Originally Posted by Mutt

Man's arrogance and conceit that at the point in time he's on Earth that he's got it all pretty much figured out. For primitive age man the answer was religion, dieties. Today it's science for many. Two thousand years from now looking back at what we know now, what we hypothesize now, will make us look primitive. The solid science we have collected through our existence will stand, I'm amazed reading about these geniuses from thousands and hundreds of years ago and their work in math and sciences. And two thousand years from now scientists will look at our contributions and be impressed but they'll also think how primitive we were.

Here's what I wonder - if we don't destroy ourselves completely and we continue to thrive on this planet, we are going to make ourselves immortal - whether that is reprogramming our genes, making a copy of ourselves, downloading what's inside our minds into a new body, whatever - to many religion is mostly about a fear of death, non-existence. If we were to live for 500 years or forever the need for religion for many would evaporate.