Study showing religiosity going extinct, some places:

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-03-religion-verge-extinction-countries.html

It can't happen too soon for me. A sign the world may be growing up finally.

Originally posted by sonhouse
http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-03-religion-verge-extinction-countries.html

It can't happen too soon for me. A sign the world may be growing up finally.

It will never happen.

Originally posted by josephw
It will never happen.

Is that according to your religious beliefs?

Has Science Made Belief in God Obsolete ?

An excellent four video lecture by Christian philosopher J P Moreland.

YouTube&feature=related

Many of these people who are not a affiliated with organized religion still believe in God. It is organized religion that they are leavening. I did the same thing in my mid 20’s. I objected to the organization structure and dogma

Originally posted by sonhouse
http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-03-religion-verge-extinction-countries.html

It can't happen too soon for me. A sign the world may be growing up finally.

what will you blame it all on once you no longer have religion?

Originally posted by robbie carrobie
what will you blame it all on once you no longer have religion?

There won't be religious extremism for sure. When people don't obsess about some god or other, they can get on with their own lives unfettered by the shackles of religion.

Cultures that subjugate women will have to find another excuse since they won't be able to reference their bibles, koran's or what have you.

Don't get me wrong, I think women will be subjugated long after the death of religion but it would be a great start.

Religion going extinct.

It's knowledge that has done it.

Knowledge is the enemy of all religions.
Once the people start asking questions and stop getting fobbed off
with the same silly answers then that religion is doomed.

Religion needs unquestioning faith. Total blind obediance.

The people have seen enough of God's handy work.
Questions have been asked and God has been found wanting.

We don't need him anymore, we have television.

Originally posted by greenpawn34
Religion going extinct.

It's knowledge that has done it.

Knowledge is the enemy of all religions.
Once the people start asking questions and stop getting fobbed off
with the same silly answers then that religion is doomed.

Religion needs unquestioning faith. Total blind obediance.

The people have seen enough of God's handy work.
Questions ...[text shortened]... been asked and God has been found wanting.

We don't need him anymore, we have television.

And chess....

Originally posted by sonhouse
And chess....

...and chess (the one religion that demands you ask questions).

After religion has finally gone and is totally replaced by
television we will re-name the Bishops, Transmitters.

(we don't want people asking questions....What's a Bishop?)

Originally posted by greenpawn34
Religion going extinct.

It's knowledge that has done it.

Knowledge is the enemy of all religions.
Once the people start asking questions and stop getting fobbed off
with the same silly answers then that religion is doomed.

Religion needs unquestioning faith. Total blind obediance.

The people have seen enough of God's handy work.
Questions ...[text shortened]... been asked and God has been found wanting.

We don't need him anymore, we have television.

Nonsense. We have little more knowledge (philisophical and reasoning) than they did when Socrates was wiping the floor with Meletus. What we have is technology and science. Neither of these has been even remotely successful at answering the important questions that human beings ask of themselves such as "why am I here?"

Religion most certainly does not need unquestioning faith and blind obedience, that is catagorically false and is a strawman argument. Every person of faith I have ever met has had some form of doubt. Doubt in itself is part of the internal dialogue one has with God.

Real faith is not rigid or brittle like blind faith. Unquestioning blind faith is the bailiwick of zealots, an extreme minority. The faith like steel is strong but able to bend under stress. The rigidity of zealotry is like iron, strong but it snaps and the faith is broken.

How, specifically has God been found wanting? Is the world not a wonder to behold? Does this world not provide everything we need as a species to survive? It's hubris beyond the pale to think that mere mortals that live a grand total of 78 years or so could know better than a supreme being how this planet should have been made, or how we should have been made.

It's not your lack of belief that makes you an athiest it's your vanity that you could concieve and create a more just and benevolent world. Since you have this delusion that you know best for humanity you assume there is no God. Rid yourself of pride and you will find God.

Originally posted by sonhouse
http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-03-religion-verge-extinction-countries.html

It can't happen too soon for me. A sign the world may be growing up finally.

