If unlimited life extension possible, would this be the end of religion as we kn

No. Religion doesn't just concern extension of life, but the also the redemption of the soul. Living forever without redemption is no better than death because all the problems of man are still there - greed, deception, crime, cruelty, lust for power, wars, slavery, on and on. Religion does more than simply heal the body. It is the total redemption of the soul (body AND spirit).

Religion is not about immortality but is about morality. Religion is needed as a foundation of civilization. Civilization is the art of living in cities. To live at piece in a crowded environment requires people to be less selfish. It has been shown that people who are contemplating their own mortality are much more callous and indifferent to the suffering of others. The belief in everlasting life after death then has two effects, people will be more interested in the welfare of others and the powers that be can use it to convince the sheeple to sacrifice themselves for the greater good to receive benefits in the afterlife.

they would have to make people stop having kids if we could live forever. we'd over populate so fast that the entire earth would look like a rat infested apartment in the ghetto.

Not necessarily, because accidents happen. I like the way Niven handled it, with his "Pierson's Puppeteers"......their science had proven they had no afterlife, so they weren't religious, but they were obsessed with avoiding any kind of risky situations/behaviors.

@belladonna ....which goes to that question in the other thread, about a missing piece on the mural SJ. If you've advanced to the point that you live forever, the b'ness bits become de-facto, redundantly primitive.

Love this thread. Yes, ideally religion as an abstract idea is supposed to provide succor, comfort, and promote the welfare of all, but specific religions instead foment division by promoting hatred and an 'us against them' mentality. To stay more on topic, we all understand that death is inevitable, but many religions promise an afterlife if one obeys and threaten punishment after death if one doesn't in order to insure obedience to their tenets. IMHO religion often gets in the way of our natural morality, hence people using divine mandates that lead to the religious persecution of others and religious wars. Our own sense of compassion and conscience, governmental laws and the social contract are what establish our morality. My two cents for what they're worth, which is not much in this economy.

I doubt it, Macs. Religion is good at assimilating pretty much any new situation/knowledge that is thrown at it. It's been doing this for millennia. I don't think indefinite life extension will fare any differently than all the other scientific advances and cultural shifts that have come before. PS: Jason8, "It has been shown that people who are contemplating their own mortality are much more callous and indifferent to the suffering of others." It has been shown by whom? It seems to me that contemplating your own mortality would make you more empathetic to the plight of others rather than less... but if you've got facts to back that up, I'd love to hear them.

Even if we extend life to the point of immortality it would most likely only be biological immortality so if the body is damaged its over anyway. If you die then where do you go ?? The whole afterlife question remains the same. If the immortality is in effect total ( by "in effect " I mean until the heat death of the universe) then it still leaves the question where do we come from who made us so that we can become immortal. Down loading the mind over and over and over still carries the question " am I more than just my mind, what about my soul am I no longer the original? " so again big questions are left. It's kind of a big cosmic joke really, at the end if the day death smiles on us all, all you can do is smile back !.

Interesting, great stuff, this theme can go in a myriad of directions, as I suspect the movie will touch upon...

No... And Yes. If God exists, and I believe He does, a human acheiving artificial immortality does not affect God, who is also an immortal being. It also does not elevate human powers to the level of God. However, it would do away with religion in the sense that if you are immortal, there is no need at the end of life to go meet God, so you feel no obligation to worship Him. However, unless the ability to instantly repair grievous wounds, along with DNA that is perpetually self reparing, is instilled in an Immortal, then living forever is just a pipedream. As was pointed out, accidents happens, civilizations die and take technology and energy sources with them, and alien beings attach to your face and lay eggs in your chest. Thats it man, game over man, game over!

