How long until religion is no more?

by lifelong humanist 14 Replies latest jw friends

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  lifelong humanist

  What do you think - how long before all religion is no more?

  I live in rural Scotland, a country that is probably still quite religious on the surface. Yet, I rarely come across anyone that is in the least bit religious.

  As for me, I DAd from JWs after over 40 years as a baptized member. My wife of almost 38 years is still involved, although less so each passing year. Hopefully, she'll be out in the next few years. All of our 4 children have totally given up on the JW religion. They, like me, embrace Atheism/Humanism and are leading good, productive lives.

  I was born into a third generation JW family. My older brother DAd rather than being DFd, my younger sister left before I was baptized after being counselled rather severely in the TMS about the length of her skirt. My mother, aged 94, and still living an independent life in her little bungalow, gave up on the JWs about 50 years ago, when no one in the congregation offered any help or assistance when my father was suffering from polio - one of the last cases recorded in Glasgow, Scotland. Mum never found the so-called love that is the hallmark of the JWs. I was too young to know what was going on at the time, being just 4 or 5 years old.

  Given that I reckon that very few people are really religious anymore, at least in the sense of belonging to a specific church and attending their set services on a regular basis, I can't see religion gaining any momentum, at least in the Western world. The Muslim world is, perhaps, a different case. This observation makes me think that religion is not just on the wane, but is heading fast for obscurity - maybe not in my lifetime, (I' m 57 years old), but sometime soon (I use this term in the normal English usage sense). Yet, despite the facts, most people I encounter are as highly moral as before...

  What is your observation?
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  dissed

  lifelong..

  Enjoyed your take and experience.

  Our family has had a similar experience. One by one everyone has left, even though some were very active in the full-time service. Only two are still going and they are the most self righteous, judgemental JW's you could ever meet.

  But my wife told me last night at dinner, she has hope for them. They recently took a holiday with their disfellowshipped children. Why is this signifgant?

  Because one of the children is apostate and they have had NOTHING to do with them for 6-7 years, refusing to even visit with their grand children.

  Faithfully following the GB and not even greeting their own kids for 6-7 years and now an extended 2-3 week vacation? Interesting indeed.

  Like your family, they have all adjusted well, are good citizens, and are very happy. Supposedly you can't be happy if you leave, no?
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  parakeet

  Religion may be fading in Scotland, but it's alive and thriving in the U.S. I sometimes dream of retiring to Europe to leave behind my super-critical dub parents. Then there's the misery of watching the U.S.'s religious fundamentalists attempt to coerce everyone via political power to believe as they do.

  Where I live, it's routine to read signs that farmers put out near the road that read "Believe in Jesus before it's too late," "God will smite unbelievers," etc. This is an area where I hesitate to tell anyone I'm an atheist -- it's considered only slightly worse than Satanism. The dubs were bad enough. I don't need any more Bible-thumping. Totally sick of it.
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  Narkissos

  The (modern Western) definition of "religion" is corollary to the fragmentation of human activity and knowledge into an ever-increasing number of separate fields. Since Antiquity "religion" has defined itself in both an ever more precise and narrow way against politics, war, sports, philosophy, science, arts, technology, medicine, psychology, etc. We can conclude that religion has lost ground, but it has been actually defined as "something else" than more and more "other things". A number of situations that would have drawn people to church/temple/mosque/synagogue now lead them to their doctor, therapist, teacher, library, museum, etc. But "religion" still exists (ek-sists, as distinct from the rest) because the other fields do not (and imo cannot) address or cover all the space of human experience. At some point of its reduction it may prove irreducible.

  Now what kind of "religion" will survive or develop, and how extant religious traditions and institutions will fare in the process, is a very different matter.
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  jaguarbass

  I think there will always be religion.

  I think our designer wired it into us.

  People are sheep, they look for shepards and follow.

  Some join big flocks some join little flocks

  We all follow.

  Like Dylan says everybody has to serve somebody.

  Thats part of our wiring.

  Our wiring is part of the cosmic game.
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  MissingLink

  I think we are stuck with it for a couple more generations. Takes a while to get the gunk out.
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  dissed

  We visited my mother-in-laws church in Oakland, Cal, USA - Lutheran

  It was quite full, everyone but us and another couple were quite old.

  They did know how to have fun, unlike the JW's.

  After the service, they had Scotch tasting in the Church comminity center. Volunteers brought a favorite bottle to share. We compared Scotch and had loads of fun.
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  WTWizard

  As long as there is an Almighty Lowlife Scumbag God that insists on keeping us distressed to dangle "salvation", and He keeps religious tyrants in power, there will always be religion. If they can't scam enough people into it, they will force everyone--and, I believe the Washtowel Babble and Crap Slaveholdery is soon going to be making that move.
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  PSacramento

  I think that what religion used to "give" people in the past has been getting subsitituted by other things as time progresses.

  Religion wasn't always "just about God", far from that, religion was alos an "answer" to life's questions and gave people order and morals.

  As people ( and religion) chanhed, people startted getting that from other sources, many times with far better results than religion.

  As people began pursuing other things and even began to understand the difference between religion and faith, religion took even more of a shot.

  I think its not about whether religion will "die", its about what religion will look like or "evolve" to.
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  Deputy Dog

  They, like me, embrace Atheism/Humanism and are leading good, productive lives.

  That's religion.