102. THE FUTURE OF RELIGION — C

The triptych this week is from the BBC Future series about the long view of humanity. The article, from which this week’s posts are drawn, is “Tomorrow’s Gods: What is the future of religion?” by Sumit Paul-Choudhury. What follows are excerpts for your reflection.

“The pseudo-religious social order might work well when times are good. But when the social contract becomes stressed — through identity politics, culture wars or economic instability — [Connor] Wood suggests the consequence is what we see today: the rise of authoritarians in country after country. He cites research showing that people ignore authoritarian pitches until they sense a deterioration of social norms.

“’This is the human animal looking around and saying we don’t agree how we should behave,’ Wood says. ‘And we need authority to tell us.’”

“… in the 1700s, Christianity was ailing in the US, having become dull and formal even as the Age of Reason saw secular rationalism in the ascendant. A new guard of travelling fire-and-brimstone preachers successfully reinvigorated the faith, setting the tone for centuries to come — an event called the ‘Great Awakenings’.”

There is skepticism today that religions can make up for the ground they have lost. “Once the founders of libraries and universities, they are no longer the key sponsors of intellectual thought.”

“Perhaps a new religion will emerge to fill the void?” Some suggest that religions rise or fall based on political support, but today, the internet offers such support.

“Online movements gain followers at rates unimaginable in the past.” There are online “congregations.” What new forms might they come up with? There are many.

“’We’ve always had new forms of religiosity, but we haven’t always had enabling spaces for them,’ says Beth Singler, who studies the social, philosophical and religious implications of AI at the University of Cambridge. ‘Going out into a medieval town square and shouting out your unorthodox beliefs was going to get you labelled a heretic, not win converts to your cause.’”

“In 1954, Fredric Brown wrote a (very) short story called ‘Answer’, in which a galaxy-spanning supercomputer is turned on and asked: is there a God? Now there is, comes the reply.

“And some people, like AI entrepreneur Anthony Levandowski, think their holy objective is to build a super-machine that will one day answer just as Brown’s fictional machine did.”

“The 2001 UK census found that Jediism, the fictional faith observed by the good guys in Star Wars, was the fourth largest religion: nearly 400,000 people had been inspired to claim it, initially by a tongue-in-cheek online campaign. Ten years later, it had dropped to seventh place, leading many to dismiss it as a prank.”

“Some branches of Jediism remain jokey, but others take themselves more seriously: the Temple of the Jedi Order claims its members are ‘real people that live or lived their lives according to the principles of Jediism’ — inspired by the fiction, but based on the real-life philosophies that informed it.”

There are many options today. Scientology has not been recognized as a religion in some areas, but it has some recognized adherents and numerous followers. Other groups that do not include reference to a Supreme Being such as Buddhists have large followings. There is also the “Witness of Climatology” that fosters greater commitment to action on climate change. “On the other hand, official recognition of Ásatrú, the Icelandic pagan faith, meant it was entitled to its share of a ‘faith tax’; as a result, it is building the country’s first pagan temple for nearly 1000 years.” Other new religions include ceremonies and liturgies practiced for millennia.

So, when considering the future of religions, there are many questions yet to be answered. We humans have a long history of groups of believers that have evolved based on meeting the needs of the populations of the time, appealing to deep-seated aspirations, reinforcing moral values, often led by charismatic leaders, and even gaining political recognition and sometimes support. Some die out or fade out. Some survive. Some evolve.

Q: So, what are your thoughts about the future of religion?