(February 15, 2015 at 5:18 pm)Metis Wrote: It might amuse some of you but despite being an anti-theist, I took the time to aquire both a B.A and M.A in Theology. Why? I wanted to be able to play the game with a better grip of their rules and the minds creating them (Wasn't really a loss for me, I just needed a degree in anything, B.A professional bullshitter even would have got me where I wanted to go).
One point that I always find fascinating personally is how adaptable the ruleset is, and how little impact changes seem to have on theists. There are exceptions, like in the U.K how I've heard the conservative Anglican's are jumping ship with the ordination of Women Bishops and switching to Catholicism but for the most part they carry on ahead like nothing has happened. It's like Orwells' 1984 "We are at war with Xxxx"...And then mid sentence they switch to "we have always been at war with Yyyy".
For as much as church attendance is falling in Europe when the surveys go around most of them still sign off as Christian, they get their brats baptized, they do the big white wedding and ultimately expect their funerals to be done by whatever denomination they're signed up to.
Apathy is growing, but avowed Atheism doesn't appear to be, sure we've got a bigger audience now we have the internet but it doesn't seem to be really having much impact. Sure, Church attendances might be low today but (while I don't have them to hand) there are figures to suggest a large swave of the U.K working classes during the late 19th century didn't either. Kinda springs between revivals and declines, but the number of avowed Atheist thinkers or writers remains more or less the same. Sure you get mostly Atheist states today like Japan (in these sense they don't believe in a personal deity) but if you look back into history they were never especially religious anyway.
I'd like to think one day everyone would wise up and leave the twilight zone, but I'm increasingly doubtful its ever going to happen and a fight no one can ultimately "win". The Theists are going to be round a while yet and while the number of liberal ones might rise the number of Atheists isn't.
What do you think?
Who cares?! The U.K. is nearly free of Christian influence. You have no idea how much we in the U.S. envy you. Let them have their baptisms, their weddings and their funerals. They're not trying to force their will upon you, they're not sabotaging education and they're not holding back progress. What's the problem?
Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former.
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein
