How will Religion evolve?

[rov1200]

Religion has said only to existed for 30,000 years but mankind has been on the planet for much longer than this. Many of the recent wars have involved religion with one trying to dominate the other.

Can we expect the dominant religions to crush the weaker ones so that we are left with only the most powerful ones standing?

///Religion appears to have been around for as long as 30,000 years. Some of the cave art produced in Europe up to 30,000 years ago appears to have been of religious origin. Also, some human fossils from this period were ritually buried, providing further evidence of religious activity. This evidence is described in some detail by Richard Leakey in The Origin of Humankind (1994). ///

[jackthehat]

I don't think the established religions CAN evolve.
If you already have a book containing the word of your God, I think it's pretty much definitive.
Struggles to establish primacy will continue.......

[Ankou]

there would be no need for the dominant religions to crush the weaker ones, as the weaker ones are already fairly insignificant in global terms.

the mainstay is between islam, christianity and judaism, and so long as they all exist the others will be left alone providing they dont get above themself and rise above the parapet. for a slice of evolution of religious rituals and crushing the weaklings, you only have to look at caeser and the druids.

[jomifl]

Christian fundamentalism can't evolve, it can only be re-designed

[LazyGun]

nicely put statement, jomifl :)

[rov1200]

What other christian scholars have said:

Would religion evolve with us or will we evolve from it?
I was just thinking imagine its a couple millennia later than today , would a religion like chistianity or islam still have a stronghold in society or would a New age transhumanist cult take its place. Or perheps we could have evolved and now faith was somthing we could not achieve

[birdie1971]

I suspect that religion has existed for much longer than 30,000 years.

I would suggest that it has existed ever since effective and complex communication has been possible. Gods are created, fall into disuse and are then discarded. Gods such as...

Ra, Set, Horus, Osiris;
Odin, Thor, Freyja, Loki;
Apollo, Zeus, Hera, Dionysus;
Ki, Enki, Nanna; An.

All of the above Egyptian, Norse, Greek and Sumerian Gods were as 'real' to the people of the time as Jesus and Allah are today. And all of them today, without exception, are considered to be non-existent; just a quaint footnote in the annals of human deity belief.

In several hundred years time, Allah, Jesus and Yaway will have vanished too. Replaced, no doubt, by equally unlikely characters – the followers of whom will swear by their divinity and be willing to violently subdue those who don't believe.

Religion always has been and always will be for the hard of thinking and as such, it will inevitably continue to survive. It's like a rubber duck in the bath – no matter how much you try to sink it, it just bobs back up again with a stupid grin on its face...

[Ankou]

those gods were tribal/nationalistic.

they never achieved the global presence that the abrahamic religions have, so with the expansion of the world and the fall of empires they are bound to fail with the falllen tribes/kingdoms. it would take a lot for the abrahamics to fall out of use.

[naomi24]

Religion does evolve, but unfortunately in many cases it seems to be regressing rather than progressing. It's quite clear that some of those who feel that their religion should dominate have every intention of eventually succeeding in annihilating all other religions The appalling destruction by the Taliban of the ancient Buddhist statues in the Bamiyan Valley is just one example of the effect that religion has upon the minds of the mindless - and the lengths to which the mindless will go in pursuit of their purpose.

[rov1200]

I agree with your sentiments Naomi. It is not by accident many of these way out activists in the name of religion are called 'Religious Nutters'

http://religiousnutters.com/

[mibn2cweus]

^ Visitor 275 likes ^ :o)

Religion is constantly evolving (in spite of it penchant for returning to a species prior to reason), because it must to conform to new found and contradictory knowledge discrediting its asserted omniscience.

[keyplus90]

Any religion that did not, is not and would not give practical solutions to the problems humankind face in past, at present and in the future would evolve and people would walk away from that.

[naomi24]

^^ What?

[society]

"How will Religion evolve?"

I believe religion will never change. There’ll always be disagreements amongst different religions each proclaiming theirs is the truest and way out, and they'll never cease to stop declaring so.


Naomi, it's the first time I've disagreed with you.

[naomi24]

Hi Society, you're right in saying that every religion will continue to claim that theirs is the only way - that is indisputable - but if you think about it not so long ago the idea of women priests would have been unthinkable, but now it's commonplace. Additionally, some religions are doing their best to embrace the idea of evolution because they know if they don't they're a-gonna! If you really think about it I'm pretty sure you'll agree that religions do change - even if that means in some cases they are going backwards. :o)

[society]

:-) Yes I see your point. x

[naomi24]

:o)

[birdie1971]

Ankou

You say that the Gods I listed above were, “... tribal/nationalistic”.

Is that important? They were still Gods to the people who believed in them. Does the existence of God (assuming monotheism) rely upon the number of people who believe in Him? Surely God exists or He does not?

It appears that you are suggesting that the existence of God is dependant upon the number of people who follow that particular God. So the more popular the God, the more 'real' He becomes? So if Islam achieved world domination and everyone believed in Allah, then He would be almost corporeal?

Hypothetically, if more and more people left Islam to the point where there were only a couple of hundred people in the world who believed in Allah, then it would be accurate to describe the Islamic God as effectively non-existent?


If this is your case (and I have to assume it is given your last post), then you're suggesting that the existence of a divine being is wholly dependant on humans believing in Him. Ergo, man creates God in his own image.

[naomi24]

Excellent point, Birdie. The only difference between a 'respectable' religion and a 'suspicious' cult is the number of followers each claims.

[naomi24]

rov, that link deserves a wider audience. Perhaps you should post it again separately just for information.

[Ankou]

birdie, i don;t believe in the existence of any gods.

my post was really as you said yourself 'gods are created, fall into disuse and are then discarded'. with the end of a tribe or the taking over of another, a new god takes their place depending on the political power at the time. the old one is banned at pain of death and eventually forgotten.

the abrahamics will evolve as they are far more reaching than those gods/religions you mentioned ever did. their evolution and expansion doesn't make them real. it just makes the cult following a larger corporation. perhaps christianity would have been one of those banned and forgotten ones had it not been for the romans seeing the political power that could be gained from giving it credence.