Posted on 10/09/2012 3:25:25 PM PDT by Paladins Prayer
According to a recent study, religion is dying in America. And its a trend that has grave implications for our politics, culture, and the fate of our civilization. Ben Fearnow of CBS News reports on the story, writing:
...The study also posits some theories for this burgeoning irreligiosity, which, writes Fearnow, run the gamut from a backlash against the entanglement of religion and politics to a global relationship between economic development and secularization. Now, I dont know if that gamut includes the obvious, but these two theories miss the mark.
Question: Do we wonder why Pakistan is spawning jihadists when we know that 10,000 madrassahs (Muslim schools) pepper its lands? In the same vein, American schools, along with the media and popular culture, instill secular dogma (I discuss one dimension of this here), and faith and her institutions are continuously discredited via specious documentaries and biased news reportage. Put simply, our culture preaches a secular-fundamentalist message. So is it any wonder that Americans are thus influenced? But more about the cause in a moment.
Having said this, some traditionalists will note that theres also good news. As the study indicates, not all the unaffiliated are atheists; in fact, 68 percent claim to believe in God and 21 percent pray every day. The question is, To whom?
Im not just being snide. The unaffiliateds behavior reflects the now common position, Im spiritual, but not religious, and this is in fact a claim 37 percent of them make. Yet while it sounds enlightened and cool to modern ears to profess spirituality, its a meaningless statement.
(Excerpt) Read more at thenewamerican.com ...
The following is a non partisan University study. http://hirr.hartsem.edu/research/fastfacts/fast_facts.html
It appears liberal churches have lost the most, but there is still an overall increase.
He also said (in relation to a slow miracle to that of a fast one):
An event is not any more intrinsically intelligible or unintelligible because of the pace at which it moves. For a man who does not believe in a miracle, a slow miracle would be just as incredible as a swift one. The Greek witch may have turned sailors to swine with a stroke of the wand. But to see a naval gentleman of our acquaintance looking a little more like a pig every day, till he ended with four trotters and a curly tail, would not be any more soothing.... The medieval wizard may have flown through the air from the top of a tower; but to see an old gentleman walking through the air, in a leisurely and lounging manner, would still seem to call for some explanation. Yet there runs through all the rationalistic treatment of history this curious and confused idea that difficulty is avoided, or even a mystery eliminated, by dwelling on mere delay or on something dilatory in the process of things.... The ultimate question is why [things] go at all; and anybody who really understands that question will know that it always has been and always will be a religious question; or at any a rate a philosophical or metaphysical question. And most certainly he will not think the question answered by some substitution of gradual for abrupt change.
Honestly, do we really need research to tell us that Christianity has been under violent assault for decades now? When the whole culture tries to discredit faith 24/7, it’s a no-brainer that we’ll spawn atheists. If you want to see the result, just look at the comments under the CBS News piece. It’s an intellectual and spiritual wasteland.
Did you read the evolution article the author linked up to? Because the passage you pasted is in it. If you didn’t read it, you should.
We were in church every time the door was open and sometimes when it was not.
Twice on Sunday for a minimum of 3 hours each. Tuesday for an hour. Wednesday for 2 hours. Thursday for 2 hours. Every week.
Then, there were the endless potluck dinners and "special" events.
The only thing that saved my sanity was that the church had a library. I read all of the Hardy Boys, all of the Nancy Drew series. All of everything I could get my hands on to avoid listening to the drivel emanating from the crowd and the pulpit.
They did make a mistake in that library, which was to put works by Isaac Asimov in there; I think because he was a biblical scholar. However, he wrote a number of other things and those led me to be even more impatient with the drill.
I've never gone back, except for the occasional wedding or funeral, and never intend to do so again.
Wow - thanks for the heads-up... the ‘link’ wasn’t easy to find, but what’s there I’m reading now...
We attend the Latin Mass but on visiting Portland, OR, Sunday, noticed that the Mass at the The Grotto was overflowing as well.
Pinged Mrs. Salvation for the Oregon reference.
If it’s in Miami, it likely has a large Hispanic contingent, which would make it an anomaly. The pattern, though, is unmistakeable. And closing our eyes to it won’t help.
Mainline denominations are losing people at rapid rate because of:
1 not teaching and preaching Scripture as was handed down by generations past.
2, are adopting worldly ways
3. are accepting and promoting liberal ways especially the homosexual agenda.
4. have been making those with conservative beliefs unwelcome.
5 have substituted diversity in place of welcoming - there is a profound difference
6. etc.
Well, it’s good your parents didn’t send you to the wrong school. You might have rejected education.
Speaking of education, did it ever occur to you that not all churches preach the truth?
Amo_8:11 “Behold, the days are coming,” says the Lord GOD, “That I will send a famine on the land, Not a famine of bread, Nor a thirst for water, But of hearing the words of the LORD.
Wisdom: Joshua 24:15
All FReepers should read it to augment their education.
We've been fighting a battle at the political level that must first be won at a deeper level.
We are a fifty-fifty nation, teetering on the edge. Even the elections we win we only win by fractions, and too often with politicians with scarce understanding of the fundaments of the American system. And the trends are against us; every year we graduate another wave of young people with no clue of the principles they must grasp if they are to remain free. Every year our hold on freedom is that much weaker. We keep scratching around, looking to the next election to turn the tide but you don't turn such a tide with elections.
This problem is moral, and its spiritual. Cede the moral and spiritual battle and it doesn't much matter who wins the political one.
You have to build the culture you want to live in, and you have to pass it on to the people who come after you, and you can't do that without teaching and evangelizing. And you can't do that when you cede control of the infrastructure of the battlefield of ideas to your enemies. That is to say, the schools and universities, the information and entertainment media. And you can't do it when what passes for the church loses its way and stops actively evangelizing and winning souls.
Win the moral and spiritual battle, and the political one will naturally follow. Lose the moral and spiritual battle and again, the political one will naturally follow and things will take their inevitable course. When you consider who writes history, once we lose the America we once aspired to be, no one will believe it ever was.
I'm as interested and passionate about the upcoming elections as anyone, but that is only a temporary answer, it is clutching at a straw. We either rededicate this country to God, and rededicate ourselves and our families too, or we resign ourselves to a long and dark road. I think most of us here know this and are on the same page, most of us here know where the real battle is.
“The Soviets’ ‘official’ religious stance was one of ‘religious freedom or tolerance’, though the state established atheism as the only scientific truth. Criticism of atheism or the state’s anti-religious policies was forbidden and could lead to forced retirement, arrest and/or imprisonment.”
“Speaking of education, did it ever occur to you that not all churches preach the truth?”
I was attending an Assembly of God church (considered fringe by a lot of mainstream churches) and was given a very clear dream to leave when they were considering going mega-church. I’ve alway taught my children that they are the church, and it’s about faith, not religion.
I may have gotten the last church I attended kicked out of their denomination. I happened to mention to an online friend some of the issues with the church. I later discovered he had high up contacts. A month later the church was independent.
My daughter is staying with a cousin in California and went to church with the family. She thinks her cousin is atheist or agnostic, and he hates the rote crap week after week. My daughter declined a second visit. Church of Starbucks doesn’t cut it. An hour and a half of happy music, maybe a bit of admonition, but end on a happy note, doesn’t cut it. For the most part, the concept of “Christianity” is broken in our county.
I educated myself, despite my parents or government schools.
All churches preach mythology based on hearsay.
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