this post was submitted on 21 Jun 2024
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For the same reasons they always have.
The year has little to do with it. The only things we've really undeniably progressed in over the past century are scientific knowledge and the level of technology. Existential philosophy hasn't exactly made breakthroughs recently, to my knowledge.
Each person still needs to find their own answer to the fundamental questions of "why am I here" and "wtf is death and how do I deal with it".
Our mechanical, scientific understanding of reality provides fairly depressing answers to these questions. Religion? Sunshine and roses.
Also, on a more practical factor: childhood indoctrination and cultural inertia. Most people are raised in religion and they find it "good enough", so religion continues.
The irony. Why exactly does the entire world accept the current year as being 2024? What are we 2024 years away from?
For the same sort of reasons there are (generally) 12 months in a year and there are 7 days on a calendar, and for the same reason that "John" is a name, and why London is placed where it is, and etc?
Because some dudes decided some stuff, and some other dudes decided some stuff influenced like that, and so on. And some stuff got changed, and some stuff was inconvenient to change or there was no real reason to change it.
The year is ironic in the exact context you quoted I guess. But the days of the week and many months were named for other mythologies.
What I was actually saying is that the same reasons for belief apply whether it's 2000 BCE or 4000 CE. Humans remain human, and religion fills an inherent need.
There's other religions than Christianity - large ones - that do not consider the birth of Christ as particularly meaningful. The fact that we're using it as a point of reference is meaningful - the Christian religion has been very influential - but it is hardly some grand irony you seem to imply.