Estimate the year in which the following religions will have fewer than 1,000,000 official members worldwide- actual,not just names on a list-here's my take on this:

Mormonism: 2185
Catholicism: 2700
All Protestant Denominations together: 2450
Islam: 3500

Estimate the year that religion will be completely wiped off the planet- that is any religion that posits the existence of a supernatural force or beings:

My estimate: 4000

Science, time, and information flow will eventually bury all religions because in the long run they cannot support claims that are inconsistent with reality.

There will be many new spiritual movements that will fill the void of the decaying religions, but they will be philosophy-based and will divest all vestiges of supernaturalism.

"and will divest all vestiges of supernaturalism."

only when people decide that science has "seen it all," and is now just out to catalog it for sake of being thorough. a better word would be "superstition." but i don't think science is going to fix that, either.

saying that science is going to fix all religion is a lot like saying that psychology is going to make everyone sane.

i don't buy it. but i do hope to live in a saner world, so good luck with that.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/05/2011 11:29PM by joesmyth.

There will always be people who hope for someone to care deeply about them, who can grant wishes, who can save them from trouble and give them a happy ever after ending. And there will always be people who want supreme justification to condemn and abuse others. So religion will always be there to fill those needs.

Agree with Stray Mutt. Even in the world of Dune (10,000 years in the future), there's the Bene Gesserit. It's probably in our DNA to hope for happy endings.

Moreover, I think one of the main raisons d'être for religion is that some people cannot fathom the world without them. "These are the latter days!"

it will never go away. Roddenberry notwithstanding.