First of all, all they asked was, "Are you affilitated with a religion?" It did not ask if they believe in God or they consider themselves to be Christian. Secondly, these are only 9 countries, not the entire world and most of these countries are so atheistic compared to the rest of the world that they make Dawkins look like an Evangelic preacher. Thirdly, Islam is growing in large numbers in Europe and probably in Austrailia as well. And lastly, I would learn Arabic if I were you. 😛

Originally posted by Doward
Nonsense. We have little more knowledge (philisophical and reasoning) than they did when Socrates was wiping the floor with Meletus. What we have is technology and science. Neither of these has been even remotely successful at answering the important questions that human beings ask of themselves such as "why am I here?"

Religion most certainly does not nee ...[text shortened]... best for humanity you assume there is no God. Rid yourself of pride and you will find God.

You are absolutely right. A little knowledge obtained and these people think that they don't need God. They see TV and play Chess. And a day of reckoning comes, they see the emptiness of their life,they see that science is unable to answer basic questions and they cry for God.

Originally posted by whodey
First of all, all they asked was, "Are you affilitated with a religion?" It did not ask if they believe in God or they consider themselves to be Christian. Secondly, these are only 9 countries, not the entire world and most of these countries are so atheistic compared to the rest of the world that they make Dawkins look like an Evangelic preacher. Thirdly, ...[text shortened]... urope and probably in Austrailia as well. And lastly, I would learn Arabic if I were you. 😛

Many previously communist countries have seen their citizens turn religious. China has many open followers of Islam and some clandestine followers of Buddhism and Taoism. India increases its population every year by millions,all of them religious.

Hi Doward.

OK.

You mentioned Socrates.

Did Socrates not preach that you must question everything.
This eventually led to him being put to death for atheism (questioning
the Gods of his day).

Science has advanced 100 fold since the day of Socrates and yet with
every advancement the church has tried to stop it.

It banned books, putting to death those read them.
It has stood firmly against the people gaining knowledge down the centuries.

Galileo ("...and yet moves" ) proved beyond any doubt that the Earth
revolved around the Sun. He was nearly put to death because of it.
Instead he was placed under house arrest for the rest of his life
so he could not go around telling people what he has discovered.

Such was the church's fear that the common people read the Bible in the English
(and start asking questions) that they fought all the way to prevent it.

Wycliffe who printed an English translation of the Bible had his rotting bones
dug up 40 odd years after he died and tossed in the river.
This was on the order of The Pope.

An uneducated mass is far easier to control.
Religion has no time for knowledge.
Unquestioning faith and blind obedience. To say this is a straw man's argument
is an insult to every person who has beeen put to death or mutilated
for not believing or questiong (ie. Socrates) any form of religion.

Try it yourself.
Next time you go to chuch, when the lad gets up to preach his sermon
try standing up yourself and arguing with him...You will be tossed out the building...
No Questions allowed.

"Real faith is not rigid or brittle like blind faith.
Unquestioning blind faith is the bailiwick of zealots, "

Agreed.

"How, specifically has God been found wanting? Is the world not a wonder to behold? "

Take off those rose coloured blinkers and look around.

God is a total failure.

He could not even create a stable world for live on. Earthquakes, Volcanoes...

And if you are giving him the credit for the sheer wonder and beauty
of a blossoming flower then you must also give him the credit for the festering
scab on a child's face.

You cannot pick choose which bits God created and which bits he did not.
It's all or nothing.

Next time you go to church and sing 'All Things Bright and Beautiful'
Add in the verse; Famine, disease, murder, misery and rape.

Does this world not provide everything we need as a species to survive?

...How many children die each day from starvation?

"It's not your lack of belief that makes you an athiest it's your vanity ."

No it's you believers who are vain in thinking that all this was created just you.
The whole Universe was created by God just for you.

Everything what you choose to see and believe in was created by God
just for you. If not vanity then how about bloated with self importance
and conceit.

Vanity in religious terms is to reject God for the sake of one's own image.
And yet do you not believe that God created you in his own image.
Your chosen creator is the vain one.

If anything I feel insignificent, worthless and I get angry.
I see what is happening in the world and I'm totally powerless to stop it.
There is nothing I can do.

Some close the eys and seek personal relief from what is going on
by clouding and shielding themselves in religion.

Wish I could do that.
Cock my head to one side, put on that dopey smile and say Jesus loves me.

I don't want him to love me. I want him and his dad to get off their butts
come down and sort things out.

I am in complete despair and yet I'm told if I rid myself of my pride
I will find God.

Somebody needs to find him and quick. He has been posted missing.
Perhaps he has fallen through a hole in the ozone layer.