I am interested in web links that provide different theories on the
status of "god" in a distant future (say 5000+ years later) when
humans may have (will they?) achieved many of the abilities (like,
say, every imaginable comfort, super human abilities, practical
immortality) that we seek god's help in today's world.

Though I have categorized this under religion for lack of a better
category, I would prefer more of sites with objective
imagination/analysis as against those that espouse a certain religious
faith (however, not to exclude any extrapolation based on existing
religious faiths).

Thanks in advance.

A really brilliant question, I'll enjoy looking out for a possible answer.

Thanks for the compliment.

I look forward to your answer.

Would prefer less than 10 (most relevant) links with a line of comment
on what to expect in a given link.

Thanks again.

The belief in the supernatural, the concept of an afterlife, is a way
for people to reconcile two distinctly contradictory facets of being
human. First, being animals (albeit intelligent) we are in a very
large part governed by our first instinct, that of self preservation.
Second, since we are intelligent we realize that all animals die, so,
we must too. The belief in an afterlife for us and all of it's
ramifications, a god, a place for that god to live -heaven- a counter
god and his dwelling etc (all together a religion) is simply a way to
reconcile by explanation this two opposing traits of our humanity, you
see, we die but not really.

The concept of religion was the greatest leap forward for mankind
ever. It was a valiant attempt at explaining our surroundings,
ourselves and reconciling our intellect with our instincts, the best
our primitive ancestors could came up with. It has an incredible
mental leap for them, considering they were animals not too long
before they started believing in an afterlife. Today we have explained
most of our surroundings and we are educated, yet some of us choose to
believe in an afterlife via their religion because it is something
they are confortable with and most are simply not willing to face
reality. However in time our society will be educated enough and most
importantly mature enough to be willing to face reality and relegate
the belief in the supernatural to that of their primitive ancestors
(us). I imagine they will view us and our beliefs in an afterlife much
in the same way we view our ancestors who believed the wind, fire and
lightning were all manifestations of Gods, or the ones that were a
little more educated and believed that the Sun and the planets were
Gods, or the ones that were a little more educated and believed that
God is an invisible Flying Spaghetti Monster... ohh no wait that is
us...   ;-)

If we continue our technological pace forward religion will be
history, if instead we move backwards and teach our children to
believe in the supernatural then religions such as Voodoo,
Christianity, Wican and many more will be around in one form or
another.

Just my opinion, 

Elí

You might be interested in a collection of science fiction stories
called "Perpetual Light," edited by Alan Ryan.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00005WLQO

Here's a nice list of science fiction works which deal with religion:

http://www.adherents.com/lit/sf_rel.html

Why would our view of God need to change?  Isn?t God unchangeable? 
Perhaps our needs from him would change, but God would not need to.

It sounds to me like in 5000+ years the human race could have some
characteristics that are closer to God?s, but we will not be perfect. 
Will pain and suffering be gone?  Will there still be crime?  Will
everyone be equal?  Will children need to be raised?  If not I think
many prayers spoken today could easily be spoken 5000 years from now.

If the future turns out to be a much more utopian society we would be
thanking God a lot more than we do now.  Could we exist in a society
where everyone?s worth was the same?

elids-ga,

I am more interested in god than religion. Religions have much smaller
lifespan than concept of god. There are many amongst who are agnostic
or even theistic (without believing in a particular god projected by a
particular religion).

pinkfreud-ga,

Thanks for the interesting link. I will look into it. 

joatman71-ga,

Good opinion. Your opinion belongs in one school of thought. What I am
looking at is for many such opinions that are more elaborately
discussed and more vivdly illustrated.

Jesus said in John 3.3 "unless you are reborn spiritualy you cannot SEE?"
This means you cannot understand God in any way, and you cannot enter
the Kingdom of God, without being Born again spiritualy. Man was
seperated spiritualy from God in the garden through SIN, this is what
keeps you in the dark spiritualy, you cannot have knowledge without
Gods enlightenment. Seeing Yahshua, Jesus for who he is God incarnett,
who made himself sin for you and me, showing His love for this fallen
world. Repent of all your sins,turn from sin beleiveing on Him for
forgiveness, and you will be (saved) and SEE!May God take
the scales from you eyes.Mark

fisherofmen-ga:

Your kind of response I can do without. Which is why I added
"those that espouse a certain religious faith"
in my question. 

