The battle between science and religion is as old as western society. Technology and science at this point is pervasive in every corner of a first world life. Religion is much more optional, and the consensus seems to be that people in modern countries like the U.S. are becoming less and less religious.
So, science and reason are winning, right?
Well, not exactly. Remember that we're dealing with human beings, and us humans just can't fucking help ourselves. Before I go further I want to throw in a little full disclosure with a healthy disclaimer. Though I'm not religious myself, I have nothing against the spiritual aspect of religion. People should believe what they want. However, it is my belief that any system of beliefs whose primary purpose is to propagate itself without modification and control the behaviors of others without consent or debate is inherently evil.
Okay, now for the interesting part.
The sharp turn towards technology and science seems to be having a little reported but incredibly significant effect: there are more and more technology based religions popping up all over the place. One of these religions is "Kopimism", and ideology centered around the idea that the drive to propogate and copy is sacred (in both biological systems and things like computers). And before you go dismissing it as a small group of middle-aged retirees with identity crises, you should know that they have chapters the world over. This religion was founded just seven years ago.
Another example of these modern religions is "Way of the Future", which is much more grandiose and far more mysterious: to “develop and promote the realization of a Godhead based on Artificial Intelligence..."
Lol... Wut?
And before you laugh at this example, you should know that it was founded by Anthony Levandowski, an engineer who helped develop self-driving cars for Google's parent company, Alphabet. So... yeah....
These two are not the only religions that are beginning to establish themselves and gain a steady following. Transhumanism alone already has several sects that differ in various ways, shapes and forms, let alone the plethora of budding new futurism religions that are just getting started.
My point is that religion is not only not diminishing as an issue that needs to be addressed, it's actually going to become a really, really important issue in the relative near term (I'd estimate somewhere in the next 20 years or so).
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Monday, October 30th, 2017
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Info Source: https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-new-religions-obsessed-with-ai, https://www.wired.com/story/god-is-a-bot-and-anthony-levandowski-is-his-messenger/