Do you think religion will be taken over by science?

Question

Well slowly some anicent religions are falling like viking religion of odin,freya,thor and loki to science since some of them described the world was flat and how thor made lightning.

Do you think one day science will take over religion?

Answer 1

Science is a religion. If you dont think so, then discover something that goes against the commonly held idea on something. You will be lucky not to get eaten alive.

Answer 2

Ask that question again in 30 years. I think the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament) is all myth, and although some of the New Testament is probably true, books like Revelations are also just myth. Yet there are so many looney Christians who want their idea of Armegeddon and "The Rapture", and there are enough radical Muslims & Jews, that is is quite possible that there will be a war that destroys civilization as we know it.

Part of the reason why there is this problem with religions is that people who think that ancient "holy" books contain the only "Truth" are having a very difficult time with "future shock" -- the rapidly changing cultures of the world due to technical innovations. The next 30 years is going to see more than 10 times as much innovation as we have seen in the last 30 years. We will probably have computers with human level intelligence.

These kinds of changes will place a great deal of pressure on "people of faith" who can't accept that mankind could possibly "create life". This might be another catalyst that causes the masses of the three Abrahamic religions to fight the last "holy war".

In 30 years we will know. Either "faith" will have destroyed the world, or Reason will have won, and faith will have faded.

Answer 3

God is what we ascribe to things we don't understand. Thus we know where lightning comes from, so it was no longer the work of god. That being said, there are things that science (at least science as we know it) cannot know: what happened before the big bang? what is the meaning and purpose of life? what happens after we die? Religion provides an answer slightly more satisfying than "your body rots in the ground and gets eaten by worms", even though it is based on superstition handed down from generation to generation. Sometimes, it is based on the idea that you are not responsible for your actions, because it is all part of god's plan - a dangrous idea indeed.

In the same way we look at ancient religions (how could the greeks believe in so many gods? how quaint) so too will our decendants look on our hokey religions (you eat a wafer and that's like eating a guy that died?). I'm also hoping that the religious wars will end at some point too - so much blood has been spilled in the name of "my god is better than your god". But despite the senseless killing, religion has also brought so many good things - family and community traditions, holidays that bring people together. For example, nearly evey religion has a holiday in the winter where people light candles/lights - this has been shown to be the cure for what psychologists now call seasonal affective disorder (SAD), people getting depressed in the winter. The idea of the sabbath, taking a day (or two) away from work to be with your family, have peace and quiet, etc. The ceremonies that connect you with your anecstors even if you don't really believe it is very powerful in its symbolism.

There are people who will fight to preserve their culture and religion. Judaism has lasted 3500 years, as mark twain put it "all things are mortal except the jew". However I read somewhere that 50% of jewish people will marry someone of a different faith and not pass on judaism to their children. That makes the extreme believers more strong in protecting their religion, but it also makes them more insane and on the lunatic fringe, and less likely to be accepted by their progeny.

I doubt that science will take over religion - like I said, people need answers to the really big questions. But perhaps the tools of education and technology will tear down the corrupt regime of organized religion, put an end to extremism and idiocy amongs the devout, and we can keep only the good things that religion gave us.

Answer 4

Yes, it will effectively overtake religion, and in fact, it has. People follow entertainment and technology more than their religious tenents, for the most part. It will never die, though. People have an innate spiritual capacity. It is part of how we stitch together the bits we know about the world. It necessarily includes an element of "magic" to fill in the blanks between "milk comes from cows" and "we buy milk in the store." People take the mechanisms for granted, and trust that they are good mechanisms, without really knowing what happens. A new mythology about the world is created in every person. The more we learn (wheter true or not) the less we have to fill in the blanks, and the more we agree with other peoples' mythologies.

Answer 5

I recently read an article in my World Religions course at my college that talked about how recent scientific studies are actually proving certain religious texts.

Interestingly enough, it said that despite years of controversy and despute between Science and Religion, that they're actually starting to go hand-in-hand.

If I can find the article, I'll repost because it's really interesting.

Answer 6

Indirectly. As the average person gains more knowledge and intelligence, the fallacy of religion will become more and more obvious. Science is providing ways to obtain that knowledge, and with it intelligence. I'd give it another 1000 years or so.

