Future of Christianity in US

[abaris]

It will decline slowly as it is in Europe.

In Europe there has been a pretty rapid decline since the 50ies. The so called 68 generation was the first to turn their back on religion, though one of their figure heads, Rudi Dutschke, remained a devout christian till his premature death due to a shooting incident by a raving right winger.

[Minimalist]

a shooting incident by a raving right winger.

That seems to happen a lot.

[Crossless2.0]

And I am completely against the burning/destruction of any books, no matter how much the message offends me. In my home office I have a bible and a Koran.

I know what you mean. I have a copy of the script of 2004's Catwoman with Halle Berry.

I'm opposed to burning books, too, but I suppose there are exceptions to most rules and the script of Catwoman might qualify.

[FatAndFaithless]

It will decline slowly as it is in Europe.

In Europe there has been a pretty rapid decline since the 50ies. The so called 68 generation was the first to turn their back on religion, though one of their figure heads, Rudi Dutschke, remained a devout christian till his premature death due to a shooting incident by a raving right winger.

Plus the whole..you know...millennia of absurd Christianity and religious conflicts and wars and schisms and excommunications and burnings and intellectual repression and.... yeah, you guys apparently got sick of the bullshit.

[abaris]

Plus the whole..you know...millennia of absurd Christianity and religious conflicts and wars and schisms and excommunications and burnings and intellectual repression and.... yeah, you guys apparently got sick of the bullshit.

We already were there before fascism took over. Berlin for example was one of the most liberal cities in the world during the 1920ies. Readily accepting gays, forking out modern art in any shape or form that only found it's rival in Paris.

And after the war, many people readily accepted the American way of life, since it was much more liberal than what they used to know in the previous decade. But we seem to have taken different lessons from there on. Our's was to turn to secularism while the American way was to reembrace the religious fundamentalism.

Reagan seems to be at fault for that, since America certainly was on the right path throughout the 70ies.

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a shooting incident by a raving right winger.

That seems to happen a lot.

He made it for another 11 years, finally drowning in his bathtub due to an epileptic seizure. Two bullets to the head can do that for you.

[Crossless2.0]

Christianity will slowly dwindle in the U.S. That's the good news. Unfortunately, its decline will mirror the relative decline in American power, influence, and wealth. I suspect there will be no end of religious opportunists who will claim the former caused the latter (hell, they already do). Since there are a lot of American simpletons who will look for simple-minded answers to their nation's decline and people to blame for it, the "God turned his back on a sinful nation" crowd will have a handy way to regain traction and reassert themselves. The shrillness of their pronouncements will stand in inverse proportion to their actual numbers. But squeaky wheels . . .

[abaris]

Christianity will slowly dwindle in the U.S. That's the good news. Unfortunately, its decline will mirror the relative decline in American power, influence, and wealth. I suspect there will be no end of religious opportunists who will claim the former caused the latter (hell, they already do). Since there are a lot of American simpletons who will look for simple-minded answers to their nation's decline and people to blame for it, the "God turned his back on a sinful nation" crowd will have a handy way to regain traction and reassert themselves. The shrillness of their pronouncements will stand in inverse proportion to their actual numbers. But squeaky wheels . . .

There's even a worse outcome for the whole world. Let one of these nutters, having our very own professor's mindset, become president with republican dominated houses. They're looking forward to Armageddon and so this creature might very well work towards it happening.

[Mister Agenda]

I make it more than sixty years before we start to get close to being a majority in the USA (and I'll be in my early hundreds if I live that long), but I can reasonably hope to live to see outright atheists making up 20% of the US population (30-40 years from now, optimistically). I think the internet is going to drive a faster change than occurred in Europe, now that the trend has started. And that's a big enough minority for atheists to get all the consideration they could reasonably want, I think. Everyone will know atheists and most atheists will be 'out'. Stereotypes will be hard to support beause so many people will have first-hand knowledge of how diverse we are. Theists will change too, and become largely less fundamentalist, reducing the tension between atheists and theists considerably. Groups focused around atheist solidarity will fade as they become unnecessary: atheists won't need that kind of help anymore to find people who don't have a problem with their atheism. And major Christian denominations will be happy to have atheists as members, just as they're coming to grips with including gays. And that's what will slow down the rise of atheism in the USA: when a Christian family can take their atheist kid to church without him or her having to pretend to believe things they don't and having a preacher tell them things about atheists and evolution they know aren't true or their parents being hateful to them for not believing all the same things they do, churches will reduce their production of atheists considerably.

[Crossless2.0]

There's even a worse outcome for the whole world. Let one of these nutters, having our very own professor's mindset, become president with republican dominated houses. They're looking forward to Armageddon and so this creature might very well work towards it happening.

Yes, I can see it now [Vietnam redux]: We had to destroy the Holy Land in order to save it.

[watchamadoodle]

Does anybody have any links describing these changes in Europe? I've tried googling in the past and not found much.

What is Christianity like today in Europe? Are they more intense than in the past due to their minority status?