The Rapid Decline of Christianity in the USA

[Confucian Mormon Buddhist]

Few main reasons.

One is that people find it more difficult to believe in the Biblical interpretation of creation. Especially in the U.S., we tend towards literalism and fundamentalism. People are taught now, though, in stuff like evolution and the old Earth. Some don't find it problematic, but many do and abandon the faith.

Another is that it's gotten to be acceptable to spurn the religion, instead of at least paying lip-service to it. Religious freedom didn't really exist even after the Constitution was ratified, and only lately have communities gotten to where religion isn't the center of life.

Third, church isn't the center of everybody's social life. Used to be, it was THE thing in small communities that united them.

Four, society has gotten really soft. Instead of facing the moral standards of the Bible with dignity, it complains that the Bible doesn't meet their standards of debauchery. Many churches follow suit, but they then lose what made them special and become so useless everybody jumps ship.

EDIT: Oh, and yeah, religious people can, sometimes, be their worst enemies when it comes to keeping folks in the church. I can even think of one Baptist friend of mine, a Young Earth Creationist, who puts me off of Christianity. He's a nice dude, but he believes in the stupidest **** (I don't even mean YEC, I'm talking, like, chemtrails and following pastors who are involved in the tax evasion movement), believes God, on the whole, makes your life harder, and his religion seems to actually make his heart harder rather than softer.

 

[Kemosloby]

What? You think we create people from damnation and choose who to give eternal paradise to?

I think you need to lay off some of the harder drugs, thats not what I said at all.

 

[sun rise]

...

, and his religion seems to actually make his heart harder rather than softer.

That's a key observation.

 

[Grumpuss]

We are tested everyday. Pestilence, war, perversion and demons assault us. The weak lose faith. The strong are resolute in their faith.

Christianity isn't a social club. Sure, the more, the merrier, but it's not a popularity game. Saving one's immortal soul isn't about numbers or a momentary decline in membership.

 

[rusra02]

I think this is what the Bible said would occur during the last days of this system. At Matthew 24:11,12, Jesus prophesied that "Many false prophets will arise and mislead many; and because of the increasing of lawlessness, the love of the greater number will grow cold." The despicable acts and teachings of many religions have caused many to reject belief in God, IMO. Such lawlessness and hypocrisy have convinced many to give in to the popular course of personal gratification and hedonism so prevalent today. Thus, I believe that many persons are swept along by this strong current of doubt and confusion displayed in most religions.

 

[MJFlores]

I haven't the faintest idea what "they" you're referring to, but the issue here isn't about churches, but the Christian religion. Please read the title of the thread. Thank you.

.

"Christian religion" and it's denominations?

I don't pity the denominations that closed shop - they should have closed a long time ago.

In my opinion, it shows that God is not with them.
People do not feel he is present in those churches.
And most likely they have doctrines of men that they themselves could not even explain.

If there is any consolation, maybe we should designate a person to cry a river for them - "Christian religions whose buildings are now for sale"

 

[Shadow Wolf]

I think you need to lay off some of the harder drugs, thats not what I said at all.

Wonderful assumption! Your prize is a painful look that that is indeed what you said!

No, I think we do that and he chooses which to save from that.

So, then he just creates a bunch of people he knows is bound for damnation?

Yeah but God picks who believes in him, perhaps as a reward for something, who knows why.

I said "he creates a bunch of people..." and you factually did state "No, I think we do that." That's why I was asking, but you jumped the gun and assume I'm into hard drugs. How so very Christian of you.

 

[Kemosloby]

Wonderful assumption! Your prize is a painful look that that is indeed what you said!



I said "he creates a bunch of people..." and you factually did state "No, I think we do that." That's why I was asking, but you jumped the gun and assume I'm into hard drugs. How so very Christian of you.

I meant the Extra Strength Tylenol silly. Why do you assume by "harder drugs" i mean heroin?

