Where did spirituality/religion come from, and where is it going?
 

The concept of spirituality and religion is just about as old as time. Some religions may have been designed in ancient times or modified in medieval times to intentionally console those stricken by poverty by convincing them that they would have all they wanted in another life, but religions and spirituality as a whole have existed long before organized civilizations. Where does it come from? And, as more and more people have better education in the modern age, what will happen to spirituality/religion?

Here's a nice article about the future of religion:
The likelihood of a post-religious world | Perplexicon

Interesting article. Read it once before, but a good read again.

I personally think organized religion will fade with time, but independent spirituality will remain (again, as a way to look inward on oneself or relationships with the world, like I mentioned in the other thread), or at least, very liberal organized religion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secular_spirituality

It's an interesting article - I think the difference is that when something is still recent enough to be remembered, it won't disappear completely, while on the other hand, every single generation is more secular than the previous and both attendance and adherence is in decline over the western world, so even if it doesn't completely disappear, it will become something of an oddity, at least certainly in terms of formal organised ones. Individual ideas that aren't defined by a hierarchical organisation are more likely to survive in some form, but they are going to become increasingly grounded in empiricism, much like how humans now understand the nature of the sun, moon and stars

Sounds good to me-- I think I can accept that :P
If anything, I worry most about where popular religion is immediately going in America :S It scares me.

Indeed, the US and to a degree also Canada, and of course a lot of the North African/Middle East countries are displying worrysome tendencies of organized religion as a way to governing peoples.
I personally think that while organized religion will decline eventually, the need for some kind of spirituality (I will not speculate about the reason for that need now, if it is because of the "god shaped hole" Dawkins speaks of or because of deeper knowledge of something that actually is there) remains. Thus the increase of "alternative" religions or expressions of spirituality in the past decades. As christian religion looses attendance, "New age" followers increase as well as people looking for many other spiritual paths. People get interested in Shamansism, Native american or australian aboriginal spirituality. And there are even some secular spirituality movements. Also, pantheism is rising in popularity. So overall I would say that there is maybe not a decline in spirituality, but one in its organized, institutionalized form.

The decline is apparent, though if you divide people in to three sections (religious, spiritual, secular), spiritual is surely gaining popularity over religion while religion is becoming more extreme :S And Aurora, what in the world does secular spirituality consist of? I imagine a group of people vaguely talking about feelings and trying awkwardly to stay politically correct :xD:

That's about it, I think. Based on feelings, but grounded in reality. Personally, I say that's called emotion :P

I think religion's time is coming to an end (save for a few less-moderate people, of course). This 'secular spirituality' is an interesting one, but I think that will ultimately fizzle out due to the difficulties in communication you mentioned.

Personally, I hope that if we move towards anything that it's 'secular humanism'.

To quote Wikipedia:
'Secular Humanism, alternatively known as Humanism (often with a capital H to distinguish it from other forms of humanism), is a secular philosophy that embraces human reason, ethics, and justice, and the search for human fulfillment. It specifically rejects religious dogma, supernaturalism, pseudoscience or superstition as the basis of morality and decision-making.'

I think that humans do need some sense of there being 'more' to their existence, and I hope that, in the future, they are able to fill this gap with a sense of community / shared responsibility rather than superstitions.

:) I really like that idea, + science ;)

Well, the science goes without saying :D

I don't like humanism so much, because it's a bit exclusive when it comes to nonhumans/posthumans, but the idea is excellent.

What do you mean by nonhumans/posthumans? As in tangible meaning rather than idealistic could be scenario?

What is wrong with "could bes?"

Nothing wrong per se, but it's more of a scorched earth thing for me, as in if I can't have anything fun, neither will you. And by definition, "could be" is something that is not currently available in way or form, so it's equally denied from all possible parties, thus I don't need to concern myself with it.

To clarify, "could bes" are usually so absurd, that their presence would mean utter and complete disregard for reality in general, so I only choose to observe that boredom is equally distributed without people trying to cheat. I don't really care for rules in general, but as long as I'm forced to abide by them, I will make sure others do too.

Then again what do I care? I usually just hide under a rock without any knowledge what absurdities are going about all around, so it would make little difference to me, unless that something would be fun. But like said, could be is just like that, it could be fun if it could be, but it isn't.

It's strange how being tired makes one write more nonsense than usual.

Both other sentient species, and posthumans (people who have surpassed human physical/mental limitations to the point of being difficult or impossible to compare to unchanged humans).