When will religion die out or become irrelevant?

Steven Hawking says that modern science makes God unnecessary. As far as I can tell there are still some basic questions about the beginning or lack thereof that make it hard to swallow that statement.

If the universe is finite:
How did a reaction take place to start a reaction leading to the big bang if there was no matter or energy? By it's very definition there must be a universe if those two things exist...right?

If the universe is infinite:
Does that require an osculating universe? That theory has fallen out of favor lately if I'm not mistaken. It's hard to believe something like the universe could possibly be stable enough to continue existing in a meaningful way for all eternity. Entropy, heat death, the laws of thermodynamics seem to present problems with an eternal universe. I believe Osculating universe theories answered some of these questions, but could it really go on for an eternity? It would only take on mis-bang for everything to go wrong...

It seems outside influence is likely; however, it does not define "god" hardly at all. This "god" could conceivably be energy existing on another plane, I suppose.

I suppose that begs the question, can other universes (if they exist) interact?

Basically, I think we have a long way to go before we can say that god is unnecessary. I strongly believe that requires an eternal universe or multi-verse. Unless other universes work very differently than this one and interact with us directly, I'm not sure that's possible either. Those things are probably impossible to prove or even meaningfully speculate about.

I don't know, but I'm hardly prepared to say suggest that god is no longer required. I guess Steven Hawking knows a bit more on the subject (understatement for comedic effect), but I don't get it.

 

Hi Rickyjo

I think you mean oscillating universe, don't you?

"Osculating" means either:

(1) Kissing. The Latin word "osculum" (kiss) means literally "small mouth."

(2) In mathematics, an osculating surface/line has at least 3 points in common with another

Johann

 

Religion isn't irrelevant now? News to me.

 

When will this very ancient thread die out?

 

End of days?

 

Johann: haha! (oops)...I mean, no I definitely meant the wildly popular universe making out with the fourth dimension of time theory
(curse you firefox spell check!)

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MC: I think cosmology and other forms of science are extremely relevant to this question! I believe the younger generation is putting a great deal of stock in trying to understand the truth based on facts; therefore, science is extremely relevant to making an informed decision and people like Steven Hawking are very influential to those trying to make an informed decision. Ultimately, the number of people making the choice to believe in religion affects the relevance of religion as a whole.