@Bonus Situation You have answered the question directly - yet, surely, the reason you give is exactly why the answer [i]must[/i] be "Yes"? The promise of Religion is ultimate Redemption - and Religious doctrine pre-supposes that Life is of limit and that Life is enevitably followed by Death and a passing to the After-Life - the After-Life constituting either external Agony, or eternal Exctasy, dependant upon actions and penitence in Life. If Life is Eternal, there can be no Death and no After-Life - therefore there can be no opportunity to experience Exctasy, through Redemption. Faith is predicated upon that Redemption - indeed, one of the main arguments of Religion is that without Faith, there is no Redemption - and without Redemption, Agony is certain and Life can have no purpose, (as Religion holds that Life has purpose, beyond the living of Life itself - that express purpose being to honour God by demonstration of Faith and following of His Word and Will, to be rewarded by ultimately joining His Host, in the After-Life). An eternal Life, destroys the fundamental basis of Religion as Faith is predicated upon the expectation of Death - in that equation, Religion must cease to exist as it will have no meaning: Life, is eternal: therefore, Faith has no meaning and Religion is destroyed - and a lot more besides, as Religion, as discussed, is tied directly to our perception and expectation of mortality. Our mortality is directly contributory to our individual and collective sense of purpose and - we know our time is but short. It is our mortality, that causes us to fight for life and regret it's passing. It is our mortality that contributes to our desire to reproduce. It is our mortality that defines The Past, The Present and The Future as having actual value. The answer is, "Yes": Eternal life must mean the end of Religion. However, in due time, I'd say it must also mean the end of Humanity. An intelligent species just cannot survive without, each individual, a sense of their End? It's absurd. Without End, there is no Purpose. I don't see how Nature can allow it. Our species will die from a desperate and desolate emptiness - and we'd probably be grateful, because an eternal Life can be nothing more than a Living Death.

Well, hypothetically as Macs put it in the thread "immortality taken away by a technology solution". That could work for a man obsessed with his passions, like glory, money, women..you name it. Passions can never be fulfilled...you can obey them, nurture them, only to find out in the end that they won't stop demanding more and more until your life and your personal resources become depleted...They will still be there..They are basically irrational. A human being is basically born to be free to chose. Religions only when having been applied in the wrong way can be perceived as mandates from God who is either a mere punisher for those who fail to follow or a good employer that reimburses those who succeed. I see a lot a human manipulation behind such applications. True religion is based on love and free will. Where I come from, faith is not just written in words neither it depletes itself in just being a good boy or do good things or love the others in a humanistic manner...No, it doesn't have to do with your efforts to project the lie of being a good person to the others and ultimately to yourself. Not to build a self icon of goodness. No...It's much more. While you live it, you don't have to die to see if everything you were told is true. So you are not becoming a robot. You are not manipulated in living a life long lie expecting something that you can't know if it exists..after life that is. No. Our spiritual elders here use to say: You live Europe for example, and a friend of yours travels to the US. When he comes back he starts talking about his experience. You never been to America, so you can't know if it really exists. But as your friends describes you all the details and shows you pictures of America, you start building a strong belief that America actually exists. And you know that you can also go there and see the same places.In the same fashion, religion forefathers have completed such experiences in the after life. They have talked to us for their feelings and experiences. And many more after them until our days have done the same and talked to us about it, thus building a strong belief that after life is actually there. Certainly not the same as making a trip to America. But yet...And the bonus feature? We are all promised we can make the same trip too, now with our belief of the existence of after life empowered by their example. So my faith, promises I can experience after life, while I am still alive in this present life. It is called a pre-tasting of after life. And as described it is such a totally changing experience that leaves no alternatives for doubts.In my faith, I can assure myself, not by others, that after life exists before I leave this life. And I believe this is an ultimate form of freedom love and choice. It is written : Taste and know, in a sense try it for yourself and get convinced that God exists. Also it is written: The night exists to stop the bad things of the day. In projection, death exists to stop the bad things of a human's life. So in that fashion, I kind of agree with many of the above mentioned answers. So real faith would not be harmed if we are talking about individuals who have understood this with all their existence, all their essence. But it would be harmed for individuals following their mere passions whatsoever. Forgive if I have offended anyone's faith or beliefs. I love you guys.

