I see. Feel free to elaborate :)

Hi Steephie, well first we'd need to define religion. But assuming that it's a broad term that encompasses a wide range of beliefs in the supernatural, you're probably going to want to narrow that down to organized religion/demographics. In Europe, the trend is obvious: fewer and fewer people attending church, and people have freedom of religion as long as they don't expect to be able to wear a visible crucifix to school in France, for example, or to cover their faces, or homeschool in Germany or Sweden, just to name a few. In Canada, as I understand it, freedom of expression is being limited to only what is politically correct--pastors are no longer able to preach against gay marriage from the Bible passages against it because it has now been redefined as "hate speech." In the U.S., there is a move by some to push religion back behind church walls and into the privacy of the home by the "freedom-from-religion" atheists, and that has gained some traction. In some traditionally Moslem countries, Christian missionaries are now being permitted, but in most, sharing the Christian gospel is officially a crime and unofficially can get you the death penalty. In Saudi Arabia, some Christians who have held home churches have been set up by the religious police, injected with drugs like heroin, had drugs planted in their homes, and been beaten and imprisoned. Some have even died. In China, religion is permitted as long as it's officially sanctioned--which means the government appoints the pastor/priest/bishop etc. There is a whole underground Catholic church, for example, with priests and bishops ordained by the Vatican, while the official priests and bishops were installed by the government. And I'm just getting started! lol

The issue is so wide that you can't possibly get any true and objective opinion on this matter. First decide what results you are interested in finding - and then the essey should become clearer.

I'm definitely no specialist on the matter, but I would consider contrasting cosmopolitan cities and hubs, with more regional, local areas.
The former seem, in my experience, to be attracting people with milder religious views from all around the world. Travelling people are generally more open-minded, and add to that the mingling, and the newer generations, and we're probably going towards a "loss" of religiousness.
On the other hand, I believe, more regional areas could be on a track of returning to more traditional and conservative values. I'm thinking here as much on the political (see far right in Europe), nationalistic feeling, than the religious level. I'm not saying we'll see a religious radicalisation everywhere outside megalopolises, but it would be a pattern I would explore.

Less and less people are religious, but more are becoming 'spiritual' in the west lmao. They basically just adopt a feel-good, responsibility-free attitude, and call themselves 'spiritual'.

http://i0.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/013/034/yeahsciencebitch.PNG

A lot of churches have been sold off on Canada in the last generation.

One trend I noticed is that churches that concentrate on being politically correct, inclusive, and trendy have lost membership in the last generation. You only have to look at these forums to see that there are only so many people that appeals to. Ones that have focused on creating a community, having exciting, motivational sermons, etc. have grown quite a bit, although they are still smaller than the mainline churches. These are the evangelicals, mainly.

As ILN mentioned, vague humanism is growing. Militant atheists who consider all religion evil and are religiously trying to push out all visible signs and influence of religion are growing as well.

There used to be comparisons made with the fall of Rome and the decline of religion back then, and then comparing that to modern times "and its eventual fall and decline". But, that comparison has been made over the last hundred years and, if research was probably done, probably over the last thousand.

Hmm... Thanks for the effort, and I did get some inspiration, but I need a bit more...

Hold on, I'll find the exact assignment and translate it to give a better idea.

As for the conclusion, well, I was thinking something like:
"I'm deeply religious, and I believe in atheism."

The explanation would be that I'm quite occupied with 'supernatural' stuff but that I believe that it's best for the world to believe that they are solely responsible for their life, instead of going to war in God's name for example.

So, loosely translated assignment:

"Write an article about the future of religion(s). Does 'believing' have a future? Do organised religions have a future? Do you see a certain direction in which religion is developing? Do you embrace that development? Don't just say something but use clear arguments.

Your article has the following setup:
Of course you put a fitting title at the top.
a. Introduction, in which you briefly explain your title and say what you want to write in the article (/what you want to focus on in the article).
b. Main part in which you explain/elaborate on your thoughts. Work in the following scheme:
Past: How have the religions developed?
Present: What is it like now?
Future: Where is it going according to you?

c. Own opinion and wrap-up (literally) /conclusion (most likely what he means).

Size: 200 words. (I know I know, that's not much. It's not the complete test or anything, but it's a significant part of that specific test. Don't worry, I have harder stuff to do in the coming 5 days (test week), but I'm just stuck right now even though this shouldn't be that hard, so I need a little help getting started, or if someone feels like writing 200 words for me that's fine too :P)

So thanks for any and all help :)

Anyone? I'm in desperate need of inspiration...

Any example I can use that supports my opinion?

Title: A new rift in religious belief

Intro:
1- Quick generalities about religion, always been there, slowly evolved, blah blah
2- Context: Impact of modern times and globalisation quickened pace of evolution
3- The question of your essay: Can we not talk about a rift between old religions and a new emerging view?

Main:
1- Past: world divided between the couple of big religions (see Wikipedia =))
2- Present (and near past): globalisation of ideas
2.1- Radicalisation (see Theo's post)
2.2- On the other hand, the cosmopolitan effect (see my post)
2.3- linking on from that, the emergence of a new spirituality/humanism (see ILN's post)
3- A rift between the world-oriented perspective of globalised spiritualism versus the isolationist autharchistic view of radicalised religion

Conclusion:
Answer the question in Intro 3- with Yes! Then, what you've said above on your point of view, stating that the globalised spiritualism is better than the radicalised religion for the general good.

The 3- in the main is obviously missing the label "Future according to me:"

Thank you, sir. I was about to give up, I might even have prayed if I thought it would help :)

I'm just thinking about what exactly to say in the first main part... Perhaps just some stuff about Christianity, Islam, Romans, Crusades, Jihads...

I'll figure it out though. Thanks for giving me inspiration.

Yes, maybe statistics, and probably something about the Asian big religions too. And the spread of European influence on the back of economic and military power.
But 200 words is challengingly short! In the intro, every point is 1 or 2 sentence, in the main, a very small paragraph.

Fair point. I'll survive that :)