Posted on 03/04/2005 4:26:23 PM PST by Lindykim
The Christian Underground --- Science, frauds trigger a decline in atheism By Uwe Siemon-Netto March 4, 2005
GURAT, France -- Godlessness is in trouble, according to a growing consensus among philosophers, intellectuals and scholars. "Atheism as a theoretical position is in decline worldwide," Munich theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg said in an interview.
His Oxford colleague Alister McGrath agrees. Atheism's "future seems increasingly to lie in the private beliefs of individuals rather than in the great public domain it once regarded as its habitat," Mr. McGrath wrote in the U.S. magazine, Christianity Today.
Two developments are plaguing atheism these days. One is that it appears to be losing its scientific underpinnings.
The other is the historical experience of hundreds of millions of people worldwide that atheists are in no position to claim the moral high ground. British philosopher Anthony Flew, once as hard-nosed a humanist as any, has turned his back on atheism, saying it is impossible for evolution to account for the fact that one single cell can carry more data than all the volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica. Mr. Flew still does not accept the God of the Bible. But he has embraced the concept of intelligent design -- a stunning desertion of a former intellectual ambassador of secular humanism to the belief in some form of intelligence behind the design of the universe.
A few years ago, European scientists snickered when studies in the United States -- for example, at Harvard and Duke universities -- showed a correlation between faith, prayer and recovery from illness. Now 1,200 studies at research centers around the world have come to similar conclusions, according to "Psychologie Heute," a German journal, citing, for example, the marked improvement of multiple sclerosis patients in Germany's Ruhr District because of "spiritual resources." Atheism's other Achilles' heels are the acts on inhumanity and lunacy committed in its name.
"With time, [atheism] turned out to have just as many frauds, psychopaths and careerists as religion does. ... With Stalin and Madalyn Murray O'Hair, atheism seems to have ended up mimicking the vices of the Spanish Inquisition and the worst televangelists, respectively," Mr. McGrath wrote in Christianity Today.
The Rev. Paul M. Zulehner, dean of Vienna University's divinity school and one of the world's most distinguished sociologists of religion, said atheists in Europe have become "an infinitesimally small group."
"There are not enough of them to be used for sociological research," he said. Mr. Zulehner cautioned, however, that the decline of atheism in Europe does not mean that re-Christianization is taking place.
"What we are observing instead is a re-paganization," he said. The Rev. Gerald McDermott, an Episcopal priest and professor of religion and philosophy at Roanoke College in Salem, Va., said a similar phenomenon is taking place in the United States.
"The rise of all sorts of paganism is creating a false spirituality that proves to be a more dangerous rival to the Christian faith than atheism," he said. After all, a Satanist is also "spiritual." Mr. Pannenberg, a Lutheran, praised the Roman Catholic Church for handling this peril more wisely than many of his fellow Protestants.
"The Catholics stick to the central message of Christianity without making any concessions in the ethical realm," he said, referring to issues such as same-sex "marriages" and abortion. In a similar vein, Mr. Zulehner, a Catholic, sees Christianity's greatest opportunity when its message addresses two seemingly irreconcilable quests of contemporary humanity -- the quest for freedom and truth.
"Christianity alone affirms that truth and God's dependability are inseparable properties to which freedom is linked." As for the "peril of spirituality," Mr. Zulehner sounded quite sanguine. He concluded from his research that in the long run, the survival of worldviews should be expected to follow this lineup: "The great world religions are best placed," he said.
As a distant second he sees the diffuse forms of spirituality. Atheism, he said, will come in at the tail end.
http://insider.washingtontimes.com/articles/print.php?StoryID=20050303-115733-9519r moderator@christian-underground.com http://www.christian-underground.com/archive/read.php?sid=734 Posted to the CU: 2005-03-04 01:18:16 CST
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No, you've misunderstood my point, which is this: What a person believes to be true of life (worldview) is how he will shape and mold his family.
Broaden that to include an entire society. Perhaps it might be easier to think of what I'm saying by replacing 'pagan' with 'Islamic". What if Islamics began running for office (Congress, President, etc) with the intention of Islamicizing America?
