Expert: Clint - 12/7/2008

Question
Hello Clint,

In your opinion based on what you have seen, heard, and discovered through your own life and with statistics, what year do you think "God"-belief will become obsolete in Western society then the rest of the world? Basically, when will the belief in a large invisible omnipotent power be on par with how modern day people view Greek mythology today. (Like Zeus, Medusa, Athena, etc.)

And can you please explain why you came up with that specific year/decade/century?

thanks,
Derick S.

Answer
Good question and something I have pondered but not yet researched enough to make an educated guess. Of course I don't believe in prophecy either but I'll give you an off-the-cuff answer and reason.

I truly believe that communication and education is a virus to religion, and a very slow one at that. I don't believe religion, as in spirituality and believing in greater forces, will ever completely vanish. It will change and adapt just as all things evolve naturally. But that doesn't mean churches won't disappear and religion won't loss it's tax exempt status and public respect. That may be the only true fall of religion as we know it. Based on my observations of generational changes in opinions, laws, social rules, scientific advances, growth in atheists publicity, and religious organizations fight and adaptation against reason, I would take a guess of between 200 and 500 years when we will see taxes collected from "churches" as private businesses and the general consensus that all gods are mythical. We still won't know with certainty by then where all matter and life originated from, which I think is several thousand years away, but we will agree that a personal god is certainly not in control and the universe, while mysterious, is truly the only explanation that makes sense.

One day though I hope to truly do an educated study to come up with a more informed answer to this question. Meanwhile I'm sure there are many discussions scattered throughout the web you can surf to and make your own observed average consensus.