Answer 7

Well, science essentially is oblivious to god... and rightfully so. Science is looking for natural explanations for natural things. The presumption of science is that everything that can exist and anything that can occur in the universe is, by definition, natural... even if we cannot presently understand it or explain it. Again, this is as it should be.

Religion doesn't see it that way, though:

* At the bleeding edge of science, at the point where it REALLY starts to get interesting, SCIENCE says: "We don't know... OK, boys... let's roll up our sleeves, dig in and find out."

* At the bleeding edge of science, at the point where it REALLY starts to get interesting, RELIGION (imagine South Park - Officer Barbrady) says: "That's too complicated. God did it. Move along. Nothing to see here. Everybody go home now."

Religion exists in a strange netherworld between two logical fallacies (flaws in thinking)... the 'Argument From Incredulity' ("I can't understand how that might have come to be; therefore, God did it.") and the 'God of the Gaps' fallacy, also known as the 'Divine Fallacy'. The God of the Gaps lives at the bleeding edge of science... and religionists view the advances of science as an encroachment into their territory. They are at war, fighting a rear-guard action against the advance of scientists... and the preoccupied scientists, for the most part, don't even KNOW that they're in a fight.

Science doesn't attack god. That is true from the perspective of science... as I said, science is oblivious to god... he/she/it is simply out of scope. From the standpoint of the religiose, though, science is the mortal enemy. First they took away the earth being the center of the universe, and the focus and purpose of all creation... the god of the gaps got his butt whipped. Next thing you know, lightening is just an electrical discharge... not a manifestation of the wrath of god. The god of the gaps got his butt kicked again. Disease caused by germs, not demons. Ouch. Planets aren't wandering stars... they are bodies that orbit the sun. Whap. Stars aren't little lights placed on the firmament (the solid barrier between heaven and earth... i.e., the sky)... they are actually suns, like our own, unimaginably far away. God of the Gaps gets kicked right in the balls. And on, and on, and on. The God of the Gaps has NEVER won a fight with science... NOT ONCE. Every time there is a scrimmage between science and the God of the Gaps, another gap gets filled up with knowledge, and the God of the Gaps slinks away, with his tail between his legs. Earth isn't 6,000 years old... it's 4.5 BILLION years old. G of G gets kicked in the nuts again. And on and on... and on.

Well, they're tired of getting kicked in the nuts... so, they've changed tactics. Rather than fighting the battle on the basis of knowledge and evidence, they fight it on the basis of lies and misdirection. Science won't engage them... heck... it won't even acknowledge them. So, rather than engaging science, they just appeal to their constituency, which is scientifically ignorant for the most part, and feed them a bunch of plausible sounding pseudo-scientific lies. Take 'Intelligent Design'. The strategy is not to argue this on a scientific basis... it is to "Teach the controversy"... except in the scientific community, THERE IS NO CONTROVERSY. But their dumbass constituency doesn't go to the scientific community for their scientific information... no... they go to the people they TRUST... their SPIRITUAL LEADERS... and they get fed pseudoscience, misrepresentations and lies.

Willful ignorance, lies and delusions are winning. Science is losing. The God of the Gaps, FINALLY, is holding the line against knowledge, reason and critical thought.

So, while it is true that science doesn't attack god, that doesn't really matter... because as long as they PERCEIVE science (in general) to be an attack on god, we're going to be in an ongoing fight. At some point, in the near future, we need to wake up and realize that, or we're going to end up back in the Dark Ages.

Answer 8

Yes.

There is already the debate on whether the world was created by science itself or by the Catholic God. As the generations grow, more technology will come into their lives and they will forget the natural part of our lives and live with science and technology.

Answer 9

1. No, religion can not be taken over by science.
2. Science gives you physical comforts, deals with physical subjects. religion deals with faith and faith is a very strong power. Religion deals with spirituality. Religion begins where science ends. Science can not take over religion, however, it can exist in harmony with it.

Answer 10

Science will never take over religion. There will always be the ignorant and ill-educated element out there that requires the mental and emotional crutch called religion.
But with better education, we can make that backwards element dwindle to almost nothing.
Here's hoping.
Oh and fr_chuck, thanks for the laugh! It never ceases to amuse me that child-molesting idiots like yourself disregard science and reality for fantasy and make-believe and call it real.
Oh man you must be one screwed up individual. Heck, that goes without saying with someone who wears a dress and a collar and that leads the mindless sheep in prayer to an imaginary sky-pixie...