Americans need to become better informed voters. Had they done that and not elected a bunch of socialists who aren't loyal to this nation's founding documents and cultural institutions, we wouldn't be having a culture war today.
Well, that's my attitude exactly.
Don't cavil. Either you can logically respond to the questions I posed to you or you can't. And based upon what I know and upon your caviling, it's clear that you can't.
The measure of a worldview (belief system) is in how it steers you through life and enables you to make sense of life. Your worldview fails on both points. Christianity is a not just a religion, it's an entire worldview. You should'nt allow your pride to keep you from investigating it.
.....Absolute-Infinite-Moral-Righteousness!
Titus 1:2
Romans 10:17
Ephesians 1,2,3,....!!!
Colossians 1,2,3,...!!!
Genesis 1,2,3,......!!!
St. John 14:6
St.John 8:31,32
Acts 16:31
Revelation 1,2,3,...!!! St. John 3:36
Revelation 20,21,22,...!!!
Hebrews 6:18
Romans 10
Hebrews 1,8,9,10,11
More caviling??? Try answering my questions:
(A)Take a stab at explaining your 'creation story' to me. (B)Explain how nonintelligent, purposeless, meaningless matter somehow or another produced a capacity for reason and logic, or even for that matter {pun intended} how nonintelligent matter knows what reason and logic are. (C) and if you can't explain that, then tell me how any of us can know if whether what we believe is reason and logic are really those things and not just chemically-induced illusions
Please don't resort to the ridiculous "rolling dice" theory.
"Your snide retort in lieu of a well-reasoned refutation simply lends more credence to why atheism, an empty, illogical philosophy, is dying."
You should trademark that statement. It could be used for so very many topics here. ((Hugs)) :)
Please feel free to make use of that statement as often as you like :-)
Will do! Maybe we could get together for some Tag-Team posting, sometime? (Not THAT kind of Tag-Team, LOL!)
I believe you are correct. Europe is given over to hedonism. Their attitude seems to say that there is no point to any of this life except the pleasure one can get out of it.
There is no afterlife, or at least nothing I do will affect where I end up. There is no right or wrong.
Such is the darkness of Europe.
St. John chapter One (1) all of it.
.....Absolute-Infinite-Moral-Righteousness!
Titus 1:2
Romans 10:17
Ephesians 1,2,3,....!!!
Colossians 1,2,3,...!!!
Genesis 1,2,3,......!!!
St. John 14:6
St.John 8:31,32
Acts 16:31
Revelation 1,2,3,...!!!
St. John 3:36
Revelation 20,21,22,...!!!
Hebrews 6:18
Romans 10
Hebrews 1,8,9,10,11
I think you are right in suggesting that what is really happening is apathy. In the past, Christianity held such a prominent position that it was impossible to simply be apathetic about it, and most Atheism is a reaction to religion. Apathy in some sense represents the victory of atheism, not its defeat: whereas once it was important to disprove god, people now don't even think about it. For what it's worth, I would probably fall into the apathy because of agnosticism camp.
I would challenge that Europe is becoming pagan, It is becoming Islamic.
There will be no pagans under Sharia.
I know how we all loooooove articles that tell us things we want to hear, but come on - this is the fourth posting of this thing. Doesn't anyone search before posting any more?
There are no "professional Christians." - There are those whose vocation seems to be 'professing to be christian,' but professing and being are not necessarily one and the same. Those who are, need not blow their horn; it shows in their lives, while those who are mostly blowing their horns have nothing to show.
Yes, MH, ES is right...you mean professing Christians.
Are you a professing Christian?
OK, just give me a 'ping" :-)
Oh, puh-leaze... You're reading a ridiculous amount into use of an idiom. People pick up common figures of speech -- it doesn't "signify" anything. Or are you going to tell me that people who say "holy cow" are actually revealing a fundamental belief in Hinduism, or that anyone who uses the phrase "holy s**t" worships manure?
By trying to read anything into someone's adoption of the common phrase, "oh my god", you're just being silly.
Actually 'holy cow'is referring to the Old Testament (Num.19), the Red Heifer that was used to purification.
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