) have used the example to illustrate the moral superiority of these two ideologies. The secularists claiming that Christianity supported the establishment of slavery (which it did, and can still be interpreted as supporting it), while the Christians claim that American slavery was an affront to God and immoral.
To me, this is an illustration that the old religions of the world have to "catch up" with the moral and intellectual advancements that have been happening since the Enlightenment. A more modern example is homosexuality, which is commonly condemned by many religions yet there are those within said religions who say that God(s) love is extended to homosexuals as well, yet such views would have been extremely rare 50, 60, 100 years ago in regards to this subject.
The point I am trying to argue is that organized religion, at least the big ones that exist today, is starting to have to appeal to the more general moral consensus of the societies it operates within. Based on this opinion, my predictions for religion in the future are these:
1. Organized religion will be disposed of, the dogmatic and ancient texts of said religions will pass into the realm of ordinary literature to be studied historically, poetically, metaphorically, artistically, etc. Reading the Bible will be no different than reading Shakespear, studying its words for glimpses into the societies that actually believed these stories.
2. Any trace remnants of the "need" for religious faith will adopt a new-age Deism in which most people might proclaim that they believe the universe had a Prime Mover or Creator but that this Creator most likely does not intervene in the affairs of his creation. Such a belief will be free of dogmatic texts and laws, and will most likely be completely harmless and personal.
3. A great number of people will ditch the idea of a belief in a Prime Mover or Creator and instead convert the human impulse to deviate towards religious convictions into a fascination for the universe, whose beauties and mysteries are ever so graciously illuminated by scientific discovery. Many of us have already jumped to this step, such as myself.
Whenever I get into discussions with friends about my atheism, they inevitably say, "you'll never have a spiritual experience" or "how is the world wonderful without god?"
My replies are always two-fold. I first say that religion has no monopoly on emotion, and therefore I think the word "spiritual" is highly unrepresentative of what is actually happening. To an atheist, a spiritual experience is still an experience within reality, in the physical world, being created by chemical reactions within your brain. I then ask why this realization should have any effect on the "spiritual" experience. Why can you not be overwhelmed with awe and excitement and joy from the natural world? Indeed, for an atheist, every spiritual experience happens within the natural world, and never was a spiritual experience ever had that came from a supernatural realm.
Anywho, those are my two cents on where religion is headed in the world within the next century. Let me know yours!
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