 

[leibowde84]

I think organized religion as we've known it is passing from the scene. Historically even in Christianity, there was a time when church as we know it did not exist, then the Catholic church was the sole church followed by the Protestant era. Now we see the growth of general spiritual feelings apart from religion:

For instance, among U.S. Christians, there has been an increase of 7 percentage points between 2007 and 2014 in the share who say they feel a deep sense of wonder about the universe at least weekly (from 38% to 45%). And there has been a similar rise in the share of religious “nones” who say the same (from 39% to 47%) – not to mention a 17-point jump among self-described atheists.

And I think many are turned off by politicized religion. I'd bet that is a part of the decline but I don't know how much of a part that plays.

I think organized religion is an afront to wonder about the Universe. Religious tenants, dogma and scriptures all claim to have answers that they don't have proof for. The increased wonder and skepticism about what we assumed we knew about the universe is causing people to branch out, search for themselves, and find their own idea of spirituality. It is a tremendously amazing thing!

 

[leibowde84]

Bible says God inspires people to be Christians. Who can stop God when he meets his quota and doesn't need any more Christians. Eventually God gets enough and the world ends. So it might just be a sign of the times. If your facts are truthful. Anybody can put together a few charts and picture of a church in Detroit or some other abandoned industrial town in America.

What evidence do you base this on?

 

[leibowde84]

I would attribute the trend to 1) being several generations past the free morals of the 1960's 2) degeneracy in morals and ethics 3) the end of days, prophesied to come some time after Israel is restored as a Jewish state and the Temple for worship

But, morality has gotten a lot better in many many ways. With issues like acceptance, racial equality, gender equality, etc. things are worlds better.

 

[1AOA1]

I think organized religion is an afront to wonder about the Universe. Religious tenants, dogma and scriptures all claim to have answers that they don't have proof for. The increased wonder and skepticism about what we assumed we knew about the universe is causing people to branch out, search for themselves, and find their own idea of spirituality. It is a tremendously amazing thing!

People who leave the church are already organized under those principalities who instruct or inform them in such a manner as to persuade them to leave. It is a shift from one organization to another, not from organized to unorganized.

Can't you understand the chart as titled? If not, how would you title the chart to better represent the findings?.

The title given is for the findings. A more comprehensive title would be given for more comprehensive findings, for example.

 

[It Aint Necessarily So]

The weak lose faith. The strong are resolute in their faith.

It is atheism that requires strength - strength to abandon the easy comfort of unjustified belief.

Try standing up like the bipedal ape you were born to be, and look out into the universe, which may be almost empty, and which may contain no gods at all. And then face and accept the very real possibility that we may be all there is for light years.

Accept that you may be vulnerable and not watched over.

Accept the likelihood of your own mortality and finititude.

Accept the reality of your insignificance everywhere but earth, and that you might be unloved except by those who know you - people, and maybe a few beasts.

Because as far as we know, that's how it is.

That's strength. That's courage.

• An Atheist believes that he can get no help through prayer but that he must find in himself the inner conviction, and strength to meet life, to grapple with it, to subdue it and enjoy it. An Atheist believes that only in a knowledge of himself and a knowledge of his fellow man can he find the understanding that will help to a life of fulfillment. - Madalyn Murray O'Hair

 

[Skwim]

"Christian religion" and it's denominations?

I don't pity the denominations that closed shop - they should have closed a long time ago.

View attachment 18035

In my opinion, it shows that God is not with them.
People do not feel he is present in those churches.
And most likely they have doctrines of men that they themselves could not even explain.

If there is any consolation, maybe we should designate a person to cry a river for them - "Christian religions whose buildings are now for sale"

View attachment 18036

How compassionate of you.

.

 

[It Aint Necessarily So]

The despicable acts and teachings of many religions have caused many to reject belief in God, IMO

Isn't that appropriate?

We judge an ideology by its fruits. How should we judge Stalinism, humanism, or the Branch Davidians. The first and last produced authoritarian cults of personality and widespread death. Humanism gave us science, rational ethics, and the modern liberal, democratic state with all of its citizen autonomy and guaranteed personal liberties.

Is that not relevant?

What are the fruits of Christianity? Shouldn't people that have found the true god be more knowledgeable intellectually and morally than those that haven't? Shouldn't prayer and Bible study be producing superlative people if these bring them in contact with the mind of a deity? I'd say so.

