Okay, so I started getting philosophical earlier (usually a bad thing), and I was thinking about the role which religion plays in the life of modern man.  I realized that religion as a whole is dying.  Islam is truly dead - the Muslims don't recognize it, but it is falling apart.  Hinduism is even more dead than Islam.  Christianity and Buddhism are dying.  The reason that these religions are dead/dying is that mankind as a whole are moving beyond the need for them.

DISCLAIMER: Before I go any further, I just want to make a few points clear:
1. I am not saying that these religions are false.  I personally believe that Christianity is true.
2. I am not saying that these religions are totally unneeded.  With the exception of Hinduism's caste system, I believe that organized religion can still play a beneficial role in the social development of mankind.

Anyway, religion is becoming "outdated" in a way.  Mankind is progressing to the next step.  As I thought about the spiritual development of man, I charted out a very basic progression:

Ritual/Tradition > Religion/Liturgy > Ideas > Godhood

Basically, it's taking a step backward, into a more basic form of existence, in which being God precedes the existence of all other steps.  I believe that the next step of man is to live by ideas.  Long ago, man lived by ritual and tradition, participating in human sacrifices and the like.  As we developed, religions and more complex spiritual traditions took the places of those.  Religion developed to meet the needs of modernizing man, but there is coming a point when religion will no longer be necessary.  The next step is that of Ideas.  After Ideas, if any progression can take place beyond the most basic concepts of life, then man would become God.  Either that, or there will be no further progression.  I opt for the latter, but that's just my beliefs.  Some people do believe that Man is/will be God, but I don't.

Anyway, man will live by ideas.  Many are already taking steps into this realm of existence, but it's a relatively inhospitable metaphysical world whose inhabitants are met with hostility by a majority of their fellow man.  Look at the progression above.  Ritual is a dumbed down "Religion for the Masses."  Religion is a dumbed down "Ideas for the Masses."  As mankind develops, religion is dropping away to ideas.  Each person must choose which idea(s) to live by.  They can be Love, Hate, Compassion, Indifference, Loyalty, Honesty, Dishonesty, etc.  Some are moral, some immoral, some amoral.


Well, that's a snippet of what I was thinking.  I'm going to bed.