It is pretty ironic that I seem to find myself Defender of The Faith since I became a believing, practicing atheist about half a century ago.
I’m sorry, gents, I just can’t work up a proper shiver over the prospect of marauding Christians storming my home to drag me off to toil in the fields of the Lord. It just ain’t gonna happen.
What I see in the Christian community is a rapid rise in secularism and a corresponding decrease in emphasis on the mystic aspects of the religion. Mega-churches are the trend in most cities. Many of these mega-churches are non-denominational. Young, energetic ministers are rejecting the rigid doctrines of the established religions and are concentrating on messages of optimism, hard work, fellowship, and community service. There is little concern in these churches over whether a person truly believes or if they have been saved.
These churches thrive because a great many Christians today are also less concerned with the mysticism. What they want is a community to help them cope with the daily grind and help them teach their children how to cope. Their church essentially functions as a small town inside a big city.
I think you need to look at the whole of Christianity and not just the radical element. Almost everything can be plotted on the ubiquitous Bell curve. I learned a long time ago if you lift up the little flaps on either end of the curve, that’s where you find the really weird stuff. The 80-some-odd percent in the middle is usually pretty tolerable.
Yes, I am afraid of both Jesus and his followers. Shephers grow the sheep to slaughter them one day and I don’t want to be slaughtered.
yeah, but I think the key of the matter was that in this particular delusion called Christianity the shepherd had himself killed to save the sheep. Duh!
I’m sorry, gents, I just can’t work up a proper shiver over the prospect of marauding Christians storming my home to drag me off to toil in the fields of the Lord. It just ain’t gonna happen.
That is not where I think the real threat lies. Rather, it lies in the integration of church and state, where the community When irrationality is the central goal of a movement, in a nation rules not by law but by “the will of the people”, one has to worry can freely establish standards of proper and thus legally allowed behavior, and where the community is uncontroversially fundamentalist Christian. In that community, we don’t look at the facts of reality and conclude “This is what rationally should be done”, we feel intuitively what god commands us to do, and cast aside the devils who oppose us.
What I see in the Christian community is a rapid rise in secularism and a corresponding decrease in emphasis on the mystic aspects of the religion. Mega-churches are the trend in most cities. Many of these mega-churches are non-denominational. Young, energetic ministers are rejecting the rigid doctrines of the established religions and are concentrating on messages of optimism, hard work, fellowship, and community service.
Secularism in that sense isn’t the issue – I’m not worried about the Methodists and the Episcopalians. The worry is exactly the rising emphasis on the mystic aspects, as reflected in the Assembly of God cult but more generally in those tens of thousands of free-form holy roller “Tree of The Word” kinds of churches across the land..
I learned a long time ago if you lift up the little flaps on either end of the curve, that’s where you find the really weird stuff. The 80-some-odd percent in the middle is usually pretty tolerable.
The radical fringe has to be paid attention to, because they determine where that center will be in a generation or two. In my experience, that center has been pulled substantially to the irrational side because of the effectiveness of the radical fringe in ramping up the emphasis on the mystical aspects of existence and the altruistic nature of morality.
Nope, I can’t really say Jesus scares me. I firmly believe that Jesus, like all people risen from the dead, can be stopped by a well-placed shotgun round to the head.
The radical fringe has to be paid attention to, because they determine where that center will be in a generation or two. In my experience, that center has been pulled substantially to the irrational side because of the effectiveness of the radical fringe in ramping up the emphasis on the mystical aspects of existence and the altruistic nature of morality.
Well, sir, I shall leave you to your watch on the ramparts. I admit there are some strange birds nesting in the fringe. It is comforting to know someone is keeping an eye on them. My wife was raised in the Church of Christ, a name she still can’t say without a shiver. She converted long ago to Reform Pagan and is currently working on her 32d degree Crone.
A comforting statistic perhaps: From 1990 to 2000, Christianity showed an increase of 5%. Slightly less than the rise of the population at large. Nonreligious/secular beliefs showed a rise of 110%. Hang in there, folks, we may have them on the run.
Nonreligious/secular beliefs showed a rise of 110%. Hang in there, folks, we may have them on the run.
And we all know there’s nothing to be scared of in non-religious/secular belief systems.
There’s a philosopher I read a while back who pointed out that collective ideologies, whether they be religion-based, society-based, race-based, language-based, etc.. are a common danger to individual freedoms. I can’t remember off hand the name of that philosopher.
The radical fringe has to be paid attention to, because they determine where that center will be in a generation or two. In my experience, that center has been pulled substantially to the irrational side because of the effectiveness of the radical fringe in ramping up the emphasis on the mystical aspects of existence and the altruistic nature of morality.
Don’t you think the power of irrationality in religious fringes is directly related to the irrationality of the secular fringes? I see the two ends as reinforcing each other by generating fear of the other. The socialists point to the Christians as dangerous, and the Christians point to the socialists as dangerous. The difference is that the socialists claim rationality on their side, and by doing so diminish the strength of truly rational arguments. The radical Christians can then smear the socialists and the rational with the same brush - “See? Rationality does not apply to life’s deeper truth!”
So which is the more dangerous? The side that promotes the irrational by rejecting rationality, or the side that promotes the irrational by embracing rationality?
Jesus doesn’t scare me, but he is rather irritating. I hate how he has to use metaphors to try and say something. Just say it and be done with it! You don’t have to start everything with “So, two guys walk into a bar..”
And we got that you were telling the truth the first time! It reminds me of the Ayn Rand quote. It goes something along the lines of “Only a dishonest man has to worry about being trusted.”
Why be scared, when everyone says Jesus is the most lovingest Messiah? As a matter of fact, the Phelps-Roper family (Westboro Baptist Church) just recently sent in a brand new Christmas song to one of my favorite shows on XM-Sirius, sharing the holiday cheers with all the children of the world:
It is pretty ironic that I seem to find myself Defender of The Faith since I became a believing, practicing atheist about half a century ago.