What Function Does Religion Serve?

As long as man has had the ability to think and reason, he has been asking the question, "Why?". Man is naturally curious as to how the world works.

Ancient religions, now referred to as myths, attempted to answer the questions that man could not otherwise explain. For example, why does the sun travel across the sky every single day? Ancient man was not aware that the sun does not travel across the sky. Instead, the earth rotates, giving the illusion of the sun traveling across the sky. But their rudimentary explanation was that a god must drag it across the sky behind his chariot.

Of course this is ridiculous. Everyone knows now how it really happens. Even modern believers in current religions accept the scientific explanation of how the sun "travels across the sky".

This example, and others like it, were not viewed in ancient times as just stories. They were viewed as the actual truth. Of course, the stories of ancient mythology are looked upon today as interesting stories that were completely wrong in the way they explained the world.

And yet, today, in this age of information, religion is the modern equivalent of ancient mythology. What ancient mythology and modern religion have in common is that they both attempt, poorly, to explain our world.

Modern religion attempts to explain how the world came to exist and how it came to be inhabited by humans, plants, and animals.

It seems that man, whether he be ancient or modern, likes to use "god" as the fill-in-the-blank. Whenever a question does not have an obvious answer, god must have done it.

As science advances and begins to answer those questions that were previously believed to be unanswerable, god is slowly squeezed out of the picture. We no longer need god to explain most of the questions we have.

Religionists will argue that science hasn't answered all the questions and therefore, god must still exist. That is true, for now. But science is advancing and questions are being answered. What we didn't know yesterday, we know today. What we don't know today, we will probably know tomorrow. I would wager that it won't be long before god is completely unnecessary. Even questions like the origion of life will be explained by science.

Belief in god is old school. We no longer need god. Let the ignorant believe in god.

How likely is it that one dude up in the sky who has always existed and has always known everything is capable of clapping his hands and a universe suddenly appears? When put like that, it sounds pretty stupid, does it not? Well, that is what religion teaches is the origin of the universe.

Religion is based upon ancient mans' uneducated guesses. Turns out they were wrong in everything.

In 1,000 years from now, Christianity will be looked back upon as nothing more than another myth. Good bye, god!