The Future of Religion
So, what is going to happen to religion in the future. Well, being an atheist, one may assume that I want to see everyone an atheist, nor true. While, it may be a nice idea for the whole world to be atheist, I would never want to see any legislation or laws banning religion, in fact, we as a society would lose something if we did. No, what I want is people to take their religious beliefs a little less seriously, a little less literal. Most, if not all dangers that religion poses, such as inciting terrorism, can be stopped by some rational thought and acceptance that ones chosen holy book is not the perfect, infallible word of their chosen god.
Take the example of terrorism, it is pretty obvious to any rational modern thinker that to kill someone because their religion beliefs don’t align with your own. Slavery, racism and sexism are 3 problems posed by the Christian belief and most main-stream Christians ignore these parts, I wouldn’t say they ignore these parts of the Bible, simply disagree with them as they know they live in a different society. It is the extremism that can result from religious beliefs which I have a problem with. However, these extremes have their days numbered, at least it would seem at first glance.
One current view is that religion is successfully reasserting itself in the world. America is practically a theocracy, with European countries just a little behind, the cold tips of shadows of the dark ages creeping up on us and atheism becomes more marginalised. I disagree with this view for two reasons. First, America is still tip-toeing the edge (Texas is a prime example of failure, but for each step backwards, somewhere else it is being dragged forward) and Europe is becoming more and more secular each day. Britain, a supposedly Christian nation is very tolerant of atheists and as much as the Daily Fail and Daily Torygraph will have you believe, it is actually not too bad. Most of Europe is already highly secular, though issues are still abound. Movement is towards acceptance of atheism, but also a polarisation of in the religious, between the extreme literalists and the mainstream rationalists.
Faith - No evidence required...
A C Grayling seems to argue the opposite, that religion is in it’s death throws, that the volume is simply being turned up by the extreme literalists, giving rise to the creationist movement in America and such. Yet argues that it’s death is soon. I also disagree with this view, I don’t think it is simply an increase in volume, momentum is being gained by the literalist camp, they may be gaining small victories, but the irreligious and mainstream are keeping them mostly in check. They may be getting some victories, but are still at large and will delay the death of the biblical literalist. Similarly, in the UK, we are still technically a Christian nation, while very tolerant of atheism and other religions, there is an increasing propensity towards stupid ideas like faith school support. With the current political climate favouring the Tory party (Our republican party, but not as right, yet still heavily favour a religious society), I think we may be seeing a resurgence in the future.
I would like to offer a more grounded view. With atheism becoming more and more acceptable in the West, we will hopefully see a shift towards reason. The mainstream theists really need to look at the extreme literalists and consider their view. There are plenty of rational Christians arguing against creationism, going as far as to argue that those Christians who promote it are damaging the reputation of their faith. I would agree.
Increasing exposure of extreme literalism, combined with globalisation, the internet (enabling the majority access to a wealth of information and knowledge never before available) and the new atheist movement and what you will see is the extreme literalists being sidelined. They will get loud and won’t go out without a fight, but they will eventually drop. Atheism will become acceptable, the idea of being good without god will spread and this will see the marginalisation of religious views. However, it may get worse before it gets better. Atheism will grow as an acceptable ‘world-view,’ and, hopefully, science will be put at the forefront again. The majority will still have religious beliefs, yet they will not be as important, they will not matter as much, like skin colour and gender discrimination, time will see it fade. Having said this, atheism will not grow rapidly for much longer, we are still in the ‘coming out,’ effect, so for another 3-5 years, we can’t say for sure how well spread atheism will become.
Take your pick, or don't. It's all up to you.
This is quite speculative, what may end up happening is the resurgence of the theistic extreme forcing their beliefs on society through government. This is a severe issue and will negatively effect the theistic and atheistic alike. As time passes, generations will become more polarised between atheism and extreme theism, instead of a shift to the more mainstream. We also have to consider foreign countries, especially the middle East and some far Eastern regions of the world. Islam is being dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century as Christianity was, despite the extreme problems we hear through the media, this is a small minority. The extreme literalist minority again. They will die out soon, at least I hope so, otherwise a shift to religious extremism will cause a similar reaction in the West.
The world which I want to see, in my life-time is one a lot of people will probably agree with me. A shift away from the literalist extreme side of things is necessary. For the world to develop further, globalisation to continue, societies merge and get along with each other, the extreme sides of all nations religions need to be dealt with. Religious beliefs should not be an issue, it should be a null one, such as skin colour (while there is still some intolerance, it is in the ultimate minority and will die out soon enough). If you believe in god, fine, if you don’t, that’s equally fine! But if you start to use these religious beliefs to threaten children (Hell), circumcise young girls (Basically cut teh clit off), promote ignorance (creationism), deny medical treatment to rely on prayer, oppress, hate or use to steal from well-meaning individuals and families, then your days are numbered.
Atheism is included here, the extreme, anti-theistic, calling religious individuals ‘moronic,’ and ‘dumb,’ is not going to get us anywhere, it will just cause furthur increases to the religious extreme. Debate, discussion and promoting understanding of atheism, secularism and humanism is essential to the future of society, at least in driving towards a more rational one. We all have to work together here, atheist and theist. Yes, criticise religious beliefs, but criticise the institution and the beliefs themselves, not the individual. Even I have been guilty of this, but sometimes creationists just really boil my blood as they parrot Hoving and Comfort.
