Decline of religion

[Lek]

Pick your stats. There's no doubt that Christianity is growing in China as they are suppressd and persecuted.

[Ravenshire]

Pick your stats. There's no doubt that Christianity is growing in China as they are suppressd and persecuted.

It feeds into the christer persecution complex. So the fuck what?!? Just because a bunch of other people believe the same fairy tales as you  doesn't make your fairy tale true.

[Mister Agenda]

It's funny that in this country where we are free to worship, people are leaving the churches in droves. In China where they are persecuted and forced to worship underground the church is growing in
leaps and bounds. China is supposed to have the world's largest number of Christians by the year 2050. It seems that when religions are persecuted that is when they grow the most.

Funny thing happens when you talk numbers in a hugely populated country like China. Like Christianity is growing by leaps and bounds...to 2% of the population; comparable to the percenage of Americans who are Muslims. But in China that's around 28.2 million Christians. The USA has about 209-210 million Christians and is probably currently the country with the largest number of Christians in 2023.

If China's population stays roughly the same; when they top the USA's population of Christians, they'll be about 15% of China's population.

But I don't think you're wrong that Chrisitanity tends to thrive under persecution.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

Pick your stats. There's no doubt that Christianity is growing in China as they are suppressd and persecuted.

Of course it’s growing. Persecution always moves people towards religion. Happy, un-persecuted people don’t need imaginary friends to get them through the day.

Boru

[Lek]

I'm glad you're happy. You sound angry to me.

[Ravenshire]

I'm glad you're happy.  You sound angry to me.

Frustrated with your bullshit is not the same thing as angry.

[Fake Messiah]

What Really Happens When Americans Stop Going to Church

Millions of Americans are leaving church, never to return, and it would be easy to think that this will make the country more secular and possibly more liberal. After all, that is what happened in Northern and Western Europe in the 1960s: A younger generation quit going to Anglican, Lutheran, or Catholic churches and embraced a liberal, secular pluralism that shaped European politics for the rest of the 20th century and beyond. Something similar happened in the traditionally Catholic Northeast, where, at the end of the 20th century, millions of white Catholics in New England, New York, and other parts of the Northeast quit going to church. Today most of those states are pretty solidly blue and firmly supportive of abortion rights.

So, as church attendance declines even in the southern Bible Belt and the rural Midwest, history might seem to suggest that those regions will become more secular, more supportive of abortion and LGBTQ rights, and more liberal in their voting patterns. But that is not what is happening. Declines in church attendance have made the rural Republican regions of the country even more Republican and—perhaps most surprising—more stridently Christian nationalist. The wave of states banning gender-affirming care this year and the adoption of “proud Christian nationalist” as an identity by politicians such as Marjorie Taylor Greene (who even marketed T-shirts with the slogan) is not what many people might have expected at a time when church attendance is declining.

Still, what’s going on in the South and Midwest is consistent with what happened in the Northeast: People hold onto their politics when they stop attending church. Just as liberal Christians in Massachusetts and Connecticut stayed liberal when they dropped off their church’s membership roll, so conservative Christians in Alabama and Indiana stay conservative even when they’re no longer part of a congregation.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...on/675215/

[FrustratedFool]

Would I be right in saying that the surest way to see religion wither would be to have a society that was prosperous, secular, safe, egalitarian, technological, and liberal?

In the UK, although the general mood towards religion soured after WW1, it wasn't really until the 60s that Christianity started on its rapid decline. And the primary factor in that really seems to be the contraceptive pill, though social factors played their part.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

I'm glad you're happy.  You sound angry to me.

*indulgent chuckle* You haven't seen me angry.

Boru

[The Grand Nudger]

A prosperous, secular, safe, egalitarian, technological and liberal society...insomuch as we've managed that... has lead to the creation of religious ideation to match.  Dominionist culture war backlash is to that, and precisely that.