Will Church And Religion Cease To Exist?

[LosingMyReligion]

Mankind has always tried to rationalize his origins. And I guess this is what has lead to the formation of all the world religions.

 

As an aspiring fantasy/fiction writer myself I realize that the human mind has the unique capacity to dream and imagine. Reading the stories from the different world religions is actually interesting. When you remove the "holy factor" it's all pretty good literature. But at what point do they start believing it's all real? At what point did the bible go from a story to what it is today?

 

Why do we feel the need to form cults around these stories?

 

Will we always need religion? The god question aside...Will mankind always need to create and worship? Is this an intrinsic part of our genetic makeup?

Is there anything we can replace religion with?

[Amethyst]

But at what point do they start believing it's all real? At what point did the bible go from a story to what it is today?

 

Those are all good questions. I'm an aspiring speculative fiction writer myself.

 

I think that religion as we know it will cease to exist, but that there will always be some form of cults around, unless they are replaced with drugs or virtual reality in the future.

 

I think most people wouldn't believe in it if they hadn't been raised in a culture that did. If being agnostic or atheist was more normal in our culture, most people would be.

 

Take this example.

 

On another planet similar to ours, there is a populated island. The tribe there believes that the sky is purple (but it's really blue). Since birth, they've been told that the sky is purple. Now let's add religion. Let's say they've all been told since birth that not only is the sky purple, but they all must worship the sky god. If they do not worship the sky god, they'll be struck by lightning bolts. OTOH, if they do, they'll go to a paradise when they die where they sky is always blue (or whatever).

 

Now let's say there's another island. They too worship a sky god, but a different one. And they believe the sky is green. They've believed this since birth and everyone on the island believes it. Anyone who questions is condemned and maybe even sacrificed or something.

 

When the two tribes meet for the first time, they disagree over what color the sky is. Eventually there's war.

 

On this planet, there are more islands with people who believe the sky is yellow, or plaid, or polka-dotted, or pink. Some of them believe in sky goddesses instead, or even both gods and goddesses, and their ritualistic practices are different, but they all believe in something.

 

Of course, there's also an island with people who don't believe in a sky god. They just see a plain blue sky. Some of them might wonder if there is anything beyond the sky, but they don't believe the sky is another color. When they go to the other islands to trade, they are mocked for their beliefs and sometimes hurt or even killed. Eventually they stop trading with the other islands and learn how to make things on their own. A few people might still trade with them, but not as much as before.

 

Fast forward. Two thousand years later, technology has developed and the world is settled, and they have cities like ours. But there's still the fact that so many people believe in a sky god, and there are still religious wars, and the people who believe the sky is blue are either mocked or ignored -- rarely killed but it happens once in a while.

 

Now, if you saw what happened to the people who didn't believe in the sky god, but you were questioning your own sky-god beliefs, what would you do? You might move to one of the other islands, but not to the island where the blue-skyers lived. At least, not right away. You might island-hop for a while, until you got tired of it and realized they were all deluded, and then you'd become a blue-skyer yourself.

[LosingMyReligion]

haha....

 

What a wonderful analogy.

 

I just wonder at what point did the Bible cease being a story and transform into the massive cult that it is now?

 

Because it really bothers me that there are people(and people who are close to me)who will not think outside of it's parameters...

 

I know at onetime the Greeks and Romans believed wholeheartedly in: Zeus, Athena, Aphrodite, Posiedon, and etc...But now those gods have faded out of existence. We are, literally, only reading about them in English Lit class...

 

So I wonder can America get to that point? Is it because the United States is such a young country that we ultimately have to "grow up."

 

I have no problem with having a personal belief. If you do more power to you. I just don't appreciate anyone trying to shove their beliefs down my throat.