Failing Religions Losing Public Support

Empty pews more commonplace

Religion has stopped having much influence in Scandinavia.  In Sweden, once a bastion of Lutheranism, churches are empty.  That’s true in Ireland, where the child-abuse scandal has undercut faith in that once staunchly Roman Catholic country.  In England, Poland, Italy and Germany, religious influence is fading away, too.

In China, 47 percent of the population claims to be atheistic.  In the Czech Republic, 48 percent admit they have no religion.  In France, which once ferociously defended its Catholic faith, 29 percent of the population identifies themselves as atheists; 34 percent there have no religion, according to the Global Index of Religiosity & Atheism.

Add the United States to the list.

10 Commandments placed in front of a Florida courthouse

A Gallup poll released this week found that more than 75 percent of Americans say “religion is losing its influence in the United States,” according to a CNN report.  That’s the highest such percentage in more than 40 years. In fact, the survey found that American perception of religious power has never been lower.

Devout believers have been well aware of the decay in faith. They have been devoting their efforts to inject religion back into American lives, with well-publicized efforts to post the 10 Commandments in courthouses, force religious prayer into public schools and impose their religious ideas on the public in other ways. Naturally, they are only promulgating Christian teachings.  Attacks on minorities like Jews and Muslims have been designed to make sure that Christianity remains dominate and pervasive here.

Robertson

Their logic is based on biblical teachings where God punishes societies for failing to obey His laws.  As a result, they fear that God will turn his wrath on this society for the collapse of religion in daily life.  People like the Rev. Pat Robertson (left) put such ideas into words by claiming every natural disaster reflects a message from an angry deity.

Nevertheless, such efforts aren’t having much effect.

Benedict XVI

One reason has to be the demoralizing effect of the child abuse scandal that continues to wrack the Roman Catholic Church, the largest single religion in this country with about 24 percent of the population.  This week, another multi million-dollar settlement was announced.  A Cardinal resigned because of his role in covering up the abuse. Other Cardinals have been reprimanded and lost authority. One church leader is already in jail. Various priests have admitted their participation.  Bishops have stepped down.   There’s long been speculation that Pope Benedict XVI resigned his office because of his ties to the Church’s cover-up.

No country housing the Roman Catholic Church has been exempt from the pervasive scandal.

John Paul II

No prelate has avoided being tarred.  Even beloved John Paul II lost a lot of luster when parishioners realized that much of the attempts to shield abusive priests occurred during his time as pope.  The
Vatican never involved itself in the investigation while John Paul II was in office.

The result has been a decline in financial support, increasing shortage of priests and a decline in the use of Church rituals.  People are not turning away from the belief, but from the institution that represents that faith.

Another reality eating away at religious support is the wide increase in knowledge, specifically related to science.  Religion operates best and most successfully when ignorance predominates.  The Church was never stronger than in the Middle Ages when few were literate, much less educated.  Islam, too, makes sure adherents reject anything that challenges religious teachings.  The Middle East has produced virtually no scientific leaders in about 1,000 years because of that -- after previously leading the world in efforts to gain knowledge.

Today, with the internet, it’s impossible to keep scientific advances away from anyone with a computer.  Even the Church has been forced to acknowledge the accuracy of evolution and the Big Bang theory.  God didn’t create the university; He didn’t create man.  There’s not much left for Him to do.

Religion has been relegated to providing dubious answers about the afterlife.  That’s an area lacking data since science can only penetrate that murky time only so far.  The growing awareness that religion has been dead wrong about life, however, ensures doubt about religious teachings about what happens when life ends.

As a result, belief in today’s religions is likely to continue to erode.  That doesn’t mean religions will disappear.  Humans are amazingly resourceful at coming up with new absurd ideas to enthrall themselves.  They’ll happily troop toward some new concept, probably an amalgamation of existing beliefs.

That’s how today’s religions developed.

Countries losing interest in the old faiths may someday become bastions of the new as the cycle renews.  We all want answers.  When the old ones don’t work anymore, we are always ready to seek out something fresh to beguile us.

Long-time religious historian Bill Lazarus regularly writes about religion and religious history.  He also speaks at various religious organizations throughout Florida.  You can reach him at www.williamplazarus.net.  He is the author of the famed Unauthorized Biography of Nostradamus; The Last Testament of Simon Peter; The Gospel Truth: Where Did the Gospel Writers Get Their Information; Noel: The Lore and Tradition of Christmas Carols; and Dummies Guide to Comparative Religion.  His books are available on Amazon.com, Kindle, bookstores and via various publishers.  He can also be followed on Twitter.

You can enroll in his on-line class, Comparative Religion for Dummies, at http://www.udemy.com/comparative-religion-for-dummies/?promote=1

Pope Gives Atheists a Boost

Pope Francis

Atheists have gotten a little love from Pope Francis.  The newly installed pontiff created a small stir May 22 by saying the Jesus’ death saved everyone, including atheists.  Anyone who does good, Catholic or not, is redeemed by the “blood of Christ,” he said.

How nice.