FYI, I can't care less about what Christ said to John

I am not seeking god. Only theories of him. Again not of the present
but of the future.

I suppose that's why I found this such a brilliant question,
nhsrikanth-ga, your desire to know what man's idea of God will be in
+/- 5000 years time extends roughly equally far into the future, as
the length of recorded history is behind us.
I must confess to having no special knowledge of theology and the only
theologians I have personally known were both uncles of mine, both
Ministers in the church. Like almost all theologians, I must assume,
both were only interested in theological events of the past.
On the whole, and with few notable exceptions, I would tend to agree
with the remarks made by Pinkfreud. I also believe that the kind of
thinking that would interest you is mainly done by science fiction
authors.
The exceptions are nonetheless not to be ignored. Firstly I would
mention someone you have certainly already heard of: Pierre Teilhard
de Chardin:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pierre_Teilhard_de_Chardin
His book, "Le Phénomène Humain", published only after his death, by
decree of the Catholic Church, is a remarkable document in every
respect.
Secondly, the book "The Anthropic Cosmological Principle", written by
John D,Barrow and Frank J.Tipler (ISBN 0-19-851949-4) casts a
mathematically scientific eye on the question and arrives at
conclusions remarkably similar to Teilhard de Chardin. Further
information on Barrow is available at:
http://www.isepp.org/Pages/03-04%20Pages/Barrow.html
and Tipler has his own website at:
http://www.math.tulane.edu/~tipler/theologian.html 
Now that we are halfway between the dawn of recorded history and the
period of interest to you, I can only agree that theologians should
spend more time on questions such as this. After all,by now we should
all know how many angels can reasonably be expected to dance on the
head of a pin!!  ?

Lots of good opinions. But what does the Bible say. The very basis of
our belief. Revelation 16;14,16 "14 They are, in fact, expressions
inspired by demons and perform signs, and they go forth to the kings
of the entire inhabited earth, to gather them together to the war of
the great day of God the Almighty". 16 And they gathered them together
to the place that is called in Hebrew Har?Ma·ged´on". God will wage
war with the governments of the earth.
Satan, the cause of all our troubles [Rev. 12;7-9,12 "7 And war broke
out in heaven: Mi´cha·el and his angels battled with the dragon, and
the dragon and its angels battled 8 but it did not prevail, neither
was a place found for them any longer in heaven. 9 So down the great
dragon was hurled, the original serpent, the one called Devil and
Satan, who is misleading the entire inhabited earth; he was hurled
down to the earth, and his angels were hurled down with him
. 12 On this account be glad, YOU heavens and YOU who reside in them!
Woe for the earth and for the sea, because the Devil has come down to
YOU, having great anger, knowing he has a short period of time.?
Then Jesus, with God's approval, steps in and locks up Satan for a
thousand years, ridding the earth of his evil influence. Rev. 20;1-3
"20 And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven with the key of the
abyss and a great chain in his hand. 2 And he seized the dragon, the
original serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a
thousand years. 3 And he hurled him into the abyss and shut [it] and
sealed [it] over him, that he might not mislead the nations anymore
until the thousand years were ended. After these things he must be let
loose for a little while".
While satn is locked up, 'abyssed', those righteous ones remaining on
the earth, can grow to perfection and also work to bring the earth
back into perfection also [ Psalm 72;16 There will come to be plenty
of grain on the earth;
On the top of the mountains there will be an overflow]
At the end of the thousand years, Satan will be 'let loose for a
little while' [ Rev.20;3 cited] as one last final test of peoples
loyalty to God.
And then God destroys Satan forever [ Rev 20;10 And the Devil who was
misleading them was hurled into the lake of fire and sulphur, where
both the wild beast and the false prophet [already were]; and they
will be tormented day and night forever and ever. ]
The 'wild beast' and the 'false prophet' are worldly governments and
false religion.
Organisations as such cannot suffer pain, so the torment must be to be
nullified, made non-operational. And we know how governments love
that!.
Real TORMENT.
sO WHERE ARE THE REMAINING RIGHTEOUS ONES?. 
They were promised that death and suffering will be done away with
[Rev. 21;4 And he will wipe out every tear from their eyes, and death
will be no more, neither will mourning nor outcry nor pain be anymore.
The former things have passed away.?
They are described in Psalms 37;9-11, 29 & 34 [  9 For evildoers
themselves will be cut off,
But those hoping in Jehovah are the ones that will possess the earth.
11 But the meek ones themselves will possess the earth,
And they will indeed find their exquisite delight in the abundance of peace
29 The righteous themselves will possess the earth,
And they will reside forever upon it. 
34 Hope in Jehovah and keep his way,
And he will exalt you to take possession of the earth.
When the wicked ones are cut off, you will see [it].
Without death, people will then live forever.
And it will all take place within a short time from now.

