Just because you don't like it doesn't mean that it is the truth
There are people who proclaim it as the absolute truth, and there are people who simply believe something.
I have no problems with people who believe things, heck you can believe Obama is an alien or house are built with the corpses of fairies for all I care, as long as people do not spread their misinformation or convey it onto others.
In people's minds they can do whatever they like, but we all live in a real world bound by cause and effect and people are naive. If they're told they can be healed by prayer (even though it doesn't work) they'll still stick to it.
"In order to maintain a tolerant society, the society must be intolerant of intolerance." Paradox of tolerance
Teaching religion to children is psychological child abuse.
Hi
"In order to maintain a tolerant society, the society must be intolerant of intolerance." Paradox of tolerance
Religion will not disappear in the near future. People said secularism would make religion obsolete and that it would cease to exist during the 1900s. I can only use Sweden as an example since I'm most familiar with my home country. Organized religion in Sweden have declined, but personal religion where the religious people take from a smorgasbord of things have grown stronger. So has more eccentric groups with a more strict view of the world. Liberal groups within religion have had the most declination.
Churches are almost empty, but people still believe but do not belong to a certain organization.
My personal views on how religion will look in the future is either the western version of smorgasbord or a more fundamentalistic religious belief will take the greatest hold on peoples lives.
I doubt Religions will cease to exist. They will "evolve" or new ones will appear. I do however think that most Religions in todays age will be Officially classed as Mythologies. People will always be tied in Spiritually and believe in something.
"In order to maintain a tolerant society, the society must be intolerant of intolerance." Paradox of tolerance
IN a way you are correct- Teaching a child from infancy onwards that *insert religion* is 100% correct and shouldn't question it is just plain wrong. I come from a very religious family, as in as religious as you can get probably (in fact was one of the earlier religions mentioned in the thread)
I was brought up to always question- is what i'm hearing real? or is it just a big pile of horse shite ... If I decided it was rubbish, off I went with no hard feelings- If I wanted to stay and practice , cool beans. and even then! I had to prove I knew my shit by answering 80 hard questions to make sure I knew what I was getting myself into before I would be allowed to practice.
That's how it should be done! this baptizing babies before they can make an informed decision is plain ludicrous. They then live with the stigma of I am *such and such* without having a clue what it means etc
There will always be religion in some form or other as sheep need something to follow.
"In order to maintain a tolerant society, the society must be intolerant of intolerance." Paradox of tolerance
As long as there are people who are unable to cope with the reality of our mortality and fleeting existence, and the crushing fact that once we die there is nothing, there will always be something those people will believe in, some lie they will keep telling themselves in order to sleep at night.
So no, unfortunately religions aren't going to cease to exist, ever.
I'm PREEETTY sure the only reason they did that was because they wanted yet another way to control people. In this case, it was taking away their religion and replacing it with whatever they said. This is not how most atheists think. I'm personally just an agnostic, but I to listen to quite a few atheist podcasts and videos and such.
I've always thought that many who followed Christianity needed something to lean on, to keep them strong and comfort them. I've always hoped that some day people might lean on other people. People comforting others. I mean after all, it is we who feed the poor and hold the weeping.
I hope I don't offend anyone by saying that I dream of a society where we turn to fellow humans to keep us strong instead of God.
strictly on topic: Nope, not going anywhere anytime soon. It's part of human nature.
As long as we have the ability to believe, as long religions will remain to exist.
"The pen is mightier than the sword.. and considerably easier to write with."