Future of Religion?

[DaShi]

In the future of religion there will be robots.

[Traianvs]

In many places in Western-Europe organised religion is heading towards disaster. Where I live nobody except 70+ people go to church and there are virtually no new novices. Without the people to support the religion it'll water down into a distant and historic concept. The aging bishops in Belgium have realized their church will need to be restructured into a smaller entity. Community driven religion will disappear mostly, with only the folklore remaining strong (town festivals in honour of local saints etc.

This is happening in ever increasing speed right now. Many churches, monasteries have other purposes now. Some are turned into schools, or sometimes restaurants, hotels, convention centres etc because we prefer to keep the historically and architecturally valuable buildings intact.

I know nobody who believes in God (although some claim they are catholic. In fact they confuse that with the cultural side of the matter as they were baptised etc. They don't actually believe in God) in my surroundings, except some elderly people. Even the people I know at university who study theology or something similar don't believe in God, but are simply interested in religion. Very telling imo.

But that is Belgium. I'm sure it's a different story elsewhere (i.e. the US )

[Japher]

Originally posted by DaShi
In the future of religion there will be robots.

and that's different from today how?

[Nikolai]

Bergen, my hometown, is actually unique in an European context. No city of it's size has so many Christians. And while we don't grow that much, we are not getting fewer either as far as I can determine. My church has grown considerably the last few years for example. From the sunday meetings having perhaps 100 people, most of them old, a few years ago, there now is mostly 150-200 persons, most of them young, in the age of 20s-40s. And our youth organization, numbering on average around 40-50 at the start of the century, has now an average of 80.

[Lancer]

The future of Christianity is bleak. There are less and less believers and that trend will continue unless there is a revival. You see all the anti Christian people around? Eventually there will be a critical mass and the anger in them will play off each other and hate acts will occur. Eventually Christians will be persecuted and the religion will go underground. Suffering will be great as informers abound and brother turns in brother... Then the end is near.


Nikolai, that sounds like a revival.

[Kidlicious]

Revivals

[Heresson]

It may go various roads, depending on what church leaders will do, and the future of islam. Currently anticlericalism, anti-christianism etc is popular among young people, mostly because it's easy. But it's only in western Europe. Worldwide, religion is gaining strenght, also in post-communist countries. I guess we just have to wait until people will finally realise atheism is mainstream in Europe, and young people will be turning to religion as part of usual generational revolt.

[Kidlicious]

It's hard to believe in unicorns too.

[DarkCloud]

Lancer-

The future of Christianity is bleak. There are less and less believers and that trend will continue unless there is a revival. You see all the anti Christian people around? Eventually there will be a critical mass and the anger in them will play off each other and hate acts will occur. Eventually Christians will be persecuted and the religion will go underground. Suffering will be great as informers abound and brother turns in brother... Then the end is near.

Perhaps.... but I think you're being facetious- fundamentalist and syncretionist christianity seem to be succeeding, and may eventually replace much of mainline christianity.

For example, Christianity is growing in Africa... even though Islam is growing more- Xianity is also growing in Asia... although Islam is growing more... But these are more fundamentalist brands of Christianity than the more mellow modern European variety.

It seems passion is necessary to give Christianity the necessary religious zeal to grow.

Personally, I dislike missionary activities, and religious zeal, but I understand and respect their power. If Christianity is to outgrow Islam in the future, it will either have to out-reproduce or out-convert Islam... or hope that Islam becomes decadent and materialistic as much of Christianity has become.

Islam simply is too good at inspiring religious zeal... that's why people are preaching the end of christianity and it's why Islam is the fastest growing religion in the world!

[Lancer]

Things will get better when Christ returns DC.

[DarkCloud]

Meh. Can't say I expect that to happen.

More likely is the Aztec calendar ending in 2012 coinciding with massive solar flares that take out satellites... and set back technology...

or a magnetic pole flip in 2012 coinciding with the Aztec calendar- which would fry most computers.

:Cries:

[Lancer]

I expect that sort of stuff too, plus diseases that can't be cured.

I just got a warning by the VA about a germ that is immune to antibiotics. These things are going to become more, get worse and eventually something or other will become epidemic.

[DarkCloud]

It'll probably take a while for those sort of diseases to pop up on the radar unless some terrorist organization helps encourage their spread.

Even SARS was relatively limited in its infection-range...And SARS was handled wretchedly.

I'd say we have a bunch of years before some disease like that gets too terrible... I'll randomly assign a date- 2020- for bacteria being a problem The National Insitute of Health, I believe, did a 2025 scenario threat assessment report and it included a scenario much like the one you propose.

* Hmm...Want to start an end of the world thread?

[DarkCloud]

On a related subject- Apolyton will be 14 years old when the world ends in 2012.

From time to time I reflecton how odd it is for all of us still around to have been here for what- 8 years+ now in my case, 10 for you Lancer, and for others... Arguably some of us "know" each others' internet personas better than "know" good friends. For the younger members, they might have spent more hours with internet friends on THIS site than with their significant others' !

[OzzyKP]

Historically the belief in heaven and the belief in utopia are like compensatory buckets in a well: when one goes down the other comes up. When the classic religions decayed, communistic agitation rose in Athens (430 B.C.), and revolution began in Rome (133 B.C.); when these movements failed, resurrection faiths succeeded, culminating in Christianity; when, in our eighteenth century, Christian belief weakened, communism reappeared. In this perspective the future of religion is secure.
- Will Durant