(April 22, 2014 at 11:25 am)Stimbo Wrote: That could be the problem. Having an established church might be acting as a straitjacket, keeping the more extreme nutters in check. That's not to say that we don't have our share of religious idiocy, just that we keep ours in a zoo.
Really, I think it's worked out better for you that way. Technically, Britain IS a Christian nation since it has a state church but that turned out to work really well for the atheists and other sane people.
By maintaining a state religion, you've kept the church fat, content and protected. There's no need for the church leaders to make it appealing to the general public because there's no need to sell the product. Just stay with tradition where people are herded in, they mumble some stuff and you herd them back out again. The plus side is far fewer people take it seriously.
Our founders made the mistake of thinking that the way to keep Christian insanity from taking over the government was to maintain a strict separation of Church and State. You see, they didn't understand evolution back then. If they had, they might have known they were cultivating a dangerous, aggressive strain of the Christian virus.
Religion was cut off from public funding and tossed out on the street. In order to survive, it had to find ways to appeal to the general public. The dreary ones clinging to tradition died. The ones that dressed up the services with flair and razzle-dazzle attracted more followers, survived and grew.
Come to America sometime and go looking for a Puritan church. You won't find one. You know why? The Puritans took away all the fun stuff that people liked, including Christmas and Easter. Dreary versions of Christianity might still persist in some corners but they've mostly been snuffed out by their competition in what could be called "survival of the flashiest".
Now for some contrast, take a gander at a mega-church sometime, that is if you can stand the creepy feeling of walking through an insane asylum except where the inmates run the facility. You'll hear rock music, you'll see showmanship and you'll hear passionate public speakers raving about how The Holy Spirit can change your life. As a businessman myself, part of me would admire the marketing flair but for the ethical concerns that the product doesn't really exist.
It turns out Britain had the right idea all along. Keep religion fat and protected, like a drugged animal in a carefully maintained cage. Who cares that you really are a Christian nation if nobody who lives there is a Christian?
Atheist Forums Hall of Shame:
"The trinity can be equated to having your cake and eating it too."
... -Lucent, trying to defend the Trinity concept
"(Yahweh's) actions are good because (Yahweh) is the ultimate standard of goodness. That’s not begging the question"
... -Statler Waldorf, Christian apologist
"The trinity can be equated to having your cake and eating it too."
... -Lucent, trying to defend the Trinity concept
"(Yahweh's) actions are good because (Yahweh) is the ultimate standard of goodness. That’s not begging the question"
... -Statler Waldorf, Christian apologist
