http://www.salon.com/2013/01/16/religion..._internet/

Religion may not survive the Internet
THURSDAY, JAN 17, 2013 12:30 AM +0800

Quote:This article originally appeared on AlterNet.
As we head into a new year, the guardians of traditional religion are ramping up efforts to keep their flocks—or, in crass economic terms, to retain market share. Some Christians have turned to soul searching while others have turned to marketing. Last fall, the LDS church spent millions on billboards, bus banners, and Facebook ads touting “I’m a Mormon.” In Canada, the Catholic Church has launched a “Come Home” marketing campaign. The Southern Baptists Convention voted to rebrand themselves. A hipster mega-church in Seattle combines smart advertising with sales force training for members and a strategy the Catholics have emphasized for centuries: competitive breeding.

In October of 2012 the Pew Research Center announced that for the first time ever Protestant Christians had fallen below 50 percent of the American population. Atheists cheered and evangelicals beat their breasts and lamented the end of the world as we know it. Historian of religion, Molly Worthen, has since offered big picture insights that may dampen the most extreme hopes and fears. Anthropologist Jennifer James, on the other hand, has called fundamentalism the “death rattle” of the Abrahamic traditions.

Curious

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Further to why religion should NOT attract the secular taxpayers dollars!

http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/if-r...r-dollars/

Quote:These controversial exemptions result in the lawful discrimination of employees and prospective employees that don’t act in accordance with the religious teachings, entrenching them as second-class citizens, if they are employed directly by the religious institution.

There are now very loud calls for this discrimination to stop, especially as churches are enriched by the generosity of the taxpayer. The Attorney General is overseeing a major change to discrimination laws. Despite this, she has all but ruled out any change to the exemptions for religions.

It is something I feel rather passionate about. IF this god is so wonderful he can pay for these organisations.

I am sick of religious institutions being given tax exemptions. "It's a charity," they'll say. I don't see many charities with such elegantly ornate and decorated buildings, I really don't. But I sure see a ton of churches decorated with elegant mosaics, fancy furnishings, chandeliers, all sorts of trappings of decadence that you would never see in a non-profit organization's office. The only reason religious people get this benefit is because they're so numerous, but even the numbers out and you'll find far fewer people willing to tolerate it. It's especially hilarious when Christians start screaming about making Sharia law illegal amongst muslim communities because it contends against the "established" law. Yet the established laws regarding separation of church and state don't mean much when it comes to getting that tax exempt status from the government...

I agree it is horrendous that religious organizations are still exempt from paying tax.

And many other legislated laws that other secular organisations HAVE to adhere to.

Pathetic really.

Ah, yes. The internet's affect on religiosity. Hovik and I have had this conversation before. Many people take the internet for granted, but it's changed everything. Constant access to infinite knowledge allows us to focus on critical thinking rather than the memorization of fact. When my parents went through school, they were taught how they were supposed to think about an event as a part of the lesson. These days (at least in my schools), they don't teach what to think anymore. They just teach HOW to think. The internet was a huge role in this change (and I'd boldly state it was the cause if I had more than anecdotal evidence). I think this mentality has messed with religion (and maybe nationalism) a bit. When you're presented with fact that you know don't make sense, what do you do when you're heard all your life it's true? You either ease your dissonance with some kind of reasoning about how, logically, this could be that or that this is just a misunderstanding, ect, ect (which I believe to be the cause of more liberal/moderate religious people where they are trying to reconcile modern morality with their religion's traditional morals). Or you hit reverse and get yourself out of religion. Lol

Or GFGI

(January 17, 2013 at 9:31 am)Annik Wrote: Ah, yes. The internet's affect on religiosity. Hovik and I have had this conversation before. Many people take the internet for granted, but it's changed everything. Constant access to infinite knowledge allows us to focus on critical thinking rather than the memorization of fact.

Yet most people use it to fish for items that confirm what they want to believe.

In my experience, critical thinking on boards such as this has decreased tremendously in the past 10-12 years.

Although technology is not allowing woo or superstition to hide so easily, lets not get ahead of ourselves here. Always remember that evolution is on going and never stagnant. Nor does it require a label to continue.

I will agree that what happened in the ancient religions of polytheism dying, can happen to modern religions, there is also nothing stopping new monochromatic delusions in the future from taking new forms.

The key is to remember that any form of worship, be it of a state, or a god, or even a "philosophy" can lead to very horrible things if the ability to question those things is oppressed.

I think we are growing as a species, but we cannot forget that evolution has always had, and will always have a side of benefit and a side of destruction. We have to remember that evolution is a process, not a label.

Even regarding information, the internet only helps if you actually use it - by Googling "middle east bears" for instance.