Does religion have a sell by date?

[Soph0571]

It is predicable and understandable that where people are living in relative comfort, without a fear of real poverty, starvation, death or torture, they are much less likely to turn to a higher power for comfort and spiritual uplifting. Spiritual uplifting helps when your belly is empty; you can’t afford to send your children to school, and the very roof over your head is at risk. Belief in a higher power, praying for solace and escape from your misery may well help when you live a life of pain and fear?

However as the world turns, the global village becomes more of a reality and as people are lifted out of extreme poverty will the same spiritual needs still exist? If the patterns of current religious affiliations in the west form any part of a larger pattern, religion does indeed have a sell by date.

[rampartc]

1. don't worry, soph

there will always be plenty of poverty misery and hopelessness that requires the opiate of the people.

"For ye have the poor always with you; but me ye have not always." matthew 26:11

[True Blue American]

3. Well, the younger people are turning away in droves.

I think Science and Education are proving it is a myth.

I still attend Church but it is getting harder for my common sense. Maybe I just enjoy hearing a Sermon about love and caring. Also watching the out pouring from fellow Church members after the 15 tornadoes that destroyed a wide area makes me think the era of McConnell and Trump will soon pass. We have gone through phases like this before, but never had a President and Senate so mean and cruel.

Maybe I have forgotten.

[rampartc]

5. perhaps so

but plenty of employers like to see a priest or minister among the references, there is something to be said for a church's help in raising children, and as our secular safety net continues to rip even government aid is filtered through "faith based organizations."

I myself am plenty agnostic, but I can afford my agnosticism.

[watoos]

2. I don't think so,

The Talibangelicals I have talked with here in central Pa. believe that everything that happens, good or bad, is because of god. It's like these people have lost their free will. One nice lady talked to me about her life history, about how it was god's plan how her husband lost his job about how she got a new job. She even told me that Trump is president because he was god's chosen one. I made some comments about Trump's sultry past but that didn't phase her. I should have gone down the road of false prophet and seen her response.

[Mariana]

8. They are such obvious hypocrites that it's ridiculous.

Trump's sultry past is dismissed as follows: "Well, that was before. He's a Christian now, so all that's been forgiven." There are some very popular and influential Christian leaders publicly supporting him, and plenty of Christian churches are preaching that support for Trump is a tenet of the faith, and that to oppose Trump is to go against God.

Trump is president because he's God's chosen one? I bet she didn't say that about Obama when he was president.

[True Blue American]

9. It rained on Trumps parade.

My best friend was praying for rain. I just sent her an email that since she voted for McCain once he had answered her prayers!

[FoxNewsSucks]

4. There's a sell-by date, but

it doesn't mean organized religion won't persist. Your post explains why religion should ebb and fade, but religion will always be around to be used by those who wield it to exploit the suckers and control the weak-minded.

[Act_of_Reparation]

6. Define "helps"

Faith doesn't put food in your belly. It doesn't send your kids to school. It doesn't keep the roof over your head. It might make you feel better about the situation, but then so does smoking pot. At the end of the day, you're still poor. And that promise of an afterlife in the hills? There's a good chance it ain't gonna happen.

But to answer your question, sociological research suggests that as secular goods (e.g. government services) become increasingly available, religion becomes decreasingly important. Which is why you see such low rates of religiosity in the Nordic countries.

[Major Nikon]

7. Marx: Opium of the people

No, faith doesn’t put food in your belly, but it provides the conveniently unverifiable promise of paradise as a reward for suffering hunger. Helps to keep people from rioting when they are hungry.

[Karadeniz]

10. I can only speak for Christianity, which is supposed to be multi -level. For sure the

Superficial level has a shelf life. We're seeing more and more people recognizing it's shallow nature, more and more gymnastics to turn that level into something that can still control people's thinking. Christianity's hidden teachings are, if anything, being proven correct with research into the power of Mind and reincarnation. Too bad churches just don't want to know...there goes their livelihood and power.

[Bretton Garcia]

11. The Bible proposed some expiration dates

Last edited Sun Jul 7, 2019, 05:49 AM - Edit history (2)

It warned that one heaven-shattering "day," people would discover that the "Christ" they had followed, was a "false Christ."

In my reading, they learn to see that logic and reason and science, are their true savior.

On the "Day" you acquire Reason, and see this, blind, "faith"ful obedience to authority is no longer needed. And the Bible is thereby discharged, or "fulfilled." As authority is now given to Reason and Science.

[AtheistCrusader]

12. I assume the same, and at some point I think everyone will realize that religions that oppose family

planning, contraception and the like, only do so to keep people in poverty, because they rely upon the poor for their base/power/income.


And when people generally come to realize that, I think it'll be bad times for the various churches/religions that did it.