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There is no Church/Mosque/Temples anymore :) Very rarely do we see the remain of Mexican Aztec culture but no Christianity or Islam (for that matter any other major religion)
This is very interesting observation. Over last few centuries we have seen many religions evolving drastically, I guess the far future will have religions but they will evolve in such a way that I and you may not be able to find resemblance between them and todays religion
IF we see the dogma of religion has been defeated by reason and logic over time. But some part of it still exists. Who knows eventually even that will get extinct?
Nietzsche declared God dead a hundred years ago and since then religion has been booming in china, africa, south america, et al. Of course, maybe those poor dumb people will be rich and educated like us someday. :-/
Belief in a higher power has been around since the dawn of time. There are as many religious people in the world as ever. Decrease in the west? Yes. Increase in the east? Yes. Faith has survived thousands of years of innovation, so it's a bit of generational arrogance (possibly coming from your particular western enlightenment reddit-reading background ;o) to think that we're finally outgrowing God. Nietzsche declare…
I am referring here to religion and not to God. Religions like Christianity and its institutions like church are so much based on Dogma that can not stand reasoning.
Will that vanish with time and scientific progress?
Even in Star Trek the Vulcans spend an awful lot of time contemplating candles and wearing robes. They may not talk about it on-screen but the producers must have consciously chosen to use monastic/Catholic imagery.
At the end of the day religion is designed to fill a void: not the unexplained (because that, I think, is to do with faith and belief) but rather because humans constantly seek to hand off their reposnsibility. "It's not my fault I ws told to...". In a group like a religion blame can be spread out. I think society does need these organisations, for better or worse, to function (personally I wish it was different).
Will faith and belief in a higher power exist many hundreds of years in the future? Well I think there will always be those who refuse to believe the findings of science (Im thinking along the lines of young earth creationists). Many of those are due to religious brain washing - but some have actually developed that view through free will. And I dont see that changing. But I do think that faith and belief will focus on different aspects of the unexplained. I t just depends how far our science goes. In thousands of years we should have documented proof of darwin evolution for example. But will we have figured out the big bang? Who knows! :)
SO the simple answer to the question is, I think, yes religion does have a future and yes faith does have a future: but the form it takes is dependant on our scientific progression (a small irony there I feel)
There is a believe in some form of a God in Star Trek, for example Picard believes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNwzawXu4v8 that the afterlife is run by someone/something, just not by Q.
If this mutation is successful, changes in the population will eventually bear out a larger group of mutations, than earlier populations. I definitely believe its a genetic issue and one that will be identified fully in time, as our understanding of the brain evolves.
At some point we may release the baggage of our childhood and move out into the universe that beckons. But, as long as there are more people hell bent on believing the rapture is just around the corner, the less likely I believe our species can survive.
We have technology that can eliminate us, stories in the Bible, Quran, and Torah that predict our demise, and a world full of believers set on seeing it through.
Obviously, this does not add up to a Star Trek ending. Only science can save us. Hopefully, one day they will find this root of all evil and remove it from the population.
Maybe, just maybe, we will last that long.
I doubt it.