[werbel]

I suggest watching following video of Neil deGrasse Tyson: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joARXZagTuM

It opens with following conclusion: There were only 3 bottom-level motivators where it comes to achieving grand things in human history: * Survival * Wealth * Praise of deity

There are things people still do that span generations to satisfy the first 2 drivers (like Norway being cautious about its oil reserves or overall push towards clean energy and mitigating climate change, China's investment in its own and Africa's infrastructure).

People simply got smart enough not to throw monumental amount of effort and resources to please a deity. Of course that's a massive simplification as then there's a question if the organisation that "wrote the check" really did that purely because of the spiritual beliefs of their own or their people.

[mcv]

Though religion has certainly been in decline, people still build great things for religious reasons. The Sagrada Familia is the most obvious example.

But there have also been great things achieved for other reasons, like the moon landings or the ISS. Is that survival? Wealth? Or does it count as something we believe in?

[werbel]

You're right. I should've put "For the most part" before the last paragraph.

When it comes to the moon landing or the ISS... Of course you can say that's because we're explorers. The moon landing was pure survival (don't let the commies win), ISS is research and maybe the researchers put in the effort for a sense of discovery but the money comes from governments and it flows mostly because of a promise of economic or military advancement.

I'm not a cynic in that regard. I love the architecture of religious monuments, I love the fact that we as a species achieved magnificent things like reaching the moon or discovering how black holes work. You can appreciate all of that without kidding yourself about where the money comes from.