I was thinking today about how badly dogma can age. You can change the language the dogma is expressed in, you can modernize the interpretation, but what you still get is dead dogma. I wondered if for that reason, would religion itself have an expiration date? You know the day that either all the followers have died, and no one has replaced them, or the religion is only practiced in one tiny corner of the world. I had a hard time imagining that for religion overall, really, since mortality has a tendency to make humans spiritual, with the whole big after-death trip. Maybe the old style of worship, in one particular way, usually the most hierarchical and dogmatic is stamped with a date.
What one could consider old-school Judiasm had an expiration date. But loosing the Temple in Jerusalem had alot to do with that. I mean, how much of the Torah seems to be devoted to animal sacrifice needed to appease God. The Jews got dispersed, and now, no animal sacrifice. And no side worship of other gods, either. Reading the Jewish prophets made this clear to me, since it seemed like each mouth-of-God came out from the wilderness to lay into the Hebrews for making side bets with foreign gods, and making altars to the old nature gods. The Hebrews would usually not listen, God would smote the Jews with some disaster, and they'd fall in line until they needed the next prophet. Even post-Diaspora Judiasm is no longer the whole of the religion, like how there was really only "The Church" for Christians. Mostly Jews did this because they wanted to drive for business on Saturdays, but only after services, of course. And the traditional ends up as "Orthodox," but then again, even middle-of-the-road Jews are "Conservative."
So I guess I should be comforted that I believe one day fundamental Christianity, with a zealous need for literalism, that has made it more conservative than the prior practice it replaced (even if it did away with guys in funny hats feeding crackers and juice,) will hit that expiration date to become the curdled cottage cheese of faith. I can't deny that some of the Christian sects seem to be getting the lesson of the Jews: Be religious as all heck, but change with the times. The Lutheran wedding that I attended in Spokane was officiated by a woman priest. Other major sects, like the Presbyterians and the Episcopalians, are modernizing, allowing for alternative lifestyles and looser canon. Hell, the birthplace of the Inquisition, just gave the razz to the Catholic Church and gave same-sex marriage equal rights before the law. The recipe for keeping alive seems to be add modernism, influence of other faiths, and social growth, then whip into a thick frothing goo, and pour into the symbolic icon mold. Break the old mold before serving.
Maybe there will be a time when religion is no longer practiced in humanity, but that won't be because we gave up religion, but hopefully because we accepted unity.