The growth of knowledge and the decline of religion; is there a true correlation?

Question

I have always thought so, but just lately, I’ve begun to question this. The human race has amassed quite a lot of knowledge and has an achieved an extensive understanding of the principles of our universe but how many of us actually know this stuff? How many of us actually use this knowledge in their day to day lives? It’s not possible to get an accurate figure on this but I personally doubt it would be much more than 10% of the world’s population. So that means the vast majority of us are more or less completely ignorant of an incredible amount of knowledge and instead watch TV, download porn, go shopping, socialize and believe in the same weird stuff that people have been believing in for the last 2000 freakin’ years! I mean, the only way out of this age of ignorance is if people in the future actually develop a need to learn and understand all this knowledge, but what are the chances of that happening?

Answer 1

Desiree, in America at least, revivalism/irrationalism goes in cycles. I only recently learned that churches were being burned in Philadelphia during the 1840s due to WHICH prayers should be said in schools.

Darwin caused the publication of The Fundamentals, an attempt to fight science. Young scientists like TH Morgan would accept this at first, but we know where he wound up in annals of genetic study- an icon, once his brain opened.

In the 1960s, when I was a child during the space race, it was all about science. After we got to the moon, people tended to drop off in interest. Last Ent Wife is correct. We use technology to download porn and play video games but have at our fingertips one of the greatest free stores of education: our computers.

It's sad, but I think we're coming out of the latest cycle of irrationalism due to being in another golden age of science and medicine.

Answer 2

Its not right to compare knowledge to religion and say one is declining because the other is increasing. The knowledge we have gained in the last half century is staggering. No one can possibly know all, and new things are always being discovered.
The idea that religious conviction is decreasing is wishful thinking on the part of some. If anything, that conviction must be gaining in strength due to increased knowledge. That is how faith grows. Knowledge adds evidence to faith and those who use knowledge to discount faith contribute to growth by their attacks. It is not out of ignorance that people believe.

Answer 3

Definitely. Before the spread of the "information highway" and cable/satellite television, the church was able to control the information that people in small towns received, and to prevent them from learning all of the bad things in the church's history. Modern technology is finally helping to educate ignorant people.

Answer 4

I will attempt to answer this question on the hope that you will give it some thought. It might not be popular with you or this particular crowd, as you seem to find some comfort in echoing your own perceptions and putting down those who do not share it.

Knowledge can lead to greater enlightenment or to greater ignorance. Have you ever met a pompous *** that just knew everything (but didn't have a clue?) Some of the most ignorant people I have met held degrees. Some were brillant in their own areas of specialty, yet were scary ignorant of other things. Education does not ensure tolerance, it does not ensure inner vision, it can obscure the mind from truth. It can lead man to accept a Creator or can distance him from the same. Education is good, if the mind it occupies is good. It's all in the attitude of the beholder.

Many of our top scientist are men of some faith, finding science to be a tool to be used in extending the vision of that faith.

Faith does not preclude education, it embraces it. Only lately has it become popular to proclaim disdain for faith, and that worries me, for I see as a portend of darker times, not times of enlightenment.

Science in the days of Plato was more or less a sham, yet that great man left us with important thoughts that transcended his day and the learning of the time. Things will continue to be learned in and after our day that will cast doubt on much of what we consider fact just as it has in ages past. All learning can reinforce faith or be used to destroy faith, just as learning about nuclear power can either help us or destroy us.

We live in exciting times of discovery and can have no hope of absorbing all that is being found, but I find contradictions in various studies, sometimes on a weekly basis. Do not put your 'faith' in your understanding, or you will likely grow bitter and disenchanted with the world.

Finally, I would leave you with a question of my own: Is it better to be misinformed or uninformed? Some things like love and faith must be learned by the feelings of the heart, not disected in a classroom.

Answer 5

Where is religion declining? More church membership ca-pita than at any other time in American history...That may or may not be a good thing. Religion isn't the problem. some religions are tolerant, caring and engaged in service to others.
Some religious folk are not.
And most folks on this planet struggle to keep their families fed and sheltered and happy and don't have a lot of time to philosophize about life and the universe.
Life is short, why begrudge your neighbor his simple pleasures...
The puritans among us might think we are unproductive and stupid, but whose to judge...

Answer 6

Defenitely Yes! It has been long prophecied that knowledge and advancement in technology shall be increased.
Daniel 12:4
But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.

But along with this fulfillment was God's purification to his people and
the rise of evildoers and unrighteous persons. Read on to...
Daniel 12:10
Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; but the wise shall understand.

Answer 7

Oh yes, there's a correlation alright. To sum up what you've just said, as religion declines more and more people watch TV and download porn. Hmm.....I definitely think you're on to something,.

"Until man can duplicate a blade of grass, nature can laugh at his so-called scientific knowledge."
Thomas Edison

Answer 8

there is certainly a correlation. when people think they know so much and they have so much, they think they don't need God. in 3rd world countries with low literacy rates, religion dictates their life as compared to industrialized countries who has the latest technologies yet question the existence of God because it's not scientific-based. why don't we make a study on it? i can do the stat. lol.

Answer 9

Everytime you turn on your computer, you're utilizing quantum physics.

That plasma screen TV? Wouldn't work without quantum effects.

Just because you might not wrestle with Heisenburg and Schrodinger on a day-to-day basis doesn't mean the science isn't there.

Answer 10

It's only 2007. I'll be the optimist and hope for that world in 500 years time.

I do still enjoy TV and porn, but I do read a lot.

Great question hon.