I'm agnostic. I believe that 'God' is simply energy, based on the theory that with enough energy, you can create matter, or basically do anything.

 

Christians will never leave. They'll probably die out, though.

Scientology.

 

 

 

But seriously, I think it's likely to be atheism, although that's not a religion. Perhaps a better term to describe what people will be is "secularist", i.e. they just don't have/care for religious beliefs.

Buddhism sounds pretty appealing.

With improvements in science being made seemingly every day I don't think there will be a need to try and explain the unknown, as it will be known.

Buddhism sounds pretty appealing.

 

 

 

It really isn't. It's just portrayed as such in the West.

Buddhism sounds pretty appealing.

 

 

 

It really isn't. It's just portrayed as such in the West.

 

 

 

By 'the West' do you mean the internet? I don't know... I've always been pretty big on universal karma even before I knew much about Buddhism.

 

 

 

PS: I don't think Buddhism even counts as a religion.

I really don't think that athism will ever get a large majority on the general public. The entire reason for a religion to exist, as far as I see it, is to provide hope for it's followers. Theism is popular because it can be hard to accept or believe that we are the reason the world is in the current state it is now.

 

 

 

I'm personally agnostic, and I think that will always be the general public view. I don't think anyone truly agrees with the entirety of any religion, but from evveryone I've talked to, they ahve their own ideas on what happened. The most common answer is a combination of Creationism and Evolution. The universe was created with the right circumstances for Evolution to occur, and a guiding hand, for lack of a better term "God", made sure that it did happen. No direct intervention, just tipping the scales a bit in favour of promoting life. Evolution is pretty much something that automates the process of a God needing to exist. I think it does a pretty damn good job too, it created an organism that can survive in the Chernobyl reactor's tomb after all.

 

 

 

Now, I think that Hinduism or Islam will prevail as the next major religion.

 

PS: I don't think Buddhism even counts as a religion.

 

Really? Explain...

 

 

 

Islam is spreading very quickly, I think it's projected to overtake Christianity sometime soon. Though eventually, with all the new technology, there's probably going to be some proof - For God, against God, in favor of one religion, against another - Something. When that happens, I'd think most of the world would convert.

Though eventually, with all the new technology, there's probably going to be some proof - For God, against God, in favor of one religion, against another - Something. When that happens, I'd think most of the world would convert.

 

 

 

It doesn't work like that. It would only cause mass chaos.

Though eventually, with all the new technology, there's probably going to be some proof - For God, against God, in favor of one religion, against another - Something. When that happens, I'd think most of the world would convert.

 

 

 

It doesn't work like that. It would only cause mass chaos.

 

At first - Yes. Of course people would try to prove that evidence false. But eventually, it'd settle down...

 

PS: I don't think Buddhism even counts as a religion.

 

Really? Explain...

 

 

 

Because it claims to be a think-for-yourself-philosophy instead of "owing your allegiance to a deity". Still in my eyes, I'd consider any philosophical rulebook you go by as your religion. It's like saying that white isn't a color. I don't think just taking "God" out of the equation should mean that it isn't religion - but that instead it just isn't worship.

 

PS: I don't think Buddhism even counts as a religion.

 

Really? Explain...

 

 

 

Because it claims to be a think-for-yourself-philosophy instead of "owing your allegiance to a deity". Still in my eyes, I'd consider any philosophical rulebook you go by as your religion. It's like saying that white isn't a color. I don't think just taking "God" out of the equation should mean that it isn't religion - but that instead it just isn't worship.

Yeah, I wouldn't say Buddhism is a religion at all. Buddha didn't say "You will all worship me as a powerful deity or I will smite you!" when he died.

Jesus > *

I learned about Tylor in anthro 101 in reference to religions. He had a theory of evolution that applied to religions. Religions explain the unknown obviously, and since being human implies the unknown, religion will always exist to explain these things. Example: When we dream, it used to believe that we separated ourselves into a spirit world in which we were in our religious 'zone.' He believed that religions evolved in stages: animism, shamanism, polytheism, monotheism, and then science. When science explains all the unknown, he believes religion will cease to exist. Hope that answers your question. :)

Religion will always be present. Some things we just cannot know, and religions will always be there to pretend that we know the answers, and to make it seem as if we actually matter in the scheme of things.

 

 

 

I can see Islam overtaking Christianity as the main religion - hopefully it won't - as much as I dislike Christianity, I must admit that Islam is a lot worse. Take everything bad about Christianity, multiply it by 10, and you have Islam. The religions are pretty much the same anyway. (note pedantic theists: "pretty much the same")..

 

 

 

I think more people will become deists, agnostics and atheists in the next couple hundred years, it really depends. If we have a world war/huge natural disaster etc there will probably be more religion because when the [cabbage] hits the fan, people want a backup.

 

 

 

There are too many problems in the world, and they always combine with each other to make it impossible for anyone to do anything about it. For example, our banking system coupled with our monetary system, the media, scare tactics and propaganda employed by various coercive governments, religion, "norms", brands and consumerism, private ownership of the means of production, patriotism, the system of education = control. They're all connected in a way, and I really can't see this ending anytime soon.

 

PS: I don't think Buddhism even counts as a religion.

 

Really? Explain...

 

 

 

Because it claims to be a think-for-yourself-philosophy instead of "owing your allegiance to a deity". Still in my eyes, I'd consider any philosophical rulebook you go by as your religion. It's like saying that white isn't a color. I don't think just taking "God" out of the equation should mean that it isn't religion - but that instead it just isn't worship.