boyo62-ga:

Right on. You have exactly understood my question, an understanding
which seem to elude fisherofmen-ga and pugwashjw-ga.

Your reference to Pierre Teilhard de Chardin is interesting and is
exactly how curent beliefs could be extraploated.

I will be visiting the other two links as well, which are promising,
after I browse through Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and his work.

What I want is more of the same (but different schools of thought) if
you can afford the time. In any case, go ahead and present it as
answer so that I could compensate your efforts.

nhsrikanth-ga: Sorry for the misunderstanding but I'm not a GA
researcher, just an interested reader of Google Answers. The comment I
made was not the result of any search work but rather the product of
quite a bit of general reading, spread over the years. Which is the
reason why I can't promise any additions, I'm sorry to say. Anyway,
may I wish you every success in what looks like becoming an
interesting quest!.

pugwashjw-ga,

I re-read your comment and I apologize for lumping you with
fisherofmen-ga. Yours is a lot more relevant than his comment in that
it deals with future and god had predicted the future of mankind would
be.

Still, I am interested in what would be "human-kind's" concept of god
in future and not in what god is supposed to have said would happen to
humans in future (unless of course, you offer bible as a document that
a bunch of humans concocted from what they believe to be god's word -
which, I presume, based on your fervent belief, is not what you
consider bible to be).

boyo62-ga:

Thanks for your generous help in my quest.

Thanks for the apology. But further to what I have already posted. You
will note that none of it is of my own estimation. It is there in the
Bible for anyone to read. It is not based on "feelgood" emotions. It
is really ' nuts and bolts'. Jesus said that anyone who is not with
him is against him and wuill be scattered. [ Matthew 12;30 & Luke
11;23]. When God instals his new system, EVERYONE left on the earth
will really KNOW about Him and OBEY Him. Those choosing NOT to do so
will be simply destroyed. Revelation 21;8 But as for the cowards and
those without faith and those who are disgusting in their filth and
murderers and fornicators and those practicing spiritism and idolaters
and all the liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with
fire and sulphur. This means the second death.?
To specifically answer your query. human-kind's view of God will be
loving obedience to His peaceful ways, without any outside evil
influence, either from Satan or any persons not prepared to obey.
Certainly a different world to what we see today. Isaiah 9;. 7 To the
abundance of the princely rule and to peace there will be no end, upon
the throne of David and upon his kingdom in order to establish it
firmly and to sustain it by means of justice and by means of
righteousness, from now on and to time indefinite. The very zeal of
Jehovah of armies will do this.
This certainly is in the future. "And to peace there will be NO END

Thanks for your follow up pugwashjw-ga. I will file that under
Biblical school of thought.

"Those choosing NOT to do so will be simply destroyed. Revelation 21;8
But as for the cowards and those without faith and those who are
disgusting in their filth and murderers and fornicators and those
practicing spiritism and idolaters
and all the liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with
fire and sulphur."

"human-kind's view of God will be loving obedience to His peaceful
ways, without any outside evil influence, either from Satan or any
persons not prepared to obey. Certainly a different world to what we
see today."

I don't know which of the two is more scary. Being floatsam in a lava
river or being a god's pet puppy for eternity.

