Posted on 05/09/2016 11:38:52 AM PDT by sparklite2
Is religion about to die out? Growing wealth is causing belief in moralising gods to decline - and it could make it vanish entirely
Dr Baumard said: 'You are clearly at a disadvantage if you follow a slow strategy when others follow a faster strategy - if you are faithful when others grab sexual opportunities, if you forgive when others avenge, if you work when others have fun.
'This disadvantage incentivised the elite to morally condemn fast behaviours, in part by adopting and promoting the new religions that legitimised and reinforced a slow morality and promised punishment for trangressors.
'The same idea [growing wealth] could also explain the gradual decline of moralising religion in wealthier parts of the world such as Western Europe and the northern parts of North America.'
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
“You are clearly at a disadvantage if you follow a slow strategy when others follow a faster strategy - if you are faithful when others grab sexual opportunities, if you forgive when others avenge, if you work when others have fun.”
Sorta what Jesus was talking about . . . and why it is holy and hard at the same time. But, Jesus didn’t merely “suggest” that we be this way, he commanded it.
That’s my own opinion (but it is not an UNfounded opinion).
Oldplayer
I guess this author hasn’t been paying attention to what’s happening in London.
Could be forced underground but no, can't vanish.
Also, while parents play an important role in imparting religion to a child, there are many cases of devout parents having atheist children.
From The Threat We Face by David Horowitz:
"An SDS radical wrote in the Sixties: “The issue is never the issue. The issue is always the revolution.” The Alinsky version is this: The issue is never the issue; the issue is always power : How to wring power out of the democratic process, how turn the process into an instrument of progressive control. How to use it to fundamentally transform the United States of America."
And no, a belief in God is not going away. Hopefully a resurgence of Judeo/Christian ethics and local church affiliation is on the rise with families in America.
"Over a half century ago, while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of old people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia: 'Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened.' Since then I have spent well-nigh 50 years working on the history of our revolution; in the process I have read hundreds of books, collected hundreds of personal testimonies, and have already contributed eight volumes of my own toward the effort of clearing away the rubble left by that upheaval. But if I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous revolution that swallowed up some 60 million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: 'Men have forgotten God; that’s why all this has happened." - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, (Edward E. Ericson, Jr., “Solzhenitsyn – Voice from the Gulag,” Eternity, October 1985, pp. 23-4)
The push for atheism by the left and the concomitant alliance with Islam - "Enemy of my enemy is my friend." - will be the push over the next 100 yrs to destroy capitalism.
We can't let that happen. Pray for America and prepare.
Not with bearded savages. They are getting more religious.
1 John 2:15 -17
15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.
Morality is a real thing that people feel an obligation toward even without belief in any particular religion. People will often bicker as to whether a particular thing was fair or unfair, but rarely do they ever maintain that fairness is not a real thing....even the naturalist whose world view implies its not a real thing, will bicker with the rest of us about whether something was fair or not.
As for the effect of religions on morality, some may indeed heighten a sense of morality, like a Christian following the words of Jesus to love one's neighbor as one's self and even love and be kind to one's enemies. And some religions deaden one's sense of moral duties and helps make excuses for bad behavior, like Islam sanctifying the brutal conquest and abuse of non-Muslims. Or like the highly corrupted version of Christianity that was overthrown by the reformation. Both pure Islam, and this corrupted version of Christianity indeed served the elite's goals in their time, but neither of them increased one's sense of morality, rather they were less moral than the human norm.
Atheism and religion aren’t passed on exclusively from parents to children — millions of church-going older people have spawned a generation that, by a statistical majority, scorns faith.
No.
No!
People don’t remember the quote in the Bible: “And the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
Speaking of his Church.
Through thousands of years, the Christian faith seems to be stronger during adverse times.
Only if they are virgin Jewish men of the tribes of Israel.
I haven't figured out yet what you believe, but you need to repent of it and turn to Christ.
Whatever experiences you've had notwithstanding, the Bible is ***NOT*** a "theory.
It is the God breathed, Holy Spirit inspired, unchanging, rock solid word of the living God.
It is not subservient to your experiences. It is the measure of all things, including whatever experiences you've had. And if those experiences do not line up with what God says, they are not of God, they are deceptions of the enemy no matter what it feels like to you.
I just wish the “moralising atheists” would go away!
Agreed.
I have been to churches where the Preacher/Minister will talk for hours and never mention Christ or the Devil.
“I haven’t figured out yet what you believe, but you need to repent of it and turn to Christ.”
When you are filled with the Holy Spirit it allows you to perceive Christ directly. I do not just believe in Christ, I know and experience Him daily. It is He who gives purpose to my life. It’s not a matter of just repenting and turning to Christ, you must be one with Christ and only then is our Father also perceived by us.
Until an individual follows the teachings in the Bible and the teachings of Jesus fully, what they are reading is just theory. It is only when a person moves ahead and fully experiences Jesus’ teachings that one recognizes them as scientific fact. There is no such thing as a miracle, it is merely science that we do not currently understand.
Guess what, when you follow the teachings of the Bible and have Christ in you, the teachings of Buddha and Krishna also make absolute sense and you quickly realize that they were both trying to teach almost the same thing. Dying daily in Christianity and being an empty vessel for example is much the same as the concept of non-attachment in Buddhism. People spend way to much time arguing that their own religion is the one and only while withholding Love from anyone who does not agree with their opinions. (Remember what John said in 1John 4, that if you do not Love your neighbor and say that you Love God, you are a liar.) We can learn much about our own religion by also learning the religions of others, after all the anatomy & physiology of all human souls is about the same.
In Christianity we recognize both the Old Testament and the New Testament of the Bible. Jesus’ teachings in the NT go beyond the OT and teach us that Love and Forgiveness is far more important than an eye for an eye.
As such, we must use discernment when reading the OT. While the Bible is the inspired word of God, mankind has made some translation and interpretation errors. How many different Bibles are there? How many different religions are there? If it were crystal clear everyone would agree. We need to stop hunting for splinters in the eyes of others and search for the logs in our own eyes. True religion is only found by going deep within your soul and seeking guidance to interpret scriptures. List to your actual teacher, Jesus. He is within you.
“What would things look like if Satan really took control of a city? Over a half century ago, Presbyterian minister Donald Grey Barnhouse offered his own scenario in his weekly sermon that was also broadcast nationwide on CBS radio. Barnhouse speculated that if Satan took over Philadelphia, all of the bars would be closed, pornography banished, and pristine streets would be filled with tidy pedestrians who smiled at each other. There would be no swearing. The children would say, “Yes, sir” and “No, ma’am,” and the churches would be full every Sunday . . . where Christ is not preached.”
Scary and brilliant theory!
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