Decline of Christianity and Religion

[Clara Tea]

why do you suppose christianity is on the decline? evidently religion is on the decline altogether.


a pew research poll shows christianity down 12% from a decade ago.


Christians continue to make up a majority of the U.S. populace, but their share of the adult population is 12 points lower in 2021 than it was in 2011. In addition, the share of U.S. adults who say they pray on a daily basis has been trending downward, as has the share who say religion is “very important” in their lives.

Iranians puzzle over why people didn't like religious zealot, Ayatollah Khomeni, who executed US students because they were educated in the US, who chopped off hands for hardly any offense, and whose harsh rule held a nation in terror. Why is everyone picking on Khomeni, they wondered?????

US Christians (particularly the Religious Right), elected Ronald Reagan, GHW Bush, and W. Bush, and wondered why everyone is picking on them. All they did was the Iran-Contra scandal (lying to the American voters and the world, supporting a Contra harsh dictator, forged imitation Russian weapons and gave them to Iranians, sold Medellin Cartel narcotics on the streets of the United States), bankrupted the US and raised debt (their raisson d'etra is raisin' debt), polluted, made Global Warming, fought against Sandinestas who only wanted educations for their kids and decent wages, and torture camps (like the one in Camp X-ray and Camp Delta, Guantanamo By, Cuba). Why Cuba?....To evade international treaties against torture to which the US was a signatory. The homeless are ignored. Christian values have been ignored. The reasons that they got votes (prevent abortion, get prayers in schools (to their God, not our God)) were all ignored.

Reverends supported the war (Jesus will help us kill.....according to Reverend John Hagee). Remember God saying "thou shalt not kill" and Jesus said that we should "turn the other cheek." The Religious Right supported NRA (National Rifle Association) gun violence, and they would not brook reduction of the number of guns, nor the type of guns. Apparently, they were fine with Patrick Purdy shooting innocent, unarmed, elementary school children with a fully automatic AK-47 assault rifle. Legitimate war hero, Senator John Kerry, was lied about by an organization that called themselves Veterans for the Truth, which subsequently admitted that they had lied. The NRA was against Kerry because he was a Democrat, and Kerry even went hunting during the campaign, so the NRA didn't object to Kerry because of guns.

Many reverends were found to be crooks. Reverend Jim and Tammy Fay Bakker stole from starving Africans (or the donors who thought that they were giving to them). Reverend Robert Schuller received donations to build the Crystal Cathedral, but no one knew that he personally owned it (sold for $50 million).

The W. Bush administration lied us into wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, paid Pakistan billions of dollars to cross their land to hunt for bin Laden (while the government of Pakistan, itself, was hiding bin Laden). The US CIA gave brand new Toyota trucks to the al Qaeda (goofed intel), which, at the time, had called itself ISIS because they were trying to liberate Syria. Additionally, the CIA provided training, weaponry, money, and supplies to the al Qaeda, which they presumably were fighting.

W. Bush watched helplessly as the 911 attack occurred, still reading his goat book to school kids. W. Bush hampered Hurricane Katrina victims for weeks, holding them in different states as they tried to help in New Orleans. The first responder was a Canadian fire company (I personally talked to their chief on the internet at the time, about being the first responder to Hurricane Katrina). A neighboring state's governor was in communication with his diabetic mother, saying "hang on momma....help is on the way"....next day, as momma was on the roof of her flooded house...."hang on momma....help is on the way".....momma was dying of diabetes, without medicine, without food, shivering in the night, while W. Bush held back help for 2 weeks. The last communication to momma was dead silence.....momma was dead. W. Bush said that the emergency workers might have been al Qaeda terrorists, so he had to spend 2 weeks making sure that they were not (paranoid????? drugged?????). W. Bush refused to get off of his Texas vacation during this time. Barbara Bush, at a football stadium converted to a rescue shelter (2 weeks after Katrina hit) said, as dead bodies floated by, "they never had it so good."

President Jimmy Carter was disgusted at the way the Hurricane Katrina rescue went. Many lost their lives needlessly in the aftermath. People were moved into trailers (and they reside, today, in the same trailers). There was no effort to normalize life.

The Bush family was unaware of regular life for Americans. GHW Bush went to a supermarket, for the first time, and remarked that there was a scanner that scanned groceries (surprise, surprise). They were out of touch with America or the concerns of regular Americans. They said that they had to outsource factories abroad because Americans didn't want to work. Detroit (capital of car manufacturing) went broke and became a ghost town. Ohio, a manufacturing state....became a ghost state. Homeless people abound, and some were hard working Americans.

