Yes, when you read the question it sounds ridiculous. How can a custom and ethnicity possibly go extinct? But it's very true. Indeed, religion is slowly going the way of the dodo birds. Studies were released that indicate that religion is indeed going extinct in 9 different nations, among them, our friendly neighbor Canada, Australia, Austria, Czech Republic, Finland, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand and Switzerland. Those are some of the most successful and advanced countries in the world, and if you're willing to take those 9 nations as representatives and samples of all of planet Earth, then the short answer to the title above is YES.
It doesn't take a genius to guess why, I mean we live in the "information age", more people have a basic understandment of science and mathematics than ever before. You can now google (which is now being debated as to if it should be added to the dictionary or not) a solid answer to the most arduous question you can imagine in less than a second, no mythology required!
One concept though that is far too often left out of the whole "religion in decline" conversation is the difference between church and religion. I'm okay with a world without religion, in fact I'm for it. For me that is a world based on logic, a world less blindly guided by dogma, but the idea of a world without church gives me a little bit of pause. One positive thing that religions have been better than doing than any other "institution" in all of human history is bringing together communities of people, communities that provide an invaluable social structure for their members, and communities that do immeasurable goods for their neighborhood, or even city. Think about it. Food drives, rallies that provide furniture, clothes, appliances, and toys. 95 year old men who have outgrown their whole family have nothing, except church, and they're happy. Drug addicts that beat their addiction through the community of church and lean on the community. Technically, I am an atheist, but I just cannot stand so much of the militant atheism that I see on the internet. But I hope part of that is because there has never really been a "place" in society for atheism to express itself until the internet. But when I think of atheism on the internet, I think of The Amazing Atheist, (http://www.youtube.com/user/TheAmazingAtheist) , reddit.com/r/atheism, people who just browbeat a dead horse over and over again without even remotely acknowledging the positive social effects of many, many religions.
ANYWAY, I recognized that I moved a little far from the original question and now I'm just stating my stupid opinions, but I would like to address the readers a question. If religion is indeed dying; how do we make sure the positive societal role of church doesn't die with it?
Thank you for reading this, I hope you have a good day. Peace out!
-Sam
oh! almost forgot the source; http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12811197
No comments:
Post a Comment