The Death of Religion

So I read this article today:

http://guardianlv.com/2013/07/religion-to-disappear-by-2041-claims-new-study/

It definitely perked me up a bit.  The thought that religion just might eventually die out altogether brings me joy.  Why?  Because religion is just plain bullshit.  The fact that it continues to run some people’s lives and affects others’ when it shouldn’t is a horrible idea.  Now, there’s nothing wrong with religion in a very general sense.  Most people who follow one form of religion or another aren’t usually bad people and don’t really care so much one way or the other if there is a god or not.  I don’t mind these people.  Religion doesn’t control their life and they don’t try to control other people’s lives with their religion.  If every religious person were like this I could care less about the existence of religion.  Unfortunately that’s not the case.  Still, even with the exceptions there are people who keep their religion to themselves, for the most part anyways (see my previous post about indoctrination).  So why would I care if religion were to disappear?  I will give you a couple of reasons.

               My default argument would be all the bad that comes with religion but I will save that for the next paragraph.  I will start with this; I want people to be “saved”.  That’s right, I’m blatantly stealing this term from the religious folk.  What I mean by this is religious people are ignorant to so many things.  I don’t mean this as an insult but simply the fact that they are brainwashed into believing so many illogical things.  Science disproves so many of the ideas of religion and yet they are either ignored or twisted to fit those theological ideals.  Religious people turn their backs on truth and reality.  They live their lives believing in childish things.  Through my eyes it is honestly no different than if an adult were to still believe in Santa Clause.  It’s just plain frustrating to me that despite the ever increasing explanations provided through science people still cling on hopelessly to their beliefs.  If the religious would simply have an open mind towards the facts they would see how silly they were to believe in the first place.  That’s what I mean by saving them.  I want to open their eyes to the reason and logic that I, and every other Atheist, understand.

               So you knew it was coming.  The “other” reason why I care about the abolition of religion.  The fact that religious doctrine slows the progress of our species and then some.  Abortion, same sex marriage, and stem cell research are just some examples of this.  There are no valid, scientific, arguments for the ban on these things that religious people so dutifully fight for.  It is simply that their religion deems them “wrong”.   These are just a few of the more prominent examples.  I’m sure if I spent the time to research I could find dozens of other examples of religion holding back progress.  And then there’s the whole “I’m right, you’re wrong” aspect of religion.  A majority of the wars, genocide, and unfair treatment of human beings throughout history have occurred because of religion.  I understand that the abolition of religion wouldn’t stop these events from occurring but it certainly would reduce them.

               You might have read that article I posted in the beginning and thought, “no way”.  In fact I did as well, until I remembered some quotes from this really cool (and pretty short) thought experiment called “God’s Debris” written by the creator of the Dilbert comics.  I haven’t finished it yet but so far I find it quite intriguing and highly recommend it. In fact here’s a link to a free .pdf download of it:

http://nowscape.com/godsdebris.pdf

 

There’s some interesting and thought provoking stuff in this story.  One of the parts I found interesting was one of the main characters takes on the religious and something that makes the abolition of religion seem plausible:

“Four billion people say they believe in God, but few genuinely believe. If people believed in God, they would live every minute of their lives in support of that belief. Rich people would give their wealth to the needy. Everyone would be frantic to determine which religion was the true one. No one could be comfortable in the thought that they might have picked the wrong religion and blundered into eternal damnation, or bad reincarnation, or some other unthinkable consequence. People would dedicate their lives to converting others to their religions. “A belief in God would demand one hundred percent obsessive devotion, influencing every waking moment of this brief life on earth. But your four billion so-called believers do not live their lives in that fashion, except for a few. The majority believe in the usefulness of their beliefs—an earthly and practical utility—but they do not believe in the underlying reality.”

              

           So, as you can see through this revealing take on religious people, most don’t really “practice what they preach” in the first place.  Religion in most places just so happens to be the societal norm and so it continues to propagate.  However, Atheism is slowly on the rise and as it continues to grow so will society change.  If you don’t believe me take a look at the many European countries that have a very secular government without any influence of religion.  In those countries Atheists tend to be the majority.  Maybe 2041 is still a little too soon, but at some point in the future I believe we will, indeed, see the death of religion.