And why would the church promulgating the creator of the universe be waning wherever it is well known, and so constantly blundering in the news?

The faith based thinker blames mankind for ignoring its god. To the reason and evidence based thinker, it looks more the the other way around to me.

Incidentally, most atheists reject Christianity not because of its church's failings, but for lack of a reason to believe in gods. Even if the church's public face was exemplary, skeptics would still lack a reason to believe in gods. We would then say that Christianity was a healthy ideology despite its supernatural claims being unsupported, something I once believed myself. I was then as I am now atheist, yet put my middle school aged daughter into a private Christian school.

My views on that have changed considerably since then.

 

[Confucian Mormon Buddhist]

That's a key observation.

In the case of my friend, I see two main things. One is that he, like a lot of fundamentalists, has this weird fixation on gays. Now, I'm "anti-gay" too, I oppose gay marriage, support censorship of pro-gay material, and so on. But fundamentalists get really weird with how it seems to occupy their minds. That goes for sexual sins in general, too.

Then, I have a bit of a problem with libertarian Christians who oppose the concept of welfare (or abortion in the case of sickly, doomed babies). My friend is so radical that he doesn't believe there should be any social safety net at all, and while he claims to believe the church should support people itself, I have a hard time buying it. I just don't buy that somebody who believes they have an exclusive right to their earnings and that it's some sort of major crime to distribute even a small portion of it out is somebody who actually cares about the poor to begin with. Likewise, if a person's response to a hydrocephalic baby is basically "that's life," it seems like they don't really care about the baby's quality of life.

Legalism, I guess. It makes my skin crawl.

EDIT: I originally said "charity" instead of "welfare."

 

[sun rise]

In the case of my friend, I see two main things. One is that he, like a lot of fundamentalists, has this weird fixation on gays. Now, I'm "anti-gay" too, I oppose gay marriage, support censorship of pro-gay material, and so on. But fundamentalists get really weird with how it seems to occupy their minds. That goes for sexual sins in general, too.

Then, I have a bit of a problem with libertarian Christians who oppose the concept of charity (or abortion in the case of sickly, doomed babies). My friend is so radical that he doesn't believe there should be any social safety net at all, and while he claims to believe the church should support people itself, I have a hard time buying it. I just don't buy that somebody who believes they have an exclusive right to their earnings and that it's some sort of major crime to distribute even a small portion of it out is somebody who actually cares about the poor to begin with. Likewise, if a person's response to a hydrocephalic baby is basically "that's life," it seems like they don't really care about the baby's quality of life.

Legalism, I guess. It makes my skin crawl.

The Catholic church, especially under Pope Francis, is more consistent being against abortion and the death penalty and in favor of helping the less fortunate.

And in a more ideal world, people would automatically generously support organizations that help the less fortunate with government not involved. We're not in that world yet.

 

[It Aint Necessarily So]

I think organized religion is an affront to wonder about the Universe.

• "Advocates of religiosity extol the virtues or moral habits that religion is supposed to instill in us. But we should be equally concerned with the intellectual habits it discourages." - Wendy Kaminer

• "I am against religion because it teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the world." - Richard Dawkins

 

[sun rise]

• "Advocates of religiosity extol the virtues or moral habits that religion is supposed to instill in us. But we should be equally concerned with the intellectual habits it discourages." - Wendy Kaminer

• "I am against religion because it teaches us to be satisfied with not understanding the world." - Richard Dawkins

These quotes embody a logical fallacy. For example, the Dalai Lama, undoubtedly a religious figure has stated quite clearly that if there was something proven by science that contradicted his religious beliefs, he'd discard the belief.

And there are Christians who believe in the spirit of open inquiry as well. For example How an Evangelical Creationist Accepted Evolution

There are of course, those who close their minds against inquiry and understanding in favor of dogmatic belief, but asserting that "'some x' is the same as 'all x' is false.

 

[leibowde84]

People who leave the church are already organized under those principalities who instruct or inform them in such a manner as to persuade them to leave. It is a shift from one organization to another, not from organized to unorganized.

Can you flesh this out a bit? I'm not sure what you are getting at here.