Atheists get to go to a heaven they don’t believe exists because of a deity they don’t believe exists died in a situation that they don’t believe ever happened.  Muslims and Hindus, along with members of all other faiths, must be equally cheered by the pope’s comments.

On the other hand, American atheists are probably relieved someone finally said something nice about them.

Various polls have consistently found that Americans dislike atheists more than members of alternative Christian sects or even people of a different faith.  One study found that more people would not vote for an atheist than would oppose a Jewish, Mormon or gay candidate for office.Several states have clauses in their constitutions banning atheists from taking office.

The results actually show an improvement in the negative opinion, but the Gallup Poll reported that atheists, who represent between 4 and 10 percent of all Americans, shouldn’t take heart in the new figures. “First, the numbers of Americans whose prejudice would prevent them from voting for members of other minorities has dropped much farther much faster over the same period of time. Second, the numbers of those prejudiced against atheists hasn't really dropped in the past couple of decades — almost all the progress was made between 1959 and 1978,” the poll said.

Edgell

Another study titled Atheists As "Other:" Moral Boundaries and Cultural Membership in American Society, found that “atheists are more distrusted and despised than any other minority." The lead author, Penny Edgell (left) from the University of Minnesota, said the findings were surprising;  “We thought that in the wake of 9/11, people would target Muslims.”  

Even bigots hate atheists more than other groups.  “Dislike of atheists doesn’t correlate very highly with dislike of gays, immigrants, or Muslims,” Edgell noted

A separate 2011 Washington Post report provided one answer for the intense dislike of atheists:  they are considered “immoral, wicked and angry.”

People in the study learned such canards from conservatives, the Post reported, who have rampaged in the media that “the lack of godly faith is detrimental to society.”

Such illogical hatred is nothing new.  It goes back into biblical days, even before atheism existed.  There may have been people who did not believe in God, but they didn’t advertise their beliefs.  The word “atheism” wasn’t even coined until the 1800s.

Nevertheless, early Jewish societies believed that God punished everyone when someone in the group violated prescribed laws.  They got that warped thought from the holy texts that carefully described punishments handed out to the Jews when members strayed: 40 years in the desert, plagues and so on.  No one wanted that.

As a result, everyone had to be vigilant to be sure no one unhooked himself from God’s harness.  It was all about being part of the community.  Nonbelievers, even if they lived in the same place all their lives, were not welcome.

Christians chimed right in after they got power.

As a result, people were burned at the stake and otherwise horribly attacked for daring to be different from the larger society.  Ironically, Jews, who originated the concept, were often the targets when the Western World became dominated by Christianity.

An omnipotent God wasn’t capable of forcing people to obey His laws – which varied depending on the faith – so loving followers burned accused witches, killed heretics and otherwise bloodied the landscape to make sure His will be done.

They were picking on the wrong targets.  Atheists and non-religious people in general “tend to be more ethical than their religious peers, particularly compared with those who describe themselves as very religious,” the Washington Post reported in its study.

They also score higher on tests of intelligence, verbal ability and scientific literacy. “They tend to raise their children to solve problems rationally, to make up their own minds when it comes to existential questions and to obey the golden rule. They are … less likely to be nationalistic or ethnocentric. They value freedom of thought,” the Post found.

Stark

No wonder conservatives hate them.  Atheists actually are capable of thinking.

The intense hatred directed at atheists may also explain why Congress is such a mess.  Americans have elected only one atheist, Rep. Pete Stark (right) from Oakland, who served 16 terms ending in 2012.  He waited 24 years to admit he was an atheist and, using proper semantics, labeled himself a “non-theist” rather than use the more explosive word.

Now the pope has stepped up and pronounced that atheists can enjoy their spot in heaven.  It’s a start.  There may not be such a place in some post-life fantasy, but, at least, it might be possible to allow atheists to better enjoy their time on Earth.

Long-time religious historian Bill Lazarus regularly writes about religion and religious history.  He also speaks at various religious organizations throughout Florida.  You can reach him at www.williamplazarus.net.  He is the author of the famed Unauthorized Biography of Nostradamus; The Last Testament of Simon Peter; The Gospel Truth: Where Did the Gospel Writers Get Their Information; Noel: The Lore and Tradition of Christmas Carols; and Dummies Guide to Comparative Religion.  His books are available on Amazon.com, Kindle, bookstores and via various publishers.  He can also be followed on Twitter.

You can enroll in his on-line class, Comparative Religion for Dummies, at http://www.udemy.com/comparative-religion-for-dummies/?promote=1

Evolution Is Dead?

Darwin

When Charles Darwin died in 1882, people opposed to his writings claimed that the father of evolution had recanted his research.  That was not true, although the claims continue today.  In fact, Darwin became more willing to proclaim his religious doubts after the death of his beloved daughter, Annie.

At the end of his great book On The Origin of Species, Darwin returns to her death, noting that everything dies for no apparent reason.  Yet, he noted, life continues in richness and beauty, the product of millions of years of competition and death.  That’s a belief he defended to the end of his long life.

