At 08:38 AM 11/27/2002 -0800, you wrote: > >I think we are discussing more man's interest in >religion (or mathematics) than his achievements. I do not. I think "achievements" is exactly the right word. The more we understand about how the world works, the more we are able to use that knowledge to shape the world in a way that is best for us. The Incredible Shrinking God is an important achievement. >David seemed to be saying it's not believable that >there would be interest in religion (or, as I prefer >it, spirituality) in the far future, He said nothing about interest; he was speaking of belief in the supernatural, as I understood it. >since we would >have explained everything with science that religion >sought to answer. I think there are questions that >are unanswerable by science That's true, science can never understand how the solar system works. Oh, wait. Well, science can never understand what causes polio. Oh, nuts. Hmmm. Well, science can never understand life. Oh, that too? Well, I'm sure science can never understand....uh...human emotion! There we go! And that's where God lives. *whew* Glad we found one. > > Man's religious beliefs have changed over the > > millennia. In my opinion, an > > examination of these changes would lead to the > > conclusion that the gods > > have been shrinking. Those areas where the > > supernatural is required for > > understanding have gotten smaller and smaller. The > > idea that they might > > vanish entirely in the not-to-distant future doesn't > > seem farfetched to me. > >I agree if you restrict your focus to the Western >world (by which I mean Europe and North America). I >would argue that religion is THE focus of many >populous societies in other parts of the world; India, >China (Falon Gong), the MidEast... I hope you are not seriously suggesting the Buddhism or Hunduism have not changed in the last few hundred years.