Humans may sometimes look like individuals, but the truth is that all humans are members of local groups that determine what they know, how they communicate and how they treat other humans. Each local group develops' stories, beliefs and rules. Collections of local groups with special beliefs into larger organizations are often described as religion. Religions often claim special privileges for their members so that the term 'religious' is used to claim advantages and superior moral authority where none actually exists.
The task of the 21st century religion is to update our descriptions of ourselves to accommodate burgeoning scientific knowledge and an increasingly sophisticated understanding of human behaviour, the brain and complex systems in general and have new and revolutionary knowledge about human beings, their languages, arts and culture; about information gathering, storage and retrieval; about computation, communication; about the transformation of energy and materials; about molecular biology, genetics and the evolution of life on earth. |