Back again. the 'Lake of fire', is not literal in this sense. It just
means complete destruction, or doing away with, no no trace is left.
If you did fall into a stream of lava, literally, there would be
nothing to recover, or even indicate you had even fallen in. The
concept is based on the burning pit outside the walls of Jerusalem
that was kept continually burning for the disposal of dead animal
carcasses and even the bodies of executed criminals. That it is not a
literal scenario is shown by Revelation 20;14,15 [ . 14 And death and
Ha´des were hurled into the lake of fire. This means the second death,
the lake of fire. 15 Furthermore, whoever was not found written in the
book of life was hurled into the lake of fire". Death and Hades are
conditions. Verse 15 specifies people. Conditions cannot experience
anything, but they can be eliminated. So too can people. Simply
eliminated.

There are many biblical arguments here...but the bible (and more so,
it's interpretation/translation) has changed VERY drastically with
time.  As is I question its accuracy, in another 5000 years I see it
as being any bit as credible as a collection of fairy tales.  One
interesting question, though, is 'will people still follow it
word-for-word'?  Even now the bible is being cited to (ironicaaly)
both support and oppose modern developments that could not possibly
have been considered in the time of it's creation.  Even if God knew
the path humanity would take and included references to this future
within the bible, I would assume interpretation would have lost any
meaning.

That tangent aside, my opinion is that major religions don't have much
of a future left.  Globalization no longer allows religion to thrive
as it once did in areas untouched by conflicting theories of a
creator.  Religious law is being frowned on by the global community,
and seems to be in recession.  There is an argument that in the future
(I can't find the estimated date) the majority of people in the world
will be multiracial.  Religion will see a major change as a result of
this.

I think in the end religion will lose its meaning.  I don't see this
taking 5000 years to happen, either; perhaps in as little as a few
centuries.  Religion and culture, as always, will go hand in hand. 
People will continue to celebrate holidays and make references to
'god' in their speech, but formal practice of religion is already in a
very noticable decline.  Consider the days when athiesm was a crime,
and working on Sabbath was unthinkable...any religious rule that
becomes inconvienient is dropped.  People don't rely on God as heavily
anymore, either.  Since the discovery of modern medicine people have
realized that prayers don't have nearly the healing power of a good
drug, or a well-performed surgery.  Science is giving people the
answers religion used to be looked to for (and is contradicting many
biblical 'truths' along the way).

I doubt that feeling that there must be a greater cause, or that there
is a hand guiding fate will ever leave the human mind.  It helps us
see ourselves as something more than a speck on a rock in an
unimaginably large universe.  The more we learn about the scale of the
universe, the more I cling to the thought that theres a purpose to it
all.  Formalized religion may simply be replaced by personal
philisophy.

-Fractl

This is 100% speculation, of course...for all I know Zeus himself will
compete in the 2006 Olympics and make everyone a beleiver.

fractl-ga:

My personal thinking is pretty close to yours. Which is why I sought
to make a distinction between "god" and "religion".

"I doubt that feeling that there must be a greater cause, or that there
is a hand guiding fate will ever leave the human mind.  It helps us
see ourselves as something more than a speck on a rock in an
unimaginably large universe."

Very probable. 

In such scenario, what would be the capabilities associated with the
guiding force ? Does the perceived capability of god change with
capability of humans ?

Also, What guidance we may seek from god, in the future, when the
knowledgebase of humans could be considerable in itself.

You might enjoy this old joke:

http://www.wilk4.com/humor/humorm373.htm

Great joke, Pink ;)

From a non-believer's viewpoint it makes a good metaphor of the Bible
-- a culture's creation to give life to its God.

I like Fractl's comment, mostly agree with it. However, I actually
tend to imagine that in the future, people will rather reconcile with
the idea of being just "a speck on a rock".

I see human kind as an animal that long ago developed ingenuity as an
adaptive resource for survival. Eventually, ingenuity developed into
consciousness and our ancestors faced our constituent vulnerability,
our loneliness, the innumerable mysteries surrounding our existence,
the fact of our death. Out of that anguish, religion and the idea of
god emerged as the shelter to protect themselves from it.

In time, humans began to build other shelters that little by little
replaced religion - medicine, science, philosophy as Fractl pointed
out very well. It was hard to learn that the universe doesn't actually
turn around us. It's being hard right now to understand that we may
spoil the biosphere so that it won't keep us alive -- while some
ecosystem would probably remain even though unsuitable for us. It will
still be hard to go along with the idea of being just a tiny particle
within a huge existence, and also a huge existence made of
infinitesimal particles. So I imagine that as we reconcile with that
idea, religion will be replaced by the hope of reaching a total
knowledge through science. Then eventually - I guess - future mankind
(if there'll be such) will end by understanding that the whole
existence is just too huge for a complete knowledge and will accept
that there'll always be more mystery than certitude. And that mystery,
our acceptance of it, will be the closest that will remain in the
future to what once was God and religion.

Of course, as Fractl said, this is also 100% speculation. I've heard
from a reliable source that Odin has decided to challenge Zeus in the
Olympics and the loser will invite us all to a barbecue either at the
Olympus or Valhalla ;)

Can Baal join the competition, Guillermo?  (I have recently been
rehearsing Mendelssohn's "Elias".  It has a great chorus for the
bystanders.)
If it is going to be a test of fire-making, I have my money on Thor.  ;)
Myoarin

I doubt fire-making is an Olympic sport (but hey, if they have curling why not?)
Perhaps Thor could get into the opening ceremony at some point, but
fire and winter olympics may not mix well.  Who invited the
Norse/Egyptian gods to the Olympics anyhow?

Zeus did.  As the president of the original Olympic Committee, under a
"grandfather clause" in the rules  - which no one ever thought would
be invoked -   he may invite worthy non-members and define new sports
disciplines, like that beauty contest which Paris judged.  But, as you
know, one of the girls cheated, so for a very long time there were no
more female events.

But seriously, I think Nhsrikanth raised a very interesting question,
and I especially enjoyed Fratl's comment  - quite my own opinion, and
better expressed.
Myoarin

Following my belief, founded on the Christian Bible, I'd quote one
very characteristic verse about God: "...the same yesterday, and to
day, and for ever" (Heb. 13.8). Of course, while he reacts the same
way, will always have the same opinions and behavior as before, 5000
years we'll see a different world... and who knows, by that time,
we'll have a more established and tangible world relationship with
Him.

But I'd leave the really good theories to the sci-fi writers...

Interesting question...However it is premised on a false assumption
that you are asking about mans relationship to God.

99% of people's idea of God is a false one, created by non-believers
to decieve and manipualte people, what Marx called the 'opium of the
masses'. Most religions texts actually speak of this state as being a
sign of the end times...

Okay, so if you have a correct understanding of God as the Absolute,
inifinte and eternal that means man's relationship with God would be
the same as it was in the dawn of religion. Thus even in 5000 years
time and indeed 20,000 years time the problematic would remain. That
is we are finite temporal 'beings' and therefore can never experince
the infinte etneral 'Being' in an empirical or intellectual sense.
Thus we will still have a philosophical and religous character to our
existance, probably more so as I would expect false religion might
well be gone...More fundementall religion teaches us that we can
experince God in the religous sense (the sacred now, satori, etc)
through mediation, devotional pray, etc...

What is holding us back is the worhsip of Mammon (Capitalism - Money
and Power). Persumbly in this 5,000 year future Marx's prediction of
revolution would of become true, which means as Nietzsche declared the
false 'god is dead' and the Ubermensch (Jesus) would of emerged. (The
revolution of materiality is co-dependent on a revolution of
consciouness). Man would be free from false consciousness produced by
bourgoise control of the means of production and therefore able to
become one with God....Excatly as predicted in the Book of
Revelations...

Until that time false gods would remain in abudance. Some people will
worship 'a man in the sky', who they think listens to thier prays for
more money and will speak of gods will...others will pray at the alter
of money, worship celebrities and speak of market forces...others
still will merge both into one religion and call themselves the
Christain Right.

So unfortuantly the nature of True religion will not have changed
therefore making a boring hypothesis. SO the only issue is wether
people still worship false gods are the One True God, which is to be
found in ever religion.

Actually that could make a good basis of a story. The very struggle of
enlightened people against the false religions to bring God to the
people despite the persecution that they face adn the false
consciouness of those people...

There are quite a few people who are under the impression they're living that story.

I don't know what brought this question back to the top of the deck,
but I'll take the opportunity to say that I think Fractl's last
comment is very insightful.

boyo62-ga :

Your referred author John Barrow won the Templeton award for his work.

Thanks again for your superb contributions to my question.