That writing apparently has not touched doubters, who have continued to insist that evolution has begun to disappear as a scientific study.  Recently, there have been several reports making those claims.  They are really not new.  The chorus against the theory began in 1859, almost immediately after Darwin’s book was published, as devout people began to realize the implication of his research showing that all living creatures developed from earlier forms in a recognizable process.

Morris

In the 1960s, faced with the growing belief that “God is dead,” anti-evolution writers began to spin out their fantasies again.   For example, in 1968, hydraulic engineer Henry Morris, who the New York Times called the father of modern creationism when he died in 2006, published The Twilight of Evolution.  In it, Morris claimed that evolution was fading away.

Of course, he’s the same guy who denied all geological research to insist that Noah’s flood shaped the geography of the world.

“He was absolutely sincere about his convictions that the Bible was literally true and that science would support it and creation science was good science,” said Eugenie C. Scott, director of the National Center for Science Education.  Morris’ books, Scott added, “have no scientific merit.”

They did ignite other opponents of evolution, however.  In 1991, attorney Philip Johnson supported Morris in a book titled Darwin on Trial.  Johnson helped start the Intelligent Design movement, which argues erroneously that everything is so complex only God must have designed it.

Such writings have had an impact.  Recent studies show that a large number of Americans still don’t accept evolution.  One 2006 poll found that only 14 percent of Americans thought that evolution was "definitely true," while about a third firmly rejected the idea.  That’s in contrast to Europeans where as many as 80 percent in some countries endorse evolution.

Groups like the Discovery Institute have been working hard to keep Americans misinformed.  The    It “works to defend free inquiry,” according to its website.

Institute has a large following and regularly holds workshops and forums, all the while claiming to be “an inter-disciplinary community of scholars and policy advocates dedicated to the re-invigoration of traditional Western principles and institutions and the worldview from which they issued.”

Actually, it does nothing of the sort.  It really “seeks to counter the materialistic interpretation of science by demonstrating that life and the universe are the products of intelligent design and by challenging the materialistic conception of a self-existent, self-organizing universe and the Darwinian view that life developed through a blind and purposeless process,” its website notes.

That doesn’t sound like free inquiry since it already has an agenda to reject scientific findings that disagree with its philosophy.

That’s the funny part about science – evolution or any other field.  It has an open mind.  It allows for change.  Darwin proposed an idea called Natural Selection to explain how all living creatures developed.  He built on the already existing theory of evolution, offering a mechanism for the changes. Since then, his theory has been tested repeatedly in scientific labs and in the field.

That’s what scientist do.  They do not accept any idea simply because it sounds good or conforms to some religious ideal.  Instead, they probe, they examine, they analyze, they confront.  They look for errors, for mistakes that could undermine any idea.  

Evolution has gone through the same process.  

As a result, today, science realizes that natural selection does have an impact on life forms, but so do time, mutation and environment.  In fact, evolution as a theory has evolved.  

Today, there’s virtually no argument in the scientific community about its validity.  Every study, every bit of ancient fossils, every finding in molecular biology and related fields has confirmed Darwin’s original insight: all living creatures evolve from earlier life forms.  Sometimes, the changes create a dead end, and the creature becomes extinct.  Other times, the changes lead to new species.  Some living creatures are not necessarily more advanced than their predecessors; many are.

That’s simply fact.

Giberson

“In the century and a half since Darwin's theory of evolution was first pronounced dead, it has grown steadily stronger. It is not in ‘crisis.’ It is not ‘collapsing.’ It is not ‘shot full of holes.’ Darwin's theory has grown steadily stronger to the point where virtually all evolutionary biologists would be mystified by the claim that evolution was dying, or even feeling poorly. Evolution is no more ill than heliocentricity, atomic theory or quantum mechanics is ill,” wrote Dr. Karl Giberson in an on-line column.

Giberson is the author of The Unholy War Between Science and Religion, which examined this issue and has spent much of his career trying to bring religion and science together.

He has not had great success.  Too many people prefer to live in darkness, to fall victims to the preaching and teaching of non-scientists because it is easier to accept religious pap than scientific research.

That, however, doesn’t affect reality.

Evolution is true, just as Darwin outlined.  Saying it isn’t loudly and often won't change that.

Long-time religious historian Bill Lazarus regularly writes about religion and religious history.  He also speaks at various religious organizations throughout Florida.  You can reach him at www.williamplazarus.net.  He is the author of the famed Unauthorized Biography of Nostradamus; The Last Testament of Simon Peter; The Gospel Truth: Where Did the Gospel Writers Get Their Information; Noel: The Lore and Tradition of Christmas Carols; and Dummies Guide to Comparative Religion.  His books are available on Amazon.com, Kindle, bookstores and via various publishers.  He can also be followed on Twitter.

You can enroll in his on-line class, Comparative Religion for Dummies, at http://www.udemy.com/comparative-religion-for-dummies/?promote=1

Real Persecuted Christians

Moss

Author Candida Moss, a professor at the University of Notre Dame and a Catholic, has detailed the history of Christian persecution in the early years of the faith in a new book that points out much of it never happened.

In the The Myth of Persecution: How Early Christians Invented A Story of Martyrdom, she notes that “the prosecