I don't think religion will disappear, but there is some truth that young people have so much more instant access to information on anything these days compared to years ago and there will be more theories that will be proven with technology improving.


No religion and an end to war: how thinkers see the future

People's fascination for religion and superstition will disappear within a few decades as television and the internet make it easier to get information, and scientists get closer to discovering a final theory of everything, leading thinkers argue today.


The web magazine Edge (www.edge.org) asked more than 150 scientists and intellectuals: "What are you optimistic about?" Answers included hope for an extended human life span, a bright future for autistic children, and an end to violent conflicts around the world.
Philosopher Daniel Denett believes that within 25 years religion will command little of the awe it seems to instil today. The spread of information through the internet and mobile phones will "gently, irresistibly, undermine the mindsets requisite for religious fanaticism and intolerance".

 

That would be too bad. Religion, at least the Christian religion, has a long track record of enhancing life.
You like hospitals? Christian invention. Slavery in America was stamped out by religious activism. The civil righst movement of the 1960's was lead by a Christian misister, Martin Luther King. The origin of modern science has its roots within the Christian worldview.

A recent book called, The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins, dosen't stand up to critical analysis. IMO. He uses "straw man" arguments and draws conclusions that show poor exegesis of scripture.
What is the alternative? Scientific materialism? By far the biggest examples of intolerance, violence and destruction in human history are those wrought by the militant atheism (materialism), underpinned by bogus science, of the type that Dawkins espouses. Mao, Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot. Religions might not bring perfection, but Atheisms have 100 times worse track record.

But, hey, thats just me. (and perhaps millions of others)

BTW, the Hot Big Bang theory, which describes the origin of the universe, is perhaps the most tested and "poven" theory of all physics. And, the logical infrence of the theory is that our universe had a creator. Multi-verse theory is strictly meta-physics and offers no explainatory value except to nuance a way out of the creator inference.

 

I tend to agree with you. I suspect humankind is just too superstious to ever completely rid itself ofpreconceived ( meaning any hard system of belief, including atheism ) and often arrogant notions ( such ascreating god in the image ofman) whichseems to beat the coreof most religions. That said, I'm not even sure that superstition isalways a negative thing.After all, perhaps irrational conclusions arising from superstitious/religious thought occurswhen we don't consciously understand the why of a thing, which causes the brightest of us to seek outmore practical answers. We do this by using what we think of as rigorous thought/language, which is little more than a non intelligent tool/software invented by brain/subconscious in order to understand our reality.

Thought software is a good tool as long as we can rigorously keep out all pre conceived beliefs. But it's very hard to do and must always be checked out through higher math, which is a purer thought/language software, at first thought of as the language of the gods... Yet thought/languagecan give us practical answers and a more rigorous way of viewing the universe. Those practical answers are used to fault previous paradigms and causes us to have a greater understanding of the universe. Unfortunately we tend not to factor in the non-intelligence of our thought software. That is, we oftenjust take ourselves too seriously.

That said, I also strongly suspect, even within our brightest and best, superstition will remainas a strong guiding lightas it seems to be amongall of earth's creatures.. I base that partly on the seemingly incontrovertible fact that all of earth's creatures share parts of the same brain. http://www.kheper.net/topics/intelligence/MacLean.htm Take thebrain of any mammal, say a pig and a human. Split them down the center, between the two hemispheres. and you'll see a variety of distinctly different brains. A reptilian brain is at the core ofboth brains, out of which grew the paleomamillian brain, then next grew the mamillian cortex and finally the neocortex of modern humankind....

Of course, the above is an oversimplificationbecause many morecreatures are representedin our common brain, but essentially the only discernable physical diferance between a human and a pig brain is the size, especially the size of the neocortex and the number of wrinkles which gives it an even larger area. Yet, it seems that all brains, including fish and reptiles, etc.are directed by a deeper, subconscious intelligence whichin all other animals is called instinct.But even though sociologist have long denied the existence of instinct in humans, there is a long history of some deeper intelligence within each of us. Thatalso may be too much of an oversimplification, but it now seems that all creatures may live out our lives as directed by that deeper, subconsicious self.Yet welive our lives believingthatour actions are always based uponouralways aware consciousdecisions.... Yetit seems to have been recently confirmed that all of our so-called conscious efforts always lag behind our subconscious decisions.... Now ain't that a hoot![8D]

And if any of the above is true... and it now seems to at least have some merit... canthe brightest and best of usthen discount superstitions/religions? Perhaps the next big step is to learnhowwe mayconsciously remain in contact with that deeper shared wisdom, which I'm nearly certain lives within each of us, and enjoy a life which is directed by what I think of as our intuitive free will.... which just may be the mother of all religions....Still, dispite the awful possibility that our deeper intelligence is inadvertantly the mother of religion, , if it is so and we can understand how to always remain in contact with our intuitive freewillthen thatwill surely be the greatest gift of the universe.