Posted on 03/04/2005 4:26:23 PM PST by Lindykim
The Christian Underground --- Science, frauds trigger a decline in atheism By Uwe Siemon-Netto March 4, 2005
GURAT, France -- Godlessness is in trouble, according to a growing consensus among philosophers, intellectuals and scholars. "Atheism as a theoretical position is in decline worldwide," Munich theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg said in an interview.
His Oxford colleague Alister McGrath agrees. Atheism's "future seems increasingly to lie in the private beliefs of individuals rather than in the great public domain it once regarded as its habitat," Mr. McGrath wrote in the U.S. magazine, Christianity Today.
Two developments are plaguing atheism these days. One is that it appears to be losing its scientific underpinnings.
The other is the historical experience of hundreds of millions of people worldwide that atheists are in no position to claim the moral high ground. British philosopher Anthony Flew, once as hard-nosed a humanist as any, has turned his back on atheism, saying it is impossible for evolution to account for the fact that one single cell can carry more data than all the volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica. Mr. Flew still does not accept the God of the Bible. But he has embraced the concept of intelligent design -- a stunning desertion of a former intellectual ambassador of secular humanism to the belief in some form of intelligence behind the design of the universe.
A few years ago, European scientists snickered when studies in the United States -- for example, at Harvard and Duke universities -- showed a correlation between faith, prayer and recovery from illness. Now 1,200 studies at research centers around the world have come to similar conclusions, according to "Psychologie Heute," a German journal, citing, for example, the marked improvement of multiple sclerosis patients in Germany's Ruhr District because of "spiritual resources." Atheism's other Achilles' heels are the acts on inhumanity and lunacy committed in its name.
"With time, [atheism] turned out to have just as many frauds, psychopaths and careerists as religion does. ... With Stalin and Madalyn Murray O'Hair, atheism seems to have ended up mimicking the vices of the Spanish Inquisition and the worst televangelists, respectively," Mr. McGrath wrote in Christianity Today.
The Rev. Paul M. Zulehner, dean of Vienna University's divinity school and one of the world's most distinguished sociologists of religion, said atheists in Europe have become "an infinitesimally small group."
"There are not enough of them to be used for sociological research," he said. Mr. Zulehner cautioned, however, that the decline of atheism in Europe does not mean that re-Christianization is taking place.
"What we are observing instead is a re-paganization," he said. The Rev. Gerald McDermott, an Episcopal priest and professor of religion and philosophy at Roanoke College in Salem, Va., said a similar phenomenon is taking place in the United States.
"The rise of all sorts of paganism is creating a false spirituality that proves to be a more dangerous rival to the Christian faith than atheism," he said. After all, a Satanist is also "spiritual." Mr. Pannenberg, a Lutheran, praised the Roman Catholic Church for handling this peril more wisely than many of his fellow Protestants.
"The Catholics stick to the central message of Christianity without making any concessions in the ethical realm," he said, referring to issues such as same-sex "marriages" and abortion. In a similar vein, Mr. Zulehner, a Catholic, sees Christianity's greatest opportunity when its message addresses two seemingly irreconcilable quests of contemporary humanity -- the quest for freedom and truth.
"Christianity alone affirms that truth and God's dependability are inseparable properties to which freedom is linked." As for the "peril of spirituality," Mr. Zulehner sounded quite sanguine. He concluded from his research that in the long run, the survival of worldviews should be expected to follow this lineup: "The great world religions are best placed," he said.
As a distant second he sees the diffuse forms of spirituality. Atheism, he said, will come in at the tail end.
http://insider.washingtontimes.com/articles/print.php?StoryID=20050303-115733-9519r moderator@christian-underground.com http://www.christian-underground.com/archive/read.php?sid=734 Posted to the CU: 2005-03-04 01:18:16 CST
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ping
OT, but very interesting nonetheless.
Wolfhart Pannenberg.......very strange......very 'Pannenberg'...
Your snide retort in lieu of a well-reasoned refutation simply lends more credence to why atheism, an empty, illogical philosophy, is dying.
Do they have some sinister motivation for promoting this view? If they instead complained atheism was on the rise would you have been more surprised?
For instance, both Rush Limbaugh and Micheal Savage could be called "professional" conservatives. Rush seems to have the upbeat attitude that conservatism is winning, Micheal seems to have the biter attitude it is losing. Which belief is supposed to be a surprise?
To draw a distinction:
Atheism: There is no God.
Agnosticism: There is no way to tell if there is a God.
Apathy: I don't care whether there is a God or not.
I agree. I'll bet if you got a bunch of professional Atheists together, they'd go on about the decline of Christianity.
Besides that, there are a lot of religions around, and as long as they don't advocate human sacrifice, mutilation, pedophilia, ect, who cares what anybody believes?
