RE: Article: "Why Are Young People Leaving Evangelical Christianity?"
February 27, 2012 at 6:50 pm
(February 27, 2012 at 3:54 pm)reverendjeremiah Wrote: [quote='Chuck' pid='245747' dateline='1330372195']
I think globalization and internet are not the real causes, because those things works both ways. It may enable the less uneducated to teach themselves the gaps in their theology, but it also enable greedy churches to more cheaply reach out to the more uneducated around the world. I think the proximal cause is many evengelical churches, lusting after easy conquest amongst the most retarded and uneducated in the US and around the world, overplayed the chrismatic and wealth gasple parts, and became repulsive to the less uneducated portions of its former constituecy.
Yeah, you're right, things do work both ways. The internet is used heavily in churches and Christian organizations. Any believer who does any research on the internet needs to have a hefty brain filter to filter out the lies of Satin *note sarcasm* these days, but they seem to do it.
Believe it or not churches used to be better at putting the fear of Satin and his deception into the congregation. Now these mega churches preach the feel good gospel and there appears to be an increasing number of people who are oddly brainwashed not to think much about what they believe or don't believe. It doesn't occur to them to be critical. I suppose this is supposed to be a good thing, but I'm not too sure of this. It seems like this sort of brainwashing produces sheeple who attend church and vote for any idiot who calls his or herself a Christian.
These people kind of coast through life. They don't need to make any big decisions about what they believe or don't believe because the church is pretty permissive. I went to a bible study with someone who was openly living with someone she was not married to. This would not have been acceptable a few decades ago. In mega churches it's hard to get to know people. There exists very little accountability. I bet you could be an axe murder in one of those churches and no one would know it. When it comes to accountability, What churches seem to care about is if you quit donating or if you are becoming an atheist, the rest isn't that big of a deal.
Quote:I think the internet had a lot to do with the rise of Atheism. Many atheists I have met have said they came to skepticism on their own, but that the net really did help them reach atheism. It helped me become an atheist
http://www.skepticsannotatedbible.com
I have to agree with you on that one. If someone is looking, he or she can find not only a plethora of available information but also forums, meet up groups, self help groups etc.
Personally I do blame the people on this forum for pushing me into atheism *the deceiving scum that you are, lol*. Yes, I would have gotten there on my own eventually but, after talking out the issues, I had to either deal with the facts or deal with the fact that I wasn't choosing to deal with the facts. The latter of which would have caused too much cognitive dissonance for me. Also I was able to come across information that I might not have found on my own due to the outporing of vile blasphemous filth that emanates from this place.

I have studied the Bible and the theology behind Christianity for many years. I have been to many churches. I have walked the depth and the breadth of the religion and, as a result of this, I have a lot of bullshit to scrape off the bottom of my shoes. ~Ziploc Surprise