Originally posted by finnegan
All human societies and groups have a religious system which incorporates an account of their origins, a value system and a proposal for the purpose of life. To arrive at an entirely "Rational" and non magical way of thinking requires quite a sophisticated mind but that was certainly achieved for example by some of the philosophers among the ancient Greeks ...[text shortened]... visit Earth looking for more sacrificial victims. It happened in Mexico - it could happen again.
I would hope that with the yearly increments in scientific knowledge religion would play a smaller and smaller role as evident in the Scandinavian countries.
As we get more scientifically sophisticated, religion seems to be relegated to smaller and smaller roles in society.
It seems to me religion is one of the last relics of the past mind set that substitutes actual thinking about the world to 'goddidit' kind of dismissive mentality that in the USA right now, is actively fighting the new knowledge gained at real expense in the sciences.
The present fight over the forcing of creationism to be taught as if it were an actual science is just the icing on the putrid cake of religion in the US.
We are supposedly the most advanced society in the world, yet by many indexes we are far behind and a lot of that is due to religion IMHO.
When a good portion of the US don't even know the Earth revolves around the sun you have to ask why and a big portion of that answer has to do with the religious indoctrination inherent in religion, forcing people to discount hundreds of years of scientific progress in the disgusting effort by these ultra religious right wingers to thwart any new knowledge generated by science. The latest for instance is this:
http://phys.org/news/2014-02-evolution-geometries-life-scientists-longstanding.html
Where life scientists have apparently solved a long standing question in evolution, the energy required by various life forms on Earth.
There are many implications of this new work but I can see it being actively thwarted by the ultra religious right wingers in the US despite how it can answer long standing questions in biology.
It is my considered opinion the human race is not served by religion in this day and age, perhaps it held appeal in the past when we know next to nothing about the weather or other forces of nature but now that we are getting a real handle on these forces we can understand them without referring to mystical forces or gods floating about the cosmos.
At least in the USA, religion is thwarting a real resurgence in scientific knowledge and THAT I hate almost above EVERYTHING else.