Religion

With Einstein, I say I believe in the God of Spinoza. One that expresses itself through nature. Rather than being an atheist he preferred to maintain "an attitude of humility corresponding to the weakness of our intellectual understanding of nature and of our own being." That is, he was agnostic.
But we have stopped listening to the messages. We now have the knowledge, we don't need the messages. Because of our attitude (greed/lack of humility) bad things are going to happen. 

What is sin then?
According to Darwin (who was also agnostic) "If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin."
If there was anybody who was going to suffer because of what our institutions are unleashing, it is the poor. Bangladesh (sea level rise), India and Pakistan (thermogeddon), farmers (climate changes), the cities poor (food shortages), South America (glacial melt) etc etc.
I do not believe the momentum that has been established can be diverted sufficiently to avert a major catastrophy. However, I do not believe all is lost. There is scope for redemption. 

As Darwin said "In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed." The challenge we face, as those who foresee the bleak future, is whether we can proactively prepare. 
Collectively we need to start thinking about ways in which the worst case (total anarchy) can be avoided. Localized anarchy will happen, but the longer it goes on the more difficult it will be to bring on the process of healing. 

Again, from Einstein "We cannot solve a problem by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." Don't be hostile to the church. We have the intellectual understanding, but they have the hearts of the masses and the infrastructure. By the time things get really bad much of the religious froth will be blown from the cup. What really matters is what is left. For some that will be despair and emptiness, for others they will find that their cup still runneth over.

I have a wonderful relationship with God, but it exists outside the limited confines of a particular doctrine. Religious expression is fundamental in fact, it may just prevent the complete collapse of civilization.

See here as to the "apparent" reason churches are failing... http://pastors.com/autopsy-deceased-church-11-signs-doom/?utm_content=buffer8b828&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer
They deleted my post so here it is:
.. the reason churches are going to fail is that they are failing their mandate. The points you have raised are all about management and money. The only point that even came close, was there was no attempt to reach the community. I think that could have been supplemented with "by evangelizing", and the purpose there? To convert and bring in more people and therefore more money to avoid bankruptcy. The church has become no different to the money changers.
What does God actually ask for;
"For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink" 
"Whoever gives to the poor will not want"
"If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?"
"Whoever has two tunics is to share with him who has none, and whoever has food is to do likewise."
"if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; ..."
Obviously there are more, I don't need to go on.
The church was successful from the 60s to the 90s only because America was. It was not because it had any special blessing. America was successful because of natural resources and global politics. The tide is turning. A flood is coming and as God is my witness, the church will be useless to provide for the poor and needy.
If the ministers were so holy then they would be prophetically seeing that society and the environment is collapsing. Some members are even actively supporting those that would hasten its demise. 
Makes me sick.
A human tide of misery, the likes of which has never been seen before in the history of mankind is advancing towards us, and it seems nobody has a clue. The churches should be moving to meet the real physical needs of millions of people, but instead it is focused on moving speeches, wonderful music and the collection plate.
We need to work out a method for producing food, providing community and keeping shelter from the elements.

List of the wealthiest pastors
http://nehandaradio.com/2014/01/07/list-of-the-richest-pastors-worldwide/
How they do it
http://www.cultwatch.com/howpastorsgetrich.html
It is simple, so simple that the land of the scammers (Nigeria) now boasts 5 ministers with a combined income of $235 million. All you have to do is be charismatic, parrot out the bible, and fake some healings.
http://www.gbooza.com/forum/topics/top-five-richest-nigerian-church-ministers#axzz32b9Zb5ca
What it is like to live like them
http://www.gospelassemblyfree.com/facts/falseprophets.htm
Joyce Meyer donates $800,000 per month to charities. Impressive, but pitiful compared to the $8,000,000 per month she brings in. And that money that went to charity ... a tax write-off.

Seems like I am broadly attacking the Christian churches here, but that is not really the intention. There are churches that do wonderful things, and have improved the lives of millions. But a few western churches have access to a great deal of money, but they are giving lip service to their grand deeds, while giving cash for Lear jets. The same accusations can, and have been justily leveled at other institutions. However, it would be fair to say that western churches have had access to incredible wealth inaccessible to others, and they squandered it. The opportunity has been lost, the tide is turning and there will be no safety net.

Humans have the ability to change their traits. The Tibetans were once a warring tribe until a new philosophy changed their view. Humans are unique in that our proportionally big brains are big for learning. If you fill them full of crap, then crap you get out.

What has lead us to the state of near self-annihilation?
Boiling it down we have 2 problems, the first is that we optimized production and logistics, that gave rise to the loss of a self-regulating population control (the second).
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.2164-0947.1970.tb02058.x/abstract
If the logistics systems had been throttled in such a way that a population could only get the food necessary to maintain its numbers the problems would never have arisen.
However, then it gives rise to a 3rd problem. Human control of emotion. Nobody wants to see people poor or starving, and when people are willing to pay for a commodity it gives rise to greed.
Perhaps that is why we optimized production in the first place, greed and pity. So perhaps it is emotion and attachment that is at the heart of the problem with humanity.