Quote Originally Posted by denuseri View Post
Which suggests that whatever it is that religion was providing for these people is being replaced by something else now
Or perhaps it suggests that, by meeting the physical needs of people, their "spiritual" needs are placed into perspective, and no longer seem as important to them.

That its a need being replaced as opposed to some kind of evolutionary change in human thinking is also part of this imho and there is plenty of evidence in a number of studies out there from non-biased scources to support that observation.
I don't claim that there is an evolutionary change in thinking at all. In an evolutionary sense we are predisposed towards believing in these kinds of things. I think it's more a change in education, not filling young minds with religious dogma from day 1, which makes the biggest difference. And there are plenty of studies, from all over, to support that!

nor have I tried to highjack the thread (and any other thread with the merest mention of the word religion or faith in it) and use it as some kind of bully pulpit to bash someone elses belief system whatever it may be and cant for the life of me figure out why someone would still continue to do so at every opportunity throughout the forums.
I have never tried to hijack any threads, and I try not to bring religion into the topic unless someone else has. I can't say I haven't done it inadvertently, but certainly not deliberately. But this is, after all, a religion and philosophy forum, so it's natural that religion will have some part in almost any topic here, I would think. I'm only sorry that you take any negative comments about religion as a personal attack. I certainly never meant for any of my comments to be taken personally.