RE: Murder mystery: what killed Christianity in Europe?
April 29, 2015 at 9:52 am
(This post was last modified: April 29, 2015 at 9:59 am by Dystopia.)
I found something in website about why Americans dislike atheists and I think the first two points may be important:
http://www.bornagainpagan.com/texts/024-...heists.htm
As a southern European my experience is that people value separation of Church and State highly and they dislike anything that breaks that principle, so that means you ought to respect everyone's personal beliefs and be free to pick what you want to believe in - There's not a mentality that you must be Christian to be good and many Europeans dislike the Catholic Church for being corrupt and overly rich. Also, I believe most of Europe must teach science in primary, secondary and highschool and things like Creationism aren't allowed in public schools (and Catholic schools teach evolution).
Most Europeans still consider themselves Christians but they are more like "cultural Christians" than anything else. You can easily be a Christian by simply going to Church once a year and reading the bible once a month, or not even reading it at all, it's not like you have to go to church every week to be considered part of a group - Most people don't have patience to go to church that often and find other ways of managing social needs.
In countries like Sweden quality of life and education levels are high so people naturally step away from religion.
Politicians are rarely asked their religious beliefs and it's strongly frowned upon to argue about it during political debates because your beliefs should have no impact on how you legislate.
Most countries in Europe have strong post-war constitutions that guarantee the separation of Church and State and that leads to amounts of anti-discrimination laws to protect minorities.
Things like the legalization of same-sex marriage and abortion, drugs and euthanasia also give people less reasons to be religious.
Quote:(1) America was settled, at least initially, by religious fundamentalists who wanted to set up a sort of theocratic republic (before anyone jumps down my throat and says, "The founding fathers were not Christians" - yes, I know, I'm not talking about Jefferson or Paine or Franklin, the people who signed the Declaration of Independence and wrote the US Constitution - I'm talking about the people who went to America in the 1600s. This left a DEEP cultural idea in the American people that they were a 'chosen people' living in a 'promised land' etc. God loves America; so for an American not to love God back is seen as a sort of treason.
(2) The popular religion that developed in the USA, especially along the frontier and in the South, was anti-intellectual. Unlike in Italy, where the Catholics have a hierarchy and a trained priesthood, the dominant form of Christianity in the USA comes out of evangelical traditions and 'revivalism', where anyone with a spattering of Bible knowledge and a good shouting voice could start a church. This led to a very simplistic, literalist, bible-based theology. The broader education and humanist philosophy of the priests in catholic (and anglican and lutheran) churches in Europe mitigated against this trend and produced a religion which is in some ways more 'porous'.
http://www.bornagainpagan.com/texts/024-...heists.htm
As a southern European my experience is that people value separation of Church and State highly and they dislike anything that breaks that principle, so that means you ought to respect everyone's personal beliefs and be free to pick what you want to believe in - There's not a mentality that you must be Christian to be good and many Europeans dislike the Catholic Church for being corrupt and overly rich. Also, I believe most of Europe must teach science in primary, secondary and highschool and things like Creationism aren't allowed in public schools (and Catholic schools teach evolution).
Most Europeans still consider themselves Christians but they are more like "cultural Christians" than anything else. You can easily be a Christian by simply going to Church once a year and reading the bible once a month, or not even reading it at all, it's not like you have to go to church every week to be considered part of a group - Most people don't have patience to go to church that often and find other ways of managing social needs.
In countries like Sweden quality of life and education levels are high so people naturally step away from religion.
Politicians are rarely asked their religious beliefs and it's strongly frowned upon to argue about it during political debates because your beliefs should have no impact on how you legislate.
Most countries in Europe have strong post-war constitutions that guarantee the separation of Church and State and that leads to amounts of anti-discrimination laws to protect minorities.
Things like the legalization of same-sex marriage and abortion, drugs and euthanasia also give people less reasons to be religious.
Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you
