Blue3
Starwatcher
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« on: September 08, 2017, 11:45:35 PM » |
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« edited: September 19, 2017, 10:21:01 PM by Blue3 »
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Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and many other religions are based around promising Eternal Life or deliverance from suffering.
What if science one day leads to Eternal Life? How does a religion (like Christianity) adapt to that change? I could see them then focus on the promised Resurrection... let's say science delivers that then too (perhaps all physical/personality information at the moment of death is stored at the quantum level in the very fabric of spacetime itself if you know where to look, or something).
Everyone is resurrected. Everyone has eternal life. We even find a way to not only prevent the death of the Sun, but even prevent the death of the universe. How does a religion like Christianity (or Islam, or Judaism, etc.) react and adapt to survive and thrive? Or would Christians just say "mission accomplished, looks like the Second Coming came in a way we didn't expect, let's go back and reinterpret those old prophecies to see how we got them wrong, focus on loving each other for its own sake, and call it a religion"?
Religions like Buddhism could have a similar problem. The Buddha founded his philosophy/religion after observing the inevitability of suffering... observing the poor, the sick, the dying, and the dead. What happens if science is able to eliminate most of the forms of suffering, and the only suffering that is left is minimal, such as being worried about making a new friend or feeling uncomfortable with public speaking? What happens when people are genuinely happy with their present life and don't want it to change or end? How does Buddhism react and adapt to those changes, to survive and thrive?
Also, which NEW religions/philosophies might arise or experience a rebirth? People often need some kind of Higher Purpose in life, and without one even a post-scarcity/mortality world would likely be dreary:
I can brainstorm the following: 1. a renaissance of Hedonism (chasing happiness and pleasure) 2. a renaissance of Stoicism (training yourself to be happy or at least at peace under every circumstance) 3. creating more of and improve the Arts being an essential purpose 4. Self-Sufficiency and Self-Knowledge (to be educated/skilled and investigate for yourself, and integrate your subconscious) being an essential purpose 5. Renunciation of possessions/property, sex, alcohol, clothes, etc. (Don’t do those things and do these things, for better life now or simply because it’s “proper”) 6. the practice of trying to constantly be "in the Flow," completely absorbed in your actions 7. Devotion to and reverence of the Universe/Nature, and our social relations 8. The old, well-known “the final judgment is still to come, fear hell, obey our code” (Don’t do those things and do these things, for new world to come)
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