Posted by:
Tal Bachman
(
)
Date: April 15, 2015 08:26PM
One popular chain of reasoning amongst us ex-Mormons goes like this:
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1.) Science and religion are irreconcilable enemies;
2.) In the future, humanity will increasingly accept (1);
3.) Science is clearly superior to religion in yielding information about the world;
4.) In the future, humanity will increasingly accept (3);
5.) In the future, as a result of (4), humanity will increasingly choose science and reject religion;
6.) As a result of (5), science and reason will flood the globe at the expense of religion, which will dwindle and eventually disappear.
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Like most sets of untrue beliefs about the world, including Mormonism, this one does have a contact point with reality: (3) is unquestionably true. The problem is with the rest of it - especially with (5) and (6). Regarding those two points in particular, the scientific evidence (in the form of carefully gathered and collated demographic data from various sources around the world), is devastating and clear: (5) and (6) are almost certainly false.
For those interested in investigating this further, the most rigorous summary and analysis of the data I have found is in a book called "Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth?", by University of London political scientist and demographer Eric Kaufmann. For those uninterested in three hundred page books on demography, here is a link to a lecture by Kaufmann going over the data:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYEyv5a_3LM . It is well worth watching for anyone interested in religion and society.
Good luck in your intellectual journey.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/16/2015 02:49AM by Tal Bachman.