Will science and education render religion obsolete?

[John Dibble]

No, because no matter how advanced science gets, it will probably always leave something unexplained. Also, one must realize that modern science tries to prove how things happen, not why they happen - science and religion are not mutually exclusive.

However, religion will inevitably evolve as science does - we have more religious people now than ever that believe in a form of evolution, for instance. Intelligent design gives people a 'why' that science can't provide.

[John Dibble]

Indeed, angus - one more reason some degree of religion will always exist. Science can't tell us if there's an afterlife and what it's like.

[John Dibble]

You know, in faith in a God a little child has more knowledge than all those college educated professors that have spent their whole life trying to disprove God.

No college professor worth his salt bothers trying to disprove God - heck, my earth and atmospheric science professor outright said so(says his colleagues are of the same opinion). As I said, science tries to prove the 'how' not the 'why'.

[John Dibble]

Indeed, angus - one more reason some degree of religion will always exist. Science can't tell us if there's an afterlife and what it's like.

Of course, neither can religion, for that matter; religion has always been essentially a form of educated and accepted speculation, regardless of what some adherents will tell you.

Not that there's anything wrong with that, of course.  If it makes you happy and hurts no one else, it is, by definition, a good thing.

Well, science doesn't have the luxury of faith that religion has.