Yeah, I wouldn't say Buddhism is a religion at all. Buddha didn't say "You will all worship me as a powerful deity or I will smite you!" when he died.

 

 

 

Religion as a concept has nothing to do with worshipping a particular 'god' or not doing so. Religion can include a multitude of philosophical and supernatural beliefs of afterlife, it's not tied to just one aspect which is worship.

 

 

 

Besides, Buddha is not considered a deity or god in buddhism. He is revered as a guru who gained ultimate enlightment, and people try to emulate him. In the Buddhist belief system, 'ignorance' or Avidya created the world. Through the practice of prajna (meditation, helping other people, abstaining of violence) they try to get rid of ignorance.

correction, "after Islam, which will be the next big religion."

 

 

 

yes, a higher percentage of the worlds population is Muslim than any other. i bet a few people were pretty pissed when they found out, though. :lol:

 

 

 

but please... don't make me go find the news article... it'll take ages....

correction, "after Islam, which will be the next big religion."

 

 

 

yes, a higher percentage of the worlds population is Muslim than any other. i bet a few people were pretty pissed when they found out, though. :lol:

 

 

 

but please... don't make me go find the news article... it'll take ages....

 

I remember reading a while ago that although Islam just took over Roman Catholicism, Christianity as a whole is still larger than Islam.

I laugh at the people who said atheism, considering it's been slowly declining as a percentage of the world population since peeking sometime in the 19970's.

 

 

 

Anywho, to answer the question, Islam. It's the world's fastest growing religion.

 

 

 

 

PS: I don't think Buddhism even counts as a religion.

 

Really? Explain...

 

 

 

Because it claims to be a think-for-yourself-philosophy instead of "owing your allegiance to a deity". Still in my eyes, I'd consider any philosophical rulebook you go by as your religion. It's like saying that white isn't a color. I don't think just taking "God" out of the equation should mean that it isn't religion - but that instead it just isn't worship.

 

 

 

*Throws a book of Buddhism at you*

 

 

 

Because, you know, Theravada Buddhism is the only school of Buddhism there is.

I think within the next 50 years we will see quite a rise in Atheism as it seems to be a growing amount of people all the time. As the East also develops as well and develops a culture similar to the west I think they'll start taking much more of a questioning to their beliefs.

 

 

 

Then again, Christianity was started by an angry carpenter with amazing Rhetoric skills and 12 friends. Who knows what could happen within 2000 years. I do think there will be a quite major church forming based on "secular humanism", you don't have to believe in a god for it to be a church / religion.

Actually, just saying that it would be very difficult for Christianity to die. If it were to even face a worldwide ban for some terrible reason the devout worshipers would simply take it underground like it was in Rome. Christianity was forged in the crucible, it can survive there. To be honest, we could use something like that to weed out all the Christians "in name only."

 

 

 

Your faith is never stronger than when you have no right to it.

 

 

 

As for the question, I can't imagine what it would take to dislodge Christianity so it would probably be some weird quasireligion based on worshiping a living person, probably a dictator.

As for the question, I can't imagine what it would take to dislodge Christianity so it would probably be some weird quasireligion based on worshiping a living person, probably a dictator.

 

 

 

Islam. Given current growth rates, it'll be the world's largest religion by sometime in the 2020's, iirc. Of course, that's primarily due to population growth rates in the Middle East and Saharan nations, which is pretty much unsustainable for the next 20 years. So, feasibly, you'd expect Christianity to remain the largest religion until then, possibly until the mid 21'st century and possibly until the 22nd century.

 

 

 

Really, no one knows what'll happen. Just don't be a Thomas Woolston.

*Throws a book of Buddhism at you*

 

 

 

Because, you know, Theravada Buddhism is the only school of Buddhism there is.

 

 

 

I never claimed to be an expert at Buddhism. All I know is my Humanities teacher says that it is a philosophy rather than a religion.

*Throws a book of Buddhism at you*

 

 

 

Because, you know, Theravada Buddhism is the only school of Buddhism there is.

 

 

 

I never claimed to be an expert at Buddhism. All I know is my Humanities teacher says that it is a philosophy rather than a religion.

 

I think he's trying to say that Ma[racist term]a Buddhism, which claims over half of the world's Buddhist population, is a something of a contradiction to your statement.

 

 

 

The kind of Buddhism usually portrayed is Theravada, the one with all the meditation and whatnot. But contrary to popular belief, Ma[racist term]a, the bigger one, practices worship of Buddha akin to the Christian worship of Jesus. I think that's the point he's making.

As for the question, I can't imagine what it would take to dislodge Christianity so it would probably be some weird quasireligion based on worshiping a living person, probably a dictator.

 

 

 

Islam. Given current growth rates, it'll be the world's largest religion by sometime in the 2020's, iirc. Of course, that's primarily due to population growth rates in the Middle East and Saharan nations, which is pretty much unsustainable for the next 20 years. So, feasibly, you'd expect Christianity to remain the largest religion until then, possibly until the mid 21'st century and possibly until the 22nd century.

 

 

 

Really, no one knows what'll happen. Just don't be a Thomas Woolston.

 

 

 

It's not a race to see who is the largest. Christianity isn't going to die off if it takes second place. It is also very unlikely that the entire world is going to embrace Islam as their religion.

 

 

 

All religions survive as long as there is someone practicing them.