Why is everyone against us, they asked????????

The Religious Right did more to chase people from the religion than any group of atheists. You know people by their acts.

 

[Samael_Khan]

why do you suppose christianity is on the decline? evidently religion is on the decline altogether.


a pew research poll shows christianity down 12% from a decade ago.


Christians continue to make up a majority of the U.S. populace, but their share of the adult population is 12 points lower in 2021 than it was in 2011. In addition, the share of U.S. adults who say they pray on a daily basis has been trending downward, as has the share who say religion is “very important” in their lives.

I would say that it is because people are more educated, but considering that people know so little about their own religions, never mind even hearing about foreign ones, I would say that it is because people are just too materialistic, busy being wage slaves, and glorify ignorance.

It is very rare that someone is non religious due to actual research and thinking the issue through, which is the same case with most religious people I have come across.

 

[InChrist]

why do you suppose christianity is on the decline? evidently religion is on the decline altogether.


a pew research poll shows christianity down 12% from a decade ago.


Christians continue to make up a majority of the U.S. populace, but their share of the adult population is 12 points lower in 2021 than it was in 2011. In addition, the share of U.S. adults who say they pray on a daily basis has been trending downward, as has the share who say religion is “very important” in their lives.

I’d say Christianity is in decline because, according to biblical prophecy, we are in the last days when rebellion against the Creator increases and apostasy is rampant.

Will there be a great apostasy / falling away during the end times? | GotQuestions.org

 

[firedragon]

why do you suppose christianity is on the decline? evidently religion is on the decline altogether.

 

[firedragon]

The methods of education have improved and people are now more willing to investigate and ask questions.

Thats not quite right. Because atheism increased in the 20th century exponentially. Boom. But declined in the latter part of the 20th century. Thus the causation of education to this phenomena is false. It is not even corresponding.

 

[IndigoChild5559]

why do you suppose christianity is on the decline? evidently religion is on the decline altogether.


a pew research poll shows christianity down 12% from a decade ago.


Christians continue to make up a majority of the U.S. populace, but their share of the adult population is 12 points lower in 2021 than it was in 2011. In addition, the share of U.S. adults who say they pray on a daily basis has been trending downward, as has the share who say religion is “very important” in their lives.

Part of the reason for Christianity's decline is the decline in religion in general. People are more into custom designing their spirituality than being part of a given religious tradition. I do not think this is for the best -- being involved in a religious community is associated with being healthier, happier, longer lived, and having a buffer against anxiety and depression. We will not be as well off with this "spiritual not religious" deal.

Another part of the reason for the decline of Christianity is its exclusivism. The world has gotten smaller. Communities are more religiously diverse, and then there are all the people we know online from all over the world. Everyone knows that Aunt Sue is not a Christian, and we don't want to think of her as going to hell, especially with her being so nice and all. My guess is that Christianity will either survive by adopting a much more inclusive afterlife, or it may simply go by the wayside.

 

[IndigoChild5559]

Thats not quite right. Because atheism increased in the 20th century exponentially. Boom. But declined in the latter part of the 20th century. Thus the causation of education to this phenomena is false. It is not even corresponding.

This is true. But it is also true that atheism has now plateued. There is simply a limit to the number of people who find it acceptable.

 

[kaninchen]

The 'agnostic/atheist' figures are, surely, a reflection of positive statements of non-belief. What would be more telling would be the figures for other attitudes like 'no belief', 'vague belief,' or 'going through the motions because it's socially necessary.'

 

[lewisnotmiller]

Yes, I am well-aware that religion is trending down and atheism and unaffiliated is on the rise in North America and Europe and probably even in Australia, and most of that trend is because many people are dropping out of Christianity and/or not adhering to the Christian tradition that they were raised in.

Yup...
This is tangential, so feel free to ignore, but we measure religion via our census. It's an optional question (I know it's not included in the US one deliberately).

It became quite controversial this year for a variety of reasons. Some secular and atheist organisations were encouraging people to answer 'no religion' if they were not religious. This was seen by some (eg. Sky News) as an attempt to deflate religious numbers. I did a thread on it somewhere here.

