In 50 Years Will People Still Believe In God?

Why didn't he give everyone faith?

Ask Him, and you will receive!

Asked him for 20 years, nothing. Zippo. Nada. Your god isn't there. He is imaginary.

As long as you consider Him My God- nothing will!

Will people still believe in gods? Not nearly as many as do today.

Of course, billions still will, in poor countries where poverty and lack of education are the norm. But in peaceful, tolerant, and relatively well educated and relatively wealthy societies, belief in gods is in terminal decline.

Religious believers die, and are replaced by their non-religious grandchildren. It's the inevitable outcome of tolerance, acceptance, and education.

Where Canada is today, the US will be in another 20 years, just like Canada is today where the UK was 20 years ago.

Stephen Prothero is seeing what he wants to see. The reason only "3% say they're atheists" is because of the massive amount of bigotry people encounter if they say they are atheists. The percentage of people who actually are atheists is MANY TIMES GREATER than the percentage who will self-identify as atheists in a poll.

Today in Sweden (80% atheist) if you DO believe in gods, you are considered stupid, uneducated, American, a Muslim immigrant, etc. They aren't harassed, they are quietly pitied.

more than ever

Absolutely. Truth can be brushed aside, ignored, covered and shunned but it will NEVER go away.

Which is why religion is dying. It has no truth to it. Faith is believing something you know isn't true.

You are free to have your faith my dear friend.

I don't need blind faith. I have reproducible facts and a proven track record on my side.

You have "faith" that there is no God, god or gods.

I am not an atheist. I am a skeptic. So, no, I don't need faith to wait for clear, repeatable evidence of your imaginary god.

Tell yourself whatever you need to get yourself through my friend.

You just punted. So sad.

I did. It is pointless to argue with some folks.

Faith is a gift! You just can't have it! You cannot earn it! It is given!

Not the way to receive it!

You cannot receive what you do not want!

unfortunately

In this case, I take 'believing in God' to include religions who venerate higher powers, whether that's one god, two or many.

Yes of course they will! :)

probably a god of some sort most have always believed in something. Though todays religion might be tomorrows myths.

People will still believe in God half a century into the future, and for thousands of years to come.

However, our perception of God is slowly changing. More and more people are dropping the "man in the sky who sends sinners to the fiery pits of Hell" attitude and creating their own ideas of who He is (e.g. "He's life itself," "God created the universe and then left it to its own devices"). At the same time, people are slowly becoming more liberal in their perceptions of Him and the Bible's texts. Just go read the comments on questions like "Religion vs. Atheism: what do you believe?"

With Faith, you do not need earthly evidence!

You do not need earthly evidence for what?

I don't think the belief in God is going anywhere...ever. Now, we may put away, what some people believe to be silly fairy tale versions of God but there will always be people who believe that something or someone started the ball rolling. I know I do.

They've believed in God for thousands of years >.<

our understanding of God is becoming more fluid in my opinion..it's really all about how you define God...I've never believed in a "sky daddy" (as I hear God referred to here often) but there is "something" that we cannot understand...there is a mystery to life that is incredible to ponder and wonder about...there is an intelligence that has no name and that we cannot conceive of...i would say that my understanding of God cannot be described in words...and I believe once we die we are gone...that is the end of our existence. and i believe we need to die to allow new ideas to come about...built off of our ideas...that is the brilliance of the universe in my opinion..that we die so that life can continue. and it is pretty scary to know we will one day not exist..hence the need to create a God that will always love us and who will save us from destruction.

As for Christ, we would all do well to understand his teachings and to commit to a way of life that he advocated..and he does not need to be anything but an enlightened human being for me to respect his work and to strive to use his life as an example of how we treat each other while we are here.

check out "Pale Blue Dot" by Carl Sagan...google it and you'll get the video

If we used Jesus as an example we wouldn't get married, wouldn't have kids, be pacifists and live poor.

but the numbers will likely be a lot fewer as people come to realize they have been lied to this whole time.

Not if we're educated, no.

Like when science taught the world was flat????? Education is so infantile! Learn to think outside the box!

Science isn't always right but it is willing to change when better evidence becomes available unlike religion.

When did science ever do such a thing? Building a straw man just shows how ignorant your argument is

Look up "how science works". That should help educate you.

But I know you trust science more then your god because I know if you were seriously hurt and an ambulance picked you up you would tell them to take you to a hospital, not a church because you know prayer isn't going to do squat.

And this shows "science taught the world was flat" how exactly? I've no idea what point you're trying to make with your non sequitur about ambulances.