Decline of religion

[Gawdzilla Sama]

There used to be a retirement home for nuns not far from me. It was closed by court order because the church wasn't paying the utilities. It was auctioned off for back taxes and liens and is now a NoTel Motel. Facilities are said to be posh for a country town in Missouri.

[Fake Messiah]

Fareed Zakaria addressed yesterday the growing loss of religion in the US. While he credits science (better understanding of the world) and reason for people leaving religion, he also claims that the main factor is that religion has become something associated with Republicans and thus people who don't want to be associated with Republicans are ditching religion. Which to me sounds nonsensical because if people believed that they had strong evidence for the existence of God, they would do anything to please him. Another nonsense is that he claims how people have an inborn desire to believe in God ("a hole in the body that needs to be filled with god"), and thus, it is dangerous to fill this hole with just anything.

[MR. Macabre 666]

Fareed Zakaria addressed yesterday the growing loss of religion in the US. While he credits science (better understanding of the world) and reason for people leaving religion, he also claims that the main factor is that religion has become something associated with Republicans and thus people who don't want to be associated with Republicans are ditching religion. Which to me sounds nonsensical because if people believed that they had strong evidence for the existence of God, they would do anything to please him.  Another nonsense is that he claims how people have an inborn desire to believe in God ("a hole in the body that needs to be filled with god"), and thus, it is dangerous to fill this hole with just anything.

What a load of shit, everything has to be political with these losers. All you need to know is which network this clown is on. The clown news network.

[Belacqua]

What a load of shit, everything has to be political with these losers. All you need to know is which network this clown is on. The clown news network.

Yes, they analyze everything as if it was caused by the most recent election cycle. Silly. 

The decline of religion has been going on for a long time. There are lots of reasons, but the most fundamental one is that religion becomes untenable in a capitalist society. And since capitalism got started in the 16th century and has been on the rise ever since, religion is bound to lose.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

What a load of shit, everything has to be political with these losers. All you need to know is which network this clown is on. The clown news network.

Yes, they analyze everything as if it was caused by the most recent election cycle. Silly. 

The decline of religion has been going on for a long time. There are lots of reasons, but the most fundamental one is that religion becomes untenable in a capitalist society. And since capitalism got started in the 16th century and has been on the rise ever since, religion is bound to lose.

(Bold mine)



Boru

[The Grand Nudger]

A better understanding of our world and negative associations are two prominent reasons that people give for their not having or having left religion. It's difficult to tell what people really mean when they talk about god shaped holes, but human beings are intuitively religious.

[arewethereyet]

Just my opinion but I think that a lot of people hold onto religion as part of belonging to a group. In the South it's not uncommon to be asked who your church family is.

People move away more now...they don't stay withing fifty miles of their birthplace along with other members of their FOO. There is a sense of belonging that is important for some people to feel connected...and churches often provide support even if it's rather superficial.

I don't see religion going away as it's a means to be part of a group which, for some, provides a feeling of place and of safety. All the other is just part of playing the game.

[ShinyCrystals]

Just my opinion but I think that a lot of people hold onto religion as part of belonging to a group.  In the South it's not uncommon to be asked who your church family is.

People move away more now...they don't stay withing fifty miles of their birthplace along with other members of their FOO.  There is a sense of belonging that is important for some people to feel connected...and churches often provide support even if it's rather superficial.

I don't see religion going away as it's a means to be part of a group which, for some, provides a feeling of place and of safety.  All the other is just part of playing the game.

It may not be just religion, but other groups as well, such as gangs and mafias. You are right though. I think of needing a feeling of place and safety as a psychological need, and as long as people have that kind of psychological need, religion, as well as the other kinds of groups I mentioned, may never truly go away.

[Fake Messiah]

There goes another tradition down the drain. People should really get used to this by now.

Visitation Academy, the all-girls Catholic school in Bay Ridge, will close its doors at the end of this school year, ending its 169-year legacy in Brooklyn.

In the letter to parents, which was shared with Brooklyn Paper, the Visitation Sisters of Brooklyn said there are only two nuns left at the Brooklyn Visitation Monastery.

“We have come to the sad decision that we must leave our home here and end our ministry and sponsorship of Visitation Academy,” the sisters wrote. “Despite the several creative efforts of the Visitation Academy Board, and others, we will close Visitation Academy at the end of this academic year in June 2024.”

Nadia Mastromichalis, who has two daughters enrolled at the school, said parents “have not been given answers” as to what exactly drove the decision to close the monastery and the school. Rumors that Visitation Academy was struggling financially and that the property was slated to be sold have been swirling for two years, she said, but school officials repeatedly reassured parents that nothing was amiss.

Catholic schools have taken a hit in New York City in the last few years. In 2020, the Diocese of Brooklyn — which operates Visitation Academy — was forced to close six schools in Brooklyn and Queens, including Queen of the Rosary in Williamsburg and St. Gregory the Great in Crown Heights. Last year, the Archdiocese of New York — which operates separately from the Brooklyn Diocese — closed 12 schools and merge four together due to financial issues and low enrollment.

https://www.brooklynpaper.com/bay-ridge-...shut-down/

[Fake Messiah]

Italy faces catastrophic collapse of Catholic faith as Mass attendance falls to 10% or below

According to Diotallevi’s study, which is based on figures from ISTAT, the Italian National Statistics Institute, Mass attendance in Italy has been in freefall since 1993, with a more marked decline from 2005 on and another dive in 2020 and 2021, corresponding with the period of the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2017 for the first time, the number of Italian Catholics who “never” attend Mass exceeded the number who said they attended “at least once a week.”

In 1993 the number of practicing Catholics in relation to the total population of Italy was already low at 37.3 percent. This fell to 23.7 percent in 2019. Diotallevi points out that declared regular Sunday Mass attendance is always higher than actual attendance, so the actual percentage of practicing Catholics is even lower than official stats show.

Diotallevi’s study also revealed demographic trends in Italy’s decline of Mass attendance. One notable trend was a marked increase in the abandonment of the faith by Italian women, once regarded in the Catholic nation as the “pillars of the parish.”

Highlighting the consequences for the traditional manner of handing on the faith within the home, the Italian author argued that the abandonment of the practice of Catholicism by Italian women spell a drastic further decline that will be seen in the next generation, which will have been raised without faith.

Exploring the possible causes of such a catastrophic abandonment of Catholicism in a land which lies at the heart of the Church, the Roman professor surmised that among the likely causes are the liturgical abuses and upheavals to which the Church in Italy has been subjected. He particularly pointed to the “progressive spectacularization of Vatican liturgies that has occurred over the past three pontificates” in Rome, as well as the liturgical innovations with which Italian clergy have scandalized faithful Catholics.

This is not even to mention the many moral, doctrinal, and financial scandals with which the Vatican has long been riddled, which have certainly disaffected Italian Catholics from trusting the Church and practicing the faith.

Professor Diotallevi’s dire diagnosis is that very soon in Italy, the practice of the Catholic faith through attendance at Sunday Mass “will be reduced to a figure approaching 10% of the population, which in many parts of the country corresponds to an actual figure in the single digits.”

The crisis of religion today, he concludes, is evidenced in the imminent near total collapse of Catholicism in a country that has produced more than 200 popes, and within which lies the heart of the Church.

https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/italy-...-or-below/