Who do you have in mind?

My question could thus be reworded to ask: when enough people recognize that there is no reason to believe in any gods or other supernatural constructs, will religion transform itself or will it simply go away? I suspect that it will be the latter, since that is what we see in societies where a large percentage of people give up religious faith.

But there is a structural role that religion plays that is beneficial in some ways. Although science will eventually become the de facto source for knowledge about the world, including morality, there will nevertheless be a need for community, celebration, and an opportunity for shared reverence. Will religion transform itself to fulfill these functions, or will other kinds of social structures spring up? I don’t know, but I’m curious.

Religions have nothing to do with God.

That is a hard claim to defend. The great majority of religions, and religious people, equate their religion with a belief in a god. If religions stopped promoting faith in gods, I suspect atheism would rise dramatically (not because of deconversions, but because children wouldn’t be indoctrinated to believe in the first place).

But that does not mean God stops existing.

The problem is we’ve yet to determine that one exists at all. Until that happens, it’s rational to accept the naturalist position.

All this was once the size of a pin head (according to scientists !!). It doesn’t make sense?

Be careful about defending beliefs based on ignorance. Just because you yourself do not understand something (astrophysics in this case) doesn’t say anything about whether or not scientific claims are true. Read up on something first before dismissing it…Wikipedia has a good synopsis on the Big Bang Theory: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Bang

Because I’ve studied cosmology as a layman, it makes perfect sense to me. When we look at the evidence, the conclusion of the Big Bang is unavoidable. Every experiment we’ve conducted to test the theory has only come out in support of it, although we have learned other things along the way that were unexpected…like the fact that the universe is not only expanding, but accelerating! That’s pretty amazing to think about.

That’s why I think a science-y religion is possible (if not likely), because what we learn about reality is vastly more bizarre, terrifying, and beautiful than any story in a holy book.

Or course it can. Do we want religion? No, we do not. but I don’t understand what the human construction of religion has to do with God?
Spirituality is completely different, and perfecting ones self. But I believe in God, but I think Religion is the cause of most of the worlds fear. Religion is dying, thank God!

You said:
But I suspect that what we now call religion will go the way of the dodo bird within a few generations.

I agree completely! Lets hope it does!! Religions have nothing to do with God. You see all life is a school. I know this sounds patronizing, but bear with me..

Some children, are younger than others, and they need kindergarten. Kindergarten we can replace here with worshiping rocks and trees type of religion. Other children are ready for the bigger school, but they are still young, lets say jewish or catholic religion. Other kids are ready for senior school, say buddism etc now the most advaced student are out of school, and do not need a religion.

But that does not mean God stops existing. These advanced students have a personal relationship with God, and they wish to continue to grow, spiritually. I can see you with to grow also, but in your own particular way.

The universe, they say, comes from a tiny point which (scientists say) is smaller than a pin head??? but the universe is far far bigger than anyone believed before. Astronomers have recently discovered this. The universe is littered with billions, and billions, and billions of Galaxies, and each Galaxy contains millions and millions of stars. We are on the outer arm of a spiral of on of these galaxies. All this was once the size of a pin head (according to scientists !!). It doesn’t make sense?

[...]below are some urls to web pages we link to because we think they will be truly worth visiting[...]…

My actual point in this post was to posit the question of what role religion might have in a world that no longer needs gods or other supernatural constructs to explain natural phenomena. In other words, can religion survive without faith? I’m not sure it can. Or perhaps what we now think of as religion will somehow transform itself to become naturalistic and yet also supportive in all the positive ways that religion currently serves (e.g. community, purpose, meaning, etc). The good news is that the number of people abandoning supernaturalism is growing, as are organizations that cater to secularists. But I suspect that what we now call religion will go the way of the dodo bird within a few generations.