There are many cultures still present today that take their religion very seriously. Some groups are even quite fanatical about it. This is clearly evident as we are exposed to Muslim extremists who wreak terror on any opposition, bizarre cults that practice polygamy or speaking in tongues, or those who are still at best decades behind in regard to what has become acceptable standards of behavior. But one cannot deny that an increasing number of people are slowly but surely abandoning religion and its concepts.
We now know that the phenomenon that holds everything together all stems from one sole source. It’s the event that formed everything we see around us as well as that which we cannot see. It happened a few billion years ago, and it is known as the Big Bang. Billions of people worldwide admittedly still attribute this event to a Supreme Being or Creator. After all, something can’t materialize from nothing. Or can it?
Renowned physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking; often regarded as a modern-day Albert Einstein, has proclaimed that God was not a necessary element in the formation of the Universe. He instead asserts that science alone is sufficient to explain the formation and creation of not only time itself, but all matter as well. While Hawking’s remarks can’t yet be regarded as absolute, this British scientist is arguably one of the most brilliant people alive today. Eventually, such a philosophy will trickle down to the lay public as an even greater understanding of physics is realized. In other words, if laws of physics enable something to be created from nothing, then indeed there would be no reason to continue practicing religion.
In the meantime, our collective moral beliefs have become much more relaxed, and as a result, teachings of the Bible are already being discarded. As more people practice rituals that are contradictory to the teachings in this ancient and outdated series of books, they ultimately become acceptable. Furthermore, our increased knowledge of science will contribute to a new way of thinking. Hawking’s remarks as an example have indeed caused quite a stir among those with a strict religious upbringing, but it is nevertheless reasonable to predict that such a theory will gain a foothold as more of his colleagues concur.
Professor Hawking is onto something here, and this is precisely why there is strong reason to believe that religion will be all but dead by 2100 or so. It will still perhaps be practiced in a quaint but limited fashion among backward societies that stubbornly hold onto centuries-old traditions. However, on a widescale global level, the majority of our planet’s inhabitants will at long last embrace the logic that defines science.
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/stephen-hawking-science-makes-god-unnecessary/story?id=11571150&cid=ESPNheadline