Well, hypothetically as Macs put it in the thread "immortality taken away by a technology solution". That could work for a man obsessed with his passions, like glory, money, women..you name it. Passions can never be fulfilled...you can obey them, nurture them, only to find out in the end that they won't stop demanding more and more until your life and your personal resources become depleted...They will still be there..They are basically irrational. A human being is basically born to be free to chose. Religions only when having been applied in the wrong way can be perceived as mandates from God who is either a mere punisher for those who fail to follow or a good employer that reimburses those who succeed. I see a lot a human manipulation behind such applications. True religion is based on love and free will. Where I come from, faith is not just written in words neither it depletes itself in just being a good boy or do good things or love the others in a humanistic manner...No, it doesn't have to do with your efforts to project the lie of being a good person to the others and ultimately to yourself. Not to build a self icon of goodness. No...It's much more. While you live it, you don't have to die to see if everything you were told is true. So you are not becoming a robot. You are not manipulated in living a life long lie expecting something that you can't know if it exists..after life that is. No. Our spiritual elders here use to say: You live Europe for example, and a friend of yours travels to the US. When he comes back he starts talking about his experience. You never been to America, so you can't know if it really exists. But as your friends describes you all the details and shows you pictures of America, you start building a strong belief that America actually exists. And you know that you can also go there and see the same places.In the same fashion, religion forefathers have completed such experiences in the after life. They have talked to us for their feelings and experiences. And many more after them until our days have done the same and talked to us about it, thus building a strong belief that after life is actually there. Certainly not the same as making a trip to America. But yet...And the bonus feature? We are all promised we can make the same trip too, now with our belief of the existence of after life empowered by their example. So my faith, promises I can experience after life, while I am still alive in this present life. It is called a pre-tasting of after life. And as described it is such a totally changing experience that leaves no alternatives for doubts.In my faith, I can assure myself, not by others, that after life exists before I leave this life. And I believe this is an ultimate form of freedom love and choice. It is written : Taste and know, in a sense try it for yourself and get convinced that God exists. Also it is written: The night exists to stop the bad things of the day. In projection, death exists to stop the bad things of a human's life. So in that fashion, I kind of agree with many of the above mentioned answers. So real faith would not be harmed if we are talking about individuals who have understood this with all their existence, all their essence. But it would be harmed for individuals following their mere passions whatsoever. Forgive if I have offended anyone's faith or beliefs. I love you guys.

We would definitely need to perfect terraforming if it was possible and of course long distant space travel. When you think about it anything can be become a religion / way of life cult if enough people have a common interest. i used to pray at the church of dance and throw shapes into to the ether along with many other cohorts lol it had an almost religious worship quality to it.

Religion can be difined in many ways... Most Religions or should we say beleafs do have many things in comon. Some are more about spiritual enlightenment rather than beleaf in one God who we must obey... Religion could well be spawned by fear.... The two greatest fears with Death is not Death at all, it does not matter if you die or how you die. The two biggest fears with Death are (in my oppinion) 1) The potential that you will not see your friends, pets or loved ones in this life anymore. 2) The fear of what happens after we die.... If somehow we prove that you go to heaven and there is 100% a God, just as much as we have proved that the Sun is real. Then it would force many people to become Religious and also to NOT FEAR DEATH.... If it was proved 100% again that there is no God and when we die thats it, nothing else happens. Then that would effect Religion to some extent, but more than that it would make DEATH even more Fearfull. A 3rd option would be what if it was proved that we was created by another Race, where 100% proof that indeed some race like the Space Jockeys created us... That would destroy a lot of Religion but then would also add fear of what happens to us when we die.

@BigDave: The element of true faith is based on free will. So proving solidly that Gods exists, would only force people to believe and not act at free will. Same goes for 3rd option. By the way if we were engineered by higher aliens and we could conceive God as something that also created them, then everything would have been fine. If not, 3rd option. Don't know about your second option. If this could be proved, I suppose it would have an impact on religion, but man would still by instinct be driven to form alternative kinds of Gods to sustain a bearable living. Good thinking though BigDave! @alteredstate: My last sentence must be covering you too!:)

@BigDave: The element of true faith is based on free will. So proving solidly that Gods exists, would only force people to believe and not act at free will. Same goes for 3rd option. By the way if we were engineered by higher aliens and we could conceive God as something that also created them, then everything would have been fine. If not, 3rd option. Don't know about your second option. If this could be proved, I suppose it would have an impact on religion, but man would still by instinct be driven to form alternative kinds of Gods to sustain a bearable living. Good thinking though BigDave! @alteredstate: My last sentence must be covering you too

Most of the answers being presented here seem to be predicated on the assumption that human beings -and humankind in general - will evolve no further than they have at this point, be it culturally, socially, physically or otherwise; likewise that religion, and/or the concept of religion, will similarly cease to evolve. Barring species-wide extermination, there is no reason at all to think that this is the case.

No. As long as there are gullible people willing to believe in fairies and elves, there will be unscrupulous people who prey on them.

Wasn't religion a way to answer the unanswerable questions mixed with laws to explain good and wrong?