The Leftist 'No Religion' agenda on the census

I also read a reasonable article from a religious person in how the question was posed, and that made some sense to me...
On religion, the Census is asking the wrong questions

No dramas if you don't want to read. Just an interesting topic to me. My personal take is that 'unaffiliated' or 'non religious' are rising fast here. I wouldn't think atheism is rising fast, though. Most people don't think about the topic enough to consider themselves atheists (is my anecdotal belief).

 

[lewisnotmiller]

View attachment 58285

Global measures are vastly different to measuring individual countries.
I'd also seriously wonder about global statistics showing a peak in atheism in 1970, as I think China and the USSR alone would skew figures.

Not saying your stats are wrong, by any means. I just don't find them informative, personally.

 

[firedragon]

Global measures are vastly different to measuring individual countries.
I'd also seriously wonder about global statistics showing a peak in atheism in 1970, as I think China and the USSR alone would skew figures.

Not saying your stats are wrong, by any means. I just don't find them informative, personally.

You dont find stats informative.

 

[blü 2]

We might look for a correlation! You can be thirsty and think Coca-cola will satisfy it... but only water is the real thing.

If it helps you to treat others with decency, respect and inclusion, I'd say it doesn't matter what tap it comes out of.

 

[PureX]

I think the institutionalized religions are unable to embrace the idea of people choosing their own moral and spiritual path. They want too much to dictate these to people.

I also see consumer culture promoting hedonism in a very big way, using industrial strength advertising mechanisms that religion can't possibly compete with. Religion is based on passive attraction, whereas hedonism is based on aggressive promotion. And the rewards of religion tend to be subtle and long-term whereas the rewards of hedonism are blatant and immediate.

 

[RestlessSoul]

The closer a country gets to first world status, and the more people are educated, the more religion declines. We are the last first world hold out.

North America is certainly an outlier in this regard. Europe's many cultures are almost exclusively secular. Noticeably so even in once devoutly Catholic Ireland, Italy and Spain. I don't see this as a bad thing, though I am myself religious, in the loosest sense of the term. Most people feel free to choose there own paths here, on reaching maturity; and that is as it should be, I believe. So long as someone looks after the old churches.

Don't know why you guys are different. Perhaps because your country was founded by religious dissenters? Or maybe religion - Christianity in particular - has evolved into a more saleable product, in the land of the free market?

 

[Clara Tea]

Thats not quite right. Because atheism increased in the 20th century exponentially. Boom. But declined in the latter part of the 20th century. Thus the causation of education to this phenomena is false. It is not even corresponding.

California pays more for education than almost any state, and is ranked near the bottom in success (about 47th out of the 50 states). Kids watch movies. Classes of kids who speak 40 different languages are given hand waving lectures (faint attempt to communicate). It is illegal to have Spanish speaking schools for Spanish Speaking kids in Spanish speaking neighborhoods because of the landmark SCOTUS, 1954 decision of Brown vs. Board of Education of Topika, Kansas, by attorney Thurgood Marshall concluded that "separate was necessarily unequal." Kids are graduated whether or not learn (some can't read when they get out of high school). Students used to learn the three R's...."Readin', Rightin', and Rithmatic, taught by the rule of the hickory stick." Education, today, has little to do with the old fashioned education. Schools in the inner cities (Los Angeles) are ruled by little boys with guns who graffiti the schools, beat up teachers and students, and many students are absolutely convinced that they won't live long enough to graduate. Narcotics are systemic in the school system, pervasive in the playgrounds and restrooms, and used in front of teachers in classrooms.

Gone are the days when the Polish immigrants settled the plains of Kansas, found no school, so made a school out of adobe clay (from the soil). Today, inner city kids cry that they "don't have books" even though brand new books were purchased for them the year before....the same books that are in tatters with knife holes stabbed in them. Kids in Beverley Hills are not funded as highly as the slums of Southeast Los Angeles (ghetto), and they take care of their school equipment. Notice that the poor kids are staunch Catholics (yet they destroy their environment). Kids, today, don't make their own schools, they destroy the schools provided, cry that they don't have books (that they destroyed), and demand that the government give them more....and more....and more.

200 kids from the exclusive neighborhood of Newport Beach sat down for lunch at the local buffet, most had their hands clasped in front of them, only a few whispered in low tones. A local boy was also there to eat, escorted by his parents. He screamed, ran along the furniture....what's wrong...you don't like kids? They're only being kids...they're not wild. That one kid, among 200 kids, made noise throughout the whole room. It is a matter of discipline (not infliction of pain, but insistence on boundaries). If we raise ruthless gang members, we will get ruthless gang members. Gang members sometimes have a tattoo of a tear on their cheeks as a symbol that they have killed, and some gangs require the murder of an innocent person before someone could join the gang.

