There will always be scumbags that take advantage but there may be fewer takers when we all live to be 200 years old. That's a long time to get accustom to the idea that it was a great ride but now would be a good time to get off the merry go round.

I think it is improving and just needs to form a critical mass, although a virus that takes out gullible/stupid people would definitely thin the herd. The original series was set in the 23rd century after humans made first contact, that event alone would do a lot to undermine the Christian dogma around humans being made in the sky daddy's image, the dominoes would start to fall after that.

Exactly

If it involves Boldly Going Where No One Has Gone Before, then I'm on board, beam me up Scotty.

The decline in religious belief has increased every decade since the 1960's, perhaps more of the lunatic fringe religious believers but religion overall is decreasing as a force.

@Surfpirate . Apart from Europe, religion continues to be very significant in societies through out the world. Unfortunately it is increasingly linked with politics, governance and indeed economic in Africa, the middle East and large parts of Asia, the rise of trumpism, the election of a nationalist religious party in India, the cleansing of minority groups in Burma, the introduction of sharia law in parts of Nigeria
Religion seems to be holding its sway, the move towards scientific reasoning and evidence-based thinking seems to have faltered

Or is it that we human retain that animalistic need to reach out to the spiritual

@Femyem You're right, I should have qualified that statement. In the first world, the developed world, religion is failing because it doesn't have it's age old supports of poverty, over population, hunger and despair to prop it up. We need to keep moving the world forward in order for the progress to continue. It's refreshing to see someone actually care about what happens to people in the developing and third world countries, generally 1st worlders could care less about the rest of the world. I've traveled in and lived in many developing countries and have seen this first hand so I speak from experience.

In the future? Why would there be no black people in the future? Will there be a heaven in the future but no atheists? You lost me.

@Surfpirate Reckon you didn't got the racist joke about, why the "jetson's future" was so bright. Next you gonna tell me you can't be racist because you think President Obama was a great president and that always lead me to the same question.... what was your answer 9 years ago? Ever wonder that maybe in the future the atheist is the one missing? religion will adapt as had been doing for thousands of years. There will be new allah's and buddahs and jesus and what have you. New sects will be created faster than communist conscience grows. Heaven is here, Heaven is now, Heaven is in your conscience, so you go ahead and create your little jokes with nothing behind it. Maybe the Agnostics would be your next target..... he, he, he, ha. And by the way.... in the future all races will disapear as everyone will be mixed and the first to be gone.... by your own white definition... is the one you call "white". So I toast to a "Bright Future".

@GipsyOfNewSpain I guess it's because I grew up in the most multi-cultural city on the planet that it just didn't register with me. We all are trained as children to identify the difference first and the commonality second - Sesame Streets 'One of the these things is not like the others' , comes to mind as an example of that. I just didn't grow up that way, sometimes religion would enter the fray in school yard fights, racism just wasn't as big of a thing, if you were an asshole you were definitely going to get your face punched in.
I saw far more racism in Latin America during my years living in various countries there but the level of ignorance about race (a human construct by the way) I saw in the US was only surpassed by the Chinese. People are strange, I just wish they weren't so hateful in their strangeness.

@Surfpirate I will repeat that I didn't learn the meaning of "nigger", "wetback", "spick", "cracker", "beaner", "camelfucker" until joining "The Most Multi Cultural Navy in The Planet". I had to live in Europe to learn there is no Blacks, Whites, Brown, Yellow, Red in anywhere else but USA. I experienced as much racism from blacks than from whites while living in USA. Whatever your pseudo "most multi cultural city in the planet is" sure is not the ameriKKKan reality we are living today here. So good for you and enjoy your stay in that "most multi-cultural city on the planet". Since you used star trek in your joke... where is that most multi-cultural city on the planet Narnia?

@GipsyOfNewSpain Sounds like you are through the looking glass on this comparison, or through the wardrobe might be more appropriate. The US Navy can't even get it's head around a secular humanist navy chaplain, I can only imagine how multi-cultural they are in the true sense of the word instead of the usual military double speak. I'll give you one thing, racism cuts in all directions as anyone who has traveled will tell you from experience and contrary to what a lot of 'whites' will swear is not the case. People don't usually have to look very far to find something to hate, even if it is something as inconsequential as skin tone.

Agreed but only for us 'normal' people. The lunatics who are still running this asylum don't see it that way.

@Surfpirate I partially agree with you but who cares what other people think? What others think of me is none of my business and has no affect on me. It is only when they put their thoughts into action that I have to deal with it.

@jlynn37 Unfortunately, thoughts have a nasty habit of leading to actions and those actions often have to be addressed. I try not to let it influence me in any meaningful way in order to maintain my personal freedom. I give a little in order to maintain friends and family but not very much as I value my personal freedom too highly to let others steal it from me.

Maybe and maybe not, think of how far we have come in the last 50 years and in another 50 years we may see religion relegated to history except for a small percentage of the population with weak minds.