Young people are turning away from religion. The future may be a view not to “atheism,” such an awful word, but to “pragmatism.”
The basic flaw of all but the simplest of religions is that they involve a belief in the suspension of basic principles such as cause and effect, and a counter-productive need to believe in the irrational, unseen, and unproven. Some philosophers of a religious bent might see that any belief in miracles is a belief in disorder, and chaos. Predictability is an essential human need, and it flies out the window.
As our understanding of the world and our ability to look into the past increase, we are apt to come upon ideas incompatible with the ideas put forth by religion.
It is often stated that wars, deaths, killings, and injustices all come from conflicts of religions.
The faithful 
say we can’t get bad fruit from a good tree, nor can we get good fruit from a bad tree. To modern philosophers then, a belief in religion is inconsistent with the highest principles of religion.
Most of us have our good days and our bad. We swing a pendulum, from devout belief, to complete disgust with believers. And as I once wrote here, just when I try to persuade myself of the virtue of pragmatism, some inexplicable wonder occurs that makes the mind reel.
I think that man has an inborn need to believe in a loving, influencing creator. Maybe that very belief provides evidence that it is true. But it is also true, I assert, that a man can never quite confirm either case. Is there a God; yes or no? It’s painful.
A little bird, a worm, a butterfly, a tiger in the night; none of these has the hope of understanding its existence. It is beyond them, and we might humbly concede it is beyond us.
Article comments
1 - John Lake
In fact the scientists say the Bang was not anywhere. And at a point so small as to be non-existent. Positive matter, negative matter; the mind reels.
2 - Dr Dreadful
"... just when I try to persuade myself of the virtue of pragmatism, some inexplicable wonder occurs that makes the mind reel."
Just because a wonder is inexplicable when it first occurs or is discovered doesn't mean that it will always be inexplicable. This really is the key point at which science and religion bifurcate.
3 - roger nowosielski
Does an atheistic viewpoint necessarily require that we purge ourselves of any sense of wonder?
Just askin'
4 - Dr Joseph S Maresca
A fair reading of the Bible, as well as the Dead Sea Scrolls would provide much information and perspective about today. Part of the story of Christ was lost in the Great Fire of Rome in 63AD. It would have been interesting to have a correlating Roman record of the events around the time of Christ. Apparently the Roman Emperor at the time wanted to eradicate any records that could contradict his exclusive claim to absolute power, as well as the historical record itself.
5 - Dr Dreadful
Romans in 64 AD (the year of the Great Fire, not 63) regarded Christians as an obscure Jewish sect who were fun to beat up on. It's highly unlikely Nero saw them as any threat whatsoever to his power: they were merely a useful scapegoat and a convenient means of deflecting consipracy theories to the effect that he'd started the fire himself.