I heartily dislike anybody giving me a baleful stare and giving me the third-degree on my belief in or about a cult that sprung up several decades after a Jewish carpenter and reformist rabbi was brutally killed, and that centuries ago. Nor do I appreciate people who cut other people's heads off because they didn't adhere to the more brutal rantings of a warlord who may have been an epileptic.
I'm an American. I believe in a strictly secular form of govenment based on American culture and system of law, which is based on Judeo Christian principles. But, implicit in our culture is the drive to tolerate other religions and creeds. If somebody wants to venerate an oak tree in their backyard, so what? Even if a million people find peace of mind in the practice, it doesn't mean the end of Civilization.
.......Psychiatric-atheism, an empty, illogical philosophy, is dying.
.......Freud
but,.....
.......Psychiatric-Paganism,...an, empty, illogical philosophy, is on the rise....
.......Jung
................it's still the empty, illogical philosophy of psychiatric-Priesthood.
All of Romans chapter 10
Regarding the main article- comparing the Spanish Inquisition and Stalin is really unfair, though I am sure it was not Dr. McGrath's intent. Stalin killed, through his man-made famines alone, some fourteen million people, including five to as high as ten million in the Ukraine in the course of one year. The Spanish Inquisition no where approached Stalin's atrocities. Yet how many Americans immediately recognize the Inquisition (and, while we're at it, McCarthy's "Witch Hunt"), but have never even heard of the country of Ukraine, much less the forced famine of the 30's, or Stalin's purges, or even the Soviet gulags in all likelyhood?
Professional Godist concerned no-one cares to argeue with him anymore. He might have to find a job that acually matters to the world.
"Europe seems to be generally adopting: a total lack of interest in whether or not there is a God."
In the not too distant future uncommited Europeans will be given the chance to accept Allah or have their throats cut.
Show an "atheist" a scene of supreme horror and the first three words out of his mouth will be "Oh My God".
Atheists are hypocrites.
Regarding a previous post, apathy is not a separate position. It is simply lazy athiesm. A belief or non-belief in God is too important in our daily lives, and too often mentioned, for one to be apathetic about.
(A)Take a stab at explaining your 'creation story' to me. (B)Explain how nonintelligent, purposeless, meaningless matter somehow or another produced a capacity for reason and logic, or even for that matter {pun intended} how nonintelligent matter knows what reason and logic are. (C) and if you can't explain that, then tell me how any of us can know if whether what we believe is reason and logic are really those things and not just chemically-induced illusions
Please don't resort to the ridiculous "rolling dice" theory.
snip...based on American culture and system of law, which is based on Judeo Christian principles. But, implicit in our culture is the drive to tolerate other religions and creeds. If somebody wants to venerate an oak tree in their backyard, so what? Even if a million people find peace of mind in the practice, it doesn't mean the end of Civilization
The problem is that if those "people who worship oak trees" decide to run for office and let's say, take over one of our political parties, as socialists have done, then by virtue of what they 'believe' (their worldview), America's culture will become as splintered, fractious, and intolerant as it has because of the socialists.
Multiculturalism, which posits that all cultures are equally valid and that all of them can live under one big secular tent under the aegis of secular humanism is a lie.
snip...Show an "atheist" a scene of supreme horror and the first three words out of his mouth will be "Oh My God".
How true. And if you lurk in or paricipate in an atheist/human secular "free thought" discuss forum you'll soon see that not only are they obsessed with God, but their discussions often center around the paranormal.
.....Absolute-Infinite-Moral-Righteousness!
Titus 1:2
Romans 10:17
Ephesians 1,2,3,....!!!
Colossians 1,2,3,...!!!
Genesis 1,2,3,......!!!
St. John 14:6
St.John 8:31,32
Acts 16:31
Revelation 1,2,3,...!!!
Acts 26
St. John 3:36
Revelation 20,21,22,...!!!
Hebrews 6:18
Romans 10
Hebrews 1,8,9,10,11
I believe that's faulty logic. If a pagan wants to run for office, so what? You're saying because somebody wants to worship, say, 'Nana' the Earth mother that they're unfit for office? As I said in my post, if it doesn't involve human sacrifice, etc, who are we to say how anybody else should believe? Realistically, though, what do you think the chances would be for somebody to actually run for Regional and National office as anything but an adherent to some sort of flavor of mainstream (ie 'acceptable') Christianity? How many Jehovah's Witnesses are in high political office? Again, if you're an American, you're subject to American culture and laws, which are based on Judeo Christian principles. You can be a pagan (and by that, I use the term pretty loosely as most people that I know who claim that sort of belief system are, in fact, just tyring to make a statement.) and still adhere to the law of the land.
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