Religion, Evolving

LAST SUNDAY I attended church at the little Presbyterian church in the woods with a congregation of about ten. Mainly, because I had a ride, a friend, the organist and his wife, willing to come by and pick me up. Avoiding driving is a big factor for me. I would attend the Unitarian church every Sunday if it were less than a mile from my house, rather than twenty. Its not that I have some horible phobia about driving or anything like that, its just that, all things considered, I try to avoid it.I have never,even when I was a teenager, enjoyed driving much, except when I am going somewhere incredible or exciting, which, alas, I rarely seem to be. I have always enjoyed riding around in the country, but not driving. The little Presbyterian church is full of good friends of mine, and the minister, a good friend of mine, preaches a good message, the true Christian message it seems to me, of love, forgiveness, and giving. Besides, since this little rural church has actually existed for more than two hundred years, the church building is a historical landmark, my attending is an important contribution; they need every congregant they can get, for at current trends, they risk becoming extinct. In four more years, in 2028, the church will, assuming it still exists, mark its two hundredth year in continuous operation, and it would be a shame it it failed to survive until then. I keep wondering how much longer th Christian religion, or for that matter any religion, religion in general, can and will continue to exist onplanetEarth as a fundamental component of human culture and civilization. And perhaps the grandest question of all; what aobut intelligent beings on other planets all across the universe? To me, it makes much more sense to assume that they probably exist,than to assume that they do not. Indeed life in the universe may be vanishingly rare, or, it may be common, but we know that it exists, here, if nowhere else. And yes, despite our apparent imminent self destruction as a species, we humans most certainly qualify as "intelligent", even if our level of intelligence is far below that of other species, which one must assume it might well be. Especially now that we know that the univese is filled with trillions of Earth-like planets, it seems more certain than ever that we humans are not only not alone in the universe, but that there are probably many species more intelligent and more advanced culturally than we. Other factors indicate a universe with abundant life; organic chemical compounds we now believe are far less rare, and far more likely to appear often throughout the cosmos. One wonders whether beings on other planets invent religion, as we humans did. In other words, do they formalize and ritualize their response to life, as we do? I tend to believe that over teh next few centuries, assuming humans still exist, that religion will fade away,and ultimately out of existence. Or, if not that,then the ancient religions will either evolve greatly, as they have always done, or die out and be replaced with new forms of religion more reflective of our advancing knowledge of the universe. I almost feel as if I would like to reach into the far human future, learn about our descendants religious beliefs, and perhaps adopt them. Quite likely they will be considerably different from ours today, but still recognizeable. What I like about the Uniterian church is that they seem to accept everybody, no matter what they believe. And since we really are still not sure precisely what to believe, myabe its best that way.