Will the religious inherit the Earth? Are we all doomed?

[[deleted user]]

Extrapolate demographic trends to the not-to-distant future, and it's clear what will happen.

More here: http://www.secularnewsdaily.com/2011/...

[Melki]

Well, I did my part by raising two intelligent, free-thinking young men. I'm too old to pop out any more kids! The rest of you had better get busy!

[Cora]

I think about that concept a lot. But I think one of the variables that will temper the author's vision is the Internet. It's much harder to be insular if you have to sift through a virtual world of ideas to find your "community".

[Roxy]

Being childfree, I can't claim to have helped raise any free thinkers.

And there was me thinking it was the "Geeks" shall inherit the Earth, and not the meek. ;-)

[MadgeUK]

I've raised four freethinkers/atheists and have six freethinker grandchildren growing up the same way. We have just come back from an international Folk Festival where hundreds of 'flower people' and their children were spending a happy, peaceful week singing, dancing, playing musical instruments of all kinds and I suspect that a great many of them were freethinkers, judging by the unconventional clothing, songs and general demeanour of those present:). To dress up like this you have to be a freekthinker!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v54lgC...

Two of my kids were dancing in the sea in 2009 (my hotel in background, they camped!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hBGML...

We were all here somewhere in 2010:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xGTqtK...

My experience over 70+ years is that the world, and the West in particular, is growing less religious. Certainly this is the case in Europe and Scandinavia although I know the American experience is different and Islam has been on the increase. However, the recent uprising in the Middle East may be a sign that Islam is now waning too, just as secularism is on the increase in the US. Communism declined when people in Russia, via TV satellite, got to know how the rest of the world were living - repressed people wanted a piece of the action. Keeping youngsters under the thumb of religious doctrine of any kind is no longer an easy thing to do.

[[deleted user]]

I agree that it's becoming ever more difficult to keep children insulated as the Internet becomes more and more culturally pervasive around the world. (Which is great news, because I for one have no plans for having and raising children.)