While the serious students try to study, the gang members sit on top of the tables, wearing shirts that show off their muscles, and they heckle and physically abuse the serious students. Shouldn't they be escorted out of the schools so schools can function?

Jaime Escalante was hailed as a miracle teacher. He taught inner city kids from the ghetto of Los Angeles, engaged their parents, took them to field trips to meet educated people with fine lives, taunted them by putting a chicken hat on them and telling them that they will be frying chickens the rest of their lives, and got them to learn calculus. When state testers saw the results, they assumed that Escalante was cheating, so they stood over his students and retested them. The result was that the education was real. Many went on to get fine educations. One, at MIT, has a PhD in engineering. Escalante was kicked out of school by the administrators for beating up a gang member who was threatening him. Even Escalante had to kick out one student who was too far gone to save (gang member).

Politicians need to quit throwing money at the problem....as Escalante proved, money doesn't fix the problem. We must emulate the solution that Escalante proved was correct.

The Religious Right says that God's laws should be taught in schools to prevent such unholy behavior. Yet, many of the biggest offenders have religious upbringing, and they still choose to be evil.

We see a rise and decline in education, and wonder if the root cause is atheism. I think that the cause is discipline.

 

[RestlessSoul]

Because of the influx of diversity, Christianity no longer has the same authority it once held.
Questioning the authority of Christianity was seen before as immoral. Now, not questioning the authority of Christianity has become immoral.

To question the authority of the church, was sometimes to question the authority of the state, with all the risk doing that entailed in feudal and imperial societies.

 

[Clara Tea]

Part of the reason for Christianity's decline is the decline in religion in general. People are more into custom designing their spirituality than being part of a given religious tradition. I do not think this is for the best -- being involved in a religious community is associated with being healthier, happier, longer lived, and having a buffer against anxiety and depression. We will not be as well off with this "spiritual not religious" deal.

Another part of the reason for the decline of Christianity is its exclusivism. The world has gotten smaller. Communities are more religiously diverse, and then there are all the people we know online from all over the world. Everyone knows that Aunt Sue is not a Christian, and we don't want to think of her as going to hell, especially with her being so nice and all. My guess is that Christianity will either survive by adopting a much more inclusive afterlife, or it may simply go by the wayside.

More inclusive afterlife? Are they going to say "there goes the neighborhood?" Will the exclusive Christians move out?

We are all God's children. We are supposed to accept people of all faiths and all races as our own brethren (maybe a sistren here or there). I think that we are supposed to accept Gays (because only God is the judge), even if they choose to go against scripture.

The Christian and Muslim religions are spin-offs of the Jewish religion. Surely it is the same God, and all souls will mix in the same heaven. Surely the Muslims who terrorist bomb Jews in modern times, will become neighbors of Jews in heaven (if the terrorists repent.....it wouldn't be heavenly if terrorists were allowed in....so lets have some exclusivity).

Heaven is a club for all, just no evil allowed.

 

[Clara Tea]

To question the authority of the church, was sometimes to question the authority of the state, with all the risk doing that entailed in feudal and imperial societies.

The good ol' days of the Dark Ages. Priests who raped little boys were allowed to continue, and their rapes were covered up....not much different than today (except for the pervasive lawsuits).

 

[Clara Tea]

North America is certainly an outlier in this regard. Europe's many cultures are almost exclusively secular. Noticeably so even in once devoutly Catholic Ireland, Italy and Spain. I don't see this as a bad thing, though I am myself religious, in the loosest sense of the term. Most people feel free to choose there own paths here, on reaching maturity; and that is as it should be, I believe. So long as someone looks after the old churches.

Don't know why you guys are different. Perhaps because your country was founded by religious dissenters? Or maybe religion - Christianity in particular - has evolved into a more saleable product, in the land of the free market?

Perhaps the scandals of the churches have always been there, but the internet points them out?

Little boys were likely raped by priests for thousands of years, and we don't know about that because it has been hidden (on pain of death).

Though, churches today are much kinder....they pass around a tray of money at each meeting.

 

[Link]

Everyone explains it their own way. But Quran teaches God's word is not always high in people's eye. To make God's word high, it takes effort of followers. I blame our lack of effort personally when I look at this issue.