On a good day, when I’m feeling optimistic about future society – which isn’t very often, if you follow this blog – I can foresee the rapid shedding of religious beliefs in America perhaps two or three generations from now.

As it becomes less and less stigmatizing to proclaim one’s nonbelief, closet atheists will begin to “come out” in growing numbers. At some inflection point, it will become mainstream or, at least, no longer socially acceptable to vilify someone over their atheist or agnostic beliefs. Eventually, it will no longer be political suicide to be openly unreligious.

Influenced by advances in science and technology, more and more parents will become less rigid about brainwashing their offspring with outdated, dogmatic silliness. That next generation will have the chance to become the first nonreligious majority in American society. After that, religion will peel away like an onion and only the fundamentalists and die-hards will remain, relegated to the margins of society like cults or the Amish are today.

It was much the same process with slavery and its acceptance. And we are now on the tail-end of the process with homosexuality.

After all, the power of religious groups lies not in their ideas but in their numbers. And as those numbers decline, so too shall their power. Glory be the day.

So now I get to blow all this dough doing shamelessly immoral things.  Because, as you know, without faith and holy scripture, I have no hope of ever discerning right from wrong.

To check out other infidels’ blogs, see the Atheist Blogroll listings at the bottom of the right sidebar.

Holy crap!  I suspect that most previous presidents and candidates presented themselves as God-fearing in order to protect their electability, but Sarah Palin is a true believer!

We need a rational thinker at the helm of this nation.  Could you imagine the carnage if our president were a devout Christian and made policy decisions based on faith?  Oh, wait …

Here it is, 2008, and it is surreal that the vast majority of Americans believe in an invisible sky-fairy taking personal interest in their daily affairs.  I am increasingly embarrassed for the human race.

What will they think of us in the future?

The ancient Greeks believed the world to be made up of air, fire, earth, and water.  How do we feel about that today?  We snicker to ourselves, wondering how anyone could believe such silliness.  Of course, we have the benefit today of the periodic table of elements to know of the Greeks’ misguided theories.

Only a few centuries ago, phenomena such as lightning, earthquakes, and eclipses were attributed to otherworldly spirits.  But science provided solid explanations for each and the superstitions surrounding them sloughed off into history.

Science continued its relentless course in providing rational, reliable theories to explain the physical world we live in, painting our old friend religion into a tight corner.  Religious beliefs are as tenable today as tossing salt over one’s shoulder or using leeches.

Yet these goofy beliefs persist, despite their increasing uselessness.

I envision history students in 2200 learning about our era and shaking their heads at our intellectual deficit.  Perhaps much in the same way we think of our forefathers believing that human slavery was acceptable, these future students will be asking themselves:

“What were they thinking?”