I would like to believe that humanity will survive long enough to achieve its potential, but current world events lead me to doubt that this will occur any time soon (if ever).
As to the world of the future, I’m not able to predict that, but what I’d like to see and what I think may be achievable in my lifetime would be (this is not an exhaustive list, just the ones that immediately spring to mind):
1.) A clean energy source leading to a break with fossil fuels, possibly hydrogen based, plus halting of other environmentally damaging practices.
2.) Increased democratic rule worldwide leading to true equality between all people.
3.) A stronger more dynamic UN.
Things I’d like to see, but doubt would occur in my lifetime:
An end to poverty/hunger/disease/dictatorships worldwide
Off world colonies, leading to eventual interstellar travel.
Of course just because they may be possible dose not mean any of the above are likely.
To put my statements in religious terms, I believe we have the ability to create a heaven on earth, unfortunately we also have the ability to create hell on earth, at the moment it could go either way. I hope for the best, but fear for the worst.
Sorry to take so long to get back to this. Even with the creation of the nation of Israel (I’ll address that in the appropriate thread), I still don’t think we’re in any kind of New Age/Messianic Kingdom/End Times era. As far as I can tell, human nature hasn’t changed much, even if technology has. There’s still great good and great evil at both ends of the spectrum, with most people hanging out in the middle, trying to get by. People can be surprisingly narrow or callous at times, but then they’ll turn around and show a generosity which surprises you.
I’m also in no hurry for the world to end. I’d rather like my niece’s and nephew’s grandchildren to hear tales of their crazy Great Aunt CJ who went off and did outlandish things like moving to Hawaii, just as I heard tales of my outlandish Great Aunt whose first husband was killed in an earthquake in India, and who then went down to South Africa where she married a man who was divorced! :eek: I like wondering which of the beliefs we cling to so ferociously and the issues we argue so passionately will sound quaint and antiquated a few hundred years from now. I’m curious about which authors, if any, will be remembered 400 years from now as Shakespeare is today. Will rap become the new Baroque or will it wind up an obscure form of music of interest to only the most devout and eccentric musicologists? Will the Beatles be seen as being as innovative as Mozart and Billy Joel as the next Haydn or will they be people no one’s heard of?
I don’t know. When I was growing up in the 1970’s, it seemed like every other week there was a new prediction saying when the world would end and/or a new age would dawn. Maybe that left me a bit cynical. I like post-apocalyptic fiction actually. In fact, I’m reading The Stand and Robert McCammon’s Swan Song is a guilty pleasure, but new ages have been predicted a great many times, including in 1000 CE and before. As it was, I spent a lot of time in 1999 convincing people life would go on as usual in 2000. Ironically, my life has changed a great deal as a result of things that happened that year.
I hope this world of ours sees 3000 CE, too, and people laugh about the funny people who were so terrified that everything would come to a screeching halt in 2000 CE. It’s a glorious, warm, summer evening; I’m in love; I have a good job; and my niece and nephew and the rest of their family are visiting and life is good. Why on earth (pun intended) would I want this to pass away?
I am with you Seige; I think unhappy or depressed people want the world to end, as it would be easier than solving their problems themselves. I find it sad that so many people live just for the purpose of dying and being happy in another life!
To me I was born to live; as well, and as long as I can. I have a saying I like: He with the most years wins!!!
If I may be termed spiritual in that I enjoy, and take great notice of, the output of my amygdala and limbic system, I say “no” (<0.0001%) with the caveat that I really really hope that such weird shit happens and thus convinces me that we’re Doomed.
I took those words of Jesus to mean primarily that His death and resurection would set the future in motion. Secondarily , as I lean towards preterism, it could very well refer to His second coming around the time of the destruction of Jerusalem.
I speculate that we’ve been in the “end times” for almost 2000 years. Most every Christian believes that the “end times” are distinct events that involve everyone at the same time. If we Christians accept that the 6 day creation took 14 billion years, we can also assume that the end times can take place over several millenia or even longer.
Actually, I’ve suffered from clinical depression most of my life and have been suicidal a time or two. It’s just that, even when things were at their worst and I didn’t want to go on, I couldn’t see taking the world with me. I knew there was beauty in it, even if I was cut off from it. Technically, according to some interpretations of my beliefs, heaven awaits me. I’d still prefer to take my time getting there, though, and surely part of heaven will be seeing the future unfold and being able to appreciate it on a grand scale in ways I can’t dream of now.
Sociology, anthropology, and theology are sciences. Sociologists and anthropologists frequently speak of religion in terms of its being an attempt to explain the unknown, or in other words, aspects of our existence about which we are ignorant. This is frequently used to justify value judgements or true/false statements about religion – it’s only a societal control mechanism or driven by fear of the unknown, etc., and there’s no “real” truth to it.
So religion is beyond the purview of science, but science apparently isn’t beyond the purview of “well, they did it first! And more often!!!”
Protestant Christian, and I believe “no.” We’ve had at least 2000 years (longer, if you believe as I do that other religions are differing voices of the same God) to figure this stuff out. Not only have we done a lousy job of figuring it out, but we’ve corrupted the message into one of hate, judgement, arrogance, deception, selfishness, and vice.
At this point, I’m more inclined to believe in the philosophy of The Onion, that the next coming will take the form of a memo from God, reading: “What part of ‘love thy neighbor’ don’t you understand? Seriously, people. What the fuck?”
No they’re not. They’re areas of study. Or more rigorously, they’re areas of discipline which require study and method. Within them, scientific method may be employed on occasion. Or not.
What’s the significance and relevance of making that correction, that sociology and social anthropology should not be referred to as “sciences?” If it’s that my use of the term is inaccurate, because not all studies require a provable hypothesis, then point taken. But if it’s to suggest that the lack of provable hypotheses leaves the study open to value judgements from which the physical sciences are free, then I’d take exception to that.
The point remains that the statement “It would be nice if people would stop trying to use science to disprove religion but instead learn to use both in cooperation” can hardly be called a “Strawman.”
Sociology and anthropopology both do involve scientific method and empirical study. Something as simple as a political survey is a scientific acquisition of data. Neither discipline is based on fundamentally unproven (and unprovable) assumptions as iis theology. Anthropology and sociology are sciences. Theology is sheer speculation and inferential fancy based on assumptions that must be taken without evidence. If the assumptions are wrong, then the inferences are wrong. Scientific method plays no role. Theology does not belong in the same category with disciplines which make a genuine attempt to study and draw objective conclusions about observable data. Theology studies nothing. It observes nothing. It merely assumes and infers from assumptions. It’s not the same.
