If religions have changed so dramatically in the past, how might they change in the future?
Religions have changed as the culture in which they exist has changed - as we've learned more, so religions have been forced into a smaller and smaller corner of the unexplained. How they will develop will depend on what cultural developments come next, and if you could predict that you'd be ready to make millions
Is there any substance to the claim that belief in gods and deities will die out altogether? And as our civilisation and its technologies become increasingly complex, could entirely new forms of worship emerge?
Either is feasible, I suppose. The current trend is for religion to diminish with formal education, but for religious populations to grow where formal education is lacking; given that the world is moving towards a more service oriented economy (there being a practical limit on how much physical stuff even an 11 billion populace can make/want/use/buy) that speaks to a future of at least some level of formal education, so I'd say the former is perhaps more likely right now, but we'll have to wait and see.
One notorious answer comes from Voltaire, the 18th Century French polymath, who wrote: “If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him.” ...he was being perfectly sincere. He was arguing that belief in God is necessary for society to function, even if he didn’t approve of the monopoly the church held over that belief.
In Voltaire's time he might well have been right. Now?
ne recurring theme is social cohesion: religion brings together a community, ....Under this argument, any religion that does endure has to offer its adherents tangible benefits.
Yeah, I've heard that claim, too. Look at Northern Ireland, or the anti-Semitism of the Labour party, or the Islamophobia of the Conservative party, or the state of affairs in Israel/Palestine at the moment and try to argue that religion brings social cohesion.
Religion is just another classification of sub-group in that argument, perhaps one with a more protracted history of enforcing in- and out-group identities and fostering disharmony through it. Religion brings social cohesion like the Chinese Communist party does - by taking absolute control and not allowing dissenting voices. Otherwise it's just another opinion in the clamour, and whether those voices discuss, debate, argue or are drowned out by gunfire is a matter of the broader cultural context of which religions are a part.
[quote[..the Pew Research Center modelled the future of the world’s great religions based on demographics, migration and conversion. Far from a precipitous decline in religiosity, it predicted a modest increase in believers, from 84% of the world’s population today to 87% in 2050.[/quote]
If it's the review I saw, it failed to account for any changes to demographics beyond population size, so poorer countries wouldn't get any richer (which is associated with less religiosity), poorly educated countries wouldn't invest in schooling etc.
Perhaps religions never do really die.
Just ask (Marvel's) Thor?
Perhaps the religions that span the world today are less durable than we think.
Religions are shared ideas - with the advent of the internet, all religions are global now.
And perhaps the next great faith is just getting started.
And perhaps there never were any great faiths, just some naggingly persistent misunderstandings with catchy hymns?
O.
