Inventing Religion

What if we were starting from scratch, now? What if we were to say 'here we are in 2007, what do we know about our world?' Well we know a great deal. We know the structure of the universe - the Solar System, the galaxy, the other galaxies, the whole universe, and its history. We know about the structure of this planet, and the causes of earthquakes, and storms, and lightning, and floods, and plagues. We understand chemistry and physics and geology. We know how life began and how it evolved and who our closest relatives are among the other animals we share the planet with.

We know how our own bodies work, about circulation of blood, about respiration, about digestion, and kidney function. We know how eggs are fertilized and about DNA and about how embryos develop. We know what causes disease and how to cure it. We know about death and what happens to bodies after death.

We know how our brains and nervous systems work, and the effects of physiology and pharmacology on our brains, we understand psychology and mental diseases.

We have studied anthropology and sociology and archeology and history, and we know how different societies have functioned in different places at different times.

Not knowing all those things, a few thousand years ago, caused different people in different places at different times to invent a whole variety of different religions to explain the things they did not understand about themselves and the world around them.

What if that hadn't happened? What if a few wise men, here and there had said, 'hey, there are some things we don't know, but let us wait for science to work them out, let's not go rushing into this religious stuff until we see if there is anything science can't explain, let's wait until 2007 and see if there are any gaps.' Do you think our wise men and women, sitting down now, to discuss the matter, would bother to invent religion in 2007?