People are stopping going to church for a lot of reasons. Some because they have turned away from Christianity, or some because their church has turned away, and they haven't found a replacement (see ELCA, Methodist....).
I really think churches have a problem going forward. Society as a whole is moving to a "get it when I want it" in regards to various things. Broadcast TV of "I have to be in front of my TV at 9PM Thursday to watch Hill Street Blues" is long gone. Same thing can happen to churches as Millennials become the "grown-ups". Harder to convince people to go to a place at 9:30AM every Sunday morning.
I don't know what the answer is. But for a growing segment of the population, social networks like Facebook, and joining groups of like minded people can take the place of going to some building at 9:30AM on Sunday.
Just the ebb and flow of history. The Catholic Church has had its good and its bad over its 2000 year history.
Human Nature is still the same - The Seven deadly sins are from before the Church came into being and they will be with us when we leave this earth
Envy = the desire to have an item or experience that someone else possesses
Gluttony = excessive ongoing consumption of food or drink
Greed or Avarice = an excessive pursuit of material possessions
Lust = an uncontrollable passion or longing, especially for sexual desires
Pride = excessive view of one's self without regard to others.
Sloth = excessive laziness or the failure to act and utilize one’s talents
Wrath = uncontrollable feelings of anger and hate towards another person
That’s a well-thought out post. I agree with you that FB serves a function. Since it isn’t FB that’s creating the situation, perhaps it is a necessary element for staying connected in the modern world.
The biggest reasons by far (probably seventy percent of the pie chart) are desire to live promiscuous lives and desire to engage I inebriated hedonism.
This turning away in not unique to western civilization.
It isn’t didn’t arise in the recent millennium.
It’s not going to end different than past declines.
The behaviors being embraced have always lead to massive poverty and violence.
There are two different visions of what a church is colliding here. There are many mainstream clergy who share Zuckerberg’s view of a church as a community or social support system without necessarily getting into the whole salvation question. If you believe that being a member in good standing of your church will help get you into heaven, chances are you don’t see eye to eye with the Facebook guy, because you’re defining your terms differently from him.