How long do you think it will take for the world to come around to Science and reality, instead of Religion?

It will never happen unless scientific evidence could completely disprove the existence of a God. And since any belief system (from fundamentalism to atheism) is based solely on a concept of faith/non-faith, that there is no way to prove the physical existence of a God, you can never eradicate the belief in God.

There are also those who equate science with God, so no matter what astounding leaps in science are achieved, this coexistence would/could not dissolve the belief in a Supreme Being.

I agree with everything you said. But sadly I think it will be a long time before it happens. People are so scared to let go of their beliefs, things that aren't even necessarily what they truly believe. I was one of them for many years. Indoctrination has you so scared that if you doubt god, you'll die on the spot! Stupid? Oh yeah! But scary for someone who has never known anything else. People have no idea of how to think for themselves, and science seems cold and confusing. People still have the need to believe that this isn't it..that they'll see loved ones in heaven and that bad things happen for a reason. They aren't willing to take the chance and discover something new. And quite frankly, I believe that people aren't really interested in change. Things have been like this forever, right? They just haven't discovered that it doesn't work anymore. There are better exciting alternatives out there. I don't know what to do to make people let go, and move on. Just put the idea out there....

I think it will never happen and here are my reasons why. Humans come into the world as relatively blank animals when it comes to science. They have a natural instinct of curiosity and they explore enthusiastically. They are exposed to nature by this.

"Nature herself has imprinted on the minds of all the idea of God." Marcus Tullius Cicero, 106-43 BC."If God didn't exist man would have to invent him." Francois Marie Arouet Voltaire, 1694-1778 "I have lived sir a long time, and the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth--that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow can not fall to the ground without his notice, is it probable that an empire can arise without his aid?" Benjamin Franklin 1706-1790

To understand science takes a lifetime of study and not everyone is exposed to it; those who are are not going to all become atheists some will believe and mingle with those who are not of a scientific bent and have religion. The religious are now and will be for a long time to come, the majority. It is hard to become a good scientist and few will get there. So science will always be an esoteric discipline only understood by a minority I think.

There is a natural instinct in humans to be awed by nature and to explain it in terms of someone greater than themselves for its' creation and management. Only those who delude themselves into thinking they really know what reality is are usually young students enthusiastic about what they are discovering. They will mature and come to realize they don't have all the answers and haven't the time or means to get them. Until then PEACE and God be with you.

Not reconcile, but coexist. There will always be differences of opinion about doctrine, dogma, or the basic message even. Similarly I don't think they'll ever fully reconcile with science, as the basic scientific principle of agnosticism and evidence goes against the demands of every religion to have certainty of belief, as well as to have a set of claims which may be at odds with scientific findings. However, that doesn't mean they'll disappear, as there will be some people that choose to believe for their own reasons. The safeguard will be in secular societies where freedom of religion is as important as freedom from it, while theocracies and societies with dominant religions face a backlash if they lose influence. I do expect religion to significantly decline in the developed world, but not disappear by any means. At least, probably not in the next millennium. Beyond that, who can say?

I consider science to be a bit of religion, too. We have faith that all of those observations are accurate, we see the "miracle" of consistently repeatable experiments. We are bound by our personal experience, observations, and the direction those who have chosen to educate us take us.

Just like religion was able to answer the questions the people had about the world ("Where did we come from?" "God made us." "Ah, okay, thanks."), science has taken over that place of honor because it (as I said before) is consistently repeatable. If course, I've followed the same directions in Chemistry and Physics as everyone else and ended up with a different answer (and therefore "failed"). It takes faith to make the experiment work correctly, and I have to take others' word for it that it does end up like that.

In my opinion (just an opinion), I think that both are viable. Why can't a deity have created and guided evolution? Why can't a deity have been reponsible for "The Big Bang"? Why can't religion and science coexist? My answer is that they can and should.

You have a very nice dream going. I wish it will happen. But I doubt that it will. People are not going to change enough for that to happen. It takes no thought to surrender to a belief that is part of your consciousness from birth, but it does take some intellectual effort to consider and understand the concepts of science. People are afraid to look beyond the beliefs that they have been raised with; threatened with damnation if they dare look beyond what has been presented to them. They will never see science as the only path to the truth.

But keep dreaming the beautiful dream. Maybe I will be shown to be a big idiot. I'd be the happiest about it.

People will always have a form of religion that they follow. As you can see throughout history, religion changes with social structure and the political climate of the time. Science and technology will work in the background, but people will always need something to believe in.

the reason religion is so strong in peoples minds is because life is very hard, humans as an intelligent life form who think, wonder what the hell it is they are living for, why is life worth so much pain if you could just die and feel nothing. so i think the day we discover another reason to carry on rather than the reword of the after life will be the day religion is no longer necessary. you see the reason religion survives is because its important, its natures laws, things survive because they are important no because they are strong. as an answer to your question, well we could probably do all that in about three to four generations from now. or the other possibility is that never.

The irrationality of religion has a scientific basis. It goes back to our cave man days when man was very insecure living in a hostile environment. The cerebral cortex of our brain (the complex thinking apparatus) is a relatively recent addition.

The more primitive underlying limbic system, the seat of our ancient emotions or innate temperaments, is in all of us. Humans use both systems. In times of trouble, people still pray for intervention by the god(s). Prayers are requests by persons to have the laws of the universe repealed in their favor.

People who are rational, relying on their cerebral cortex, look at all the absurdities in religion. Christian dogma expects people to believe the fairy tale of Noah's ark, although it is patently impossible to squeeze even samples of billions of the world's animals into one small ark. Rational persons consider such stories ludicrous.

The bible account of the creation of man and the universe is in such contradiction to irrefutable facts that a rational person cannot help but laugh about such fantasies.

Have you heard the saying "there's no atheists in foxholes?" Its because in times of danger, humans revert to the primitive part of their brain for security. We needed religion to survive in a hostile universe back in the cave man days. Now, in the modern era, we can see all the absurdities of the varius religions....but, obsolete genes do not disappear overnight, and so you will be seeing 80% of the people in the world "religious" for some time come

So many people live in fear of unknown things their religon gives them hope. Science is about facts, cold and hard. Weak minded people or those that need an emotional crutch turn to religon and of course there are those intelligent people who totally disregard all facts and logic when it comes to religon because they were raised to believe it in an unquestioned manner.

Lets also not forget that the church is a HUGE business enterprise with BILLIONS of dollars in assets and cashflow.

The age of true scientific enlightenment is many many years into the future. Not until science can instill hope, eliminate fear, and has done so long enough that people will change their childhood believes will science lead the light that guides.