Throughout history, religion has often dictated a people’s way of life. For example, in ancient Mesoamerica, the natives never skipped annual sacrifices, for fear that their gods would cause them to suffer. In ancient Greece, there were countless gods to whom the population worshipped, because if they did not, the gods might send them misfortune. Religion has played a huge role in society since the beginning of time, but in the modern world of today, the need for religion is beginning to decrease. As a religious person, this idea saddens me. However, as knowledge of the world increases, the idea of ‘the gods’ has diminished, as trust in them is no longer deemed necessary to ones own survival. In the future, it is my belief that we will have gained so much knowledge about every aspect of life, that the need to trust in a god or gods will no longer be necessary, thus religion practices will become a thing of the past.
For centuries, if you asked someone what caused a thunderstorm, they would probably answer by saying that it was the work of a god. Today we know what causes them, but for most of history, people could not explain things, such as occurrences (like a thunderstorm) in nature. Due to this lack of knowledge, many societies had to ‘create’ or put belief in deities in order to explain why certain things happened. In many ancient religions, there were hundreds of different gods who did different things, because if you can’t explain the existence or origin of something, you believe that a god must have initiated it. If knowledge equals power, than the lack of knowledge these people possessed ignited fear, so many cultures centered around trying to keep the gods happy. In addition, the ancient world was a more dangerous place than it is today. In ancient times, kidnappings, murders, village raiding, stealing and enslavement was natural, and in many societies, a non-biased justice system did not exist. Therefore, in order to try to ensure the safety of one’s self, as well as one’s family, devotion, sacrifice and prayer were given to the gods in order to try and gain favor. The thought of having an all powerful being watch over you was a comforting thought if you felt that you may at any point be in danger. Finally, a certain aspect that was present in the majority of ancient civilizations, was the fear of life after death. Death, or the underworld, was a place characterized with great fear and uncertainty, so people (naturally) began to fear death, and wanted to believe that it’s not the end. In turn, many religions encouraged people to do good, or face eternal suffering after death. This created a sense of devotion to deities, because people wanted to ensure that they would have a good fate after death.
As society moves forward in innovation, we develop a lack of need for a god or gods. Currently, we can explain how and why many things in nature do what they do, and we have diminished the need to pin our lack of understanding on divine beings. Especially in western culture, we live in a place where our country protects us. We have a strict (and non secular) justice system, and pillaging a neighboring village has become less common. This being said, many people of today do not believe that they need a god to feel protected. We have began to more and more grab onto the idea that we control our fate. This idea has in response (for many) made the thought of death (and the ‘underworld’) less daunting. Many religions are becoming more ‘loose’, and people will claim to be apart of a religion just because their family claims that religion, not because they themselves believe it. I believe that this will causes a lot of the younger generation to not understand their religion, which makes them feel a lack of connection to it, which will create a sense of unimportance of religion in the future.
Even in today’s world, many countries (especially Eastern countries) still revolve around religion. I believe that a large part of this is due to the fact that in a lot of countries, development and knowledge has not reached their peak. When technology and knowledge reaches them in full, I believe that they will begin to let go of religious beliefs. Secondly, it also seems that religion is mainly being driven by the older generation. As a country ‘westernizes’, so does the youth. Religious tradition is beginning to be lost as this generation of children are generally less ‘plugged into’ religion than their parents. With more information in the world, people have become less reliant on gods, and more reliant on knowledge, thus the ‘mind’ in essence becomes a person’s new ‘god’.If society keeps up with the advancements in technology of today in future years, I believe that within one hundred year (so by 2113), those who are considered ‘religious’ will be in a vast minority of the population. As we become more and more self reliant, we will not need gods to bless us, protect us or guarantee a good life for us-- we will be able to do that for ourselves. It is my hopes that religion will be preserved and that we will never completely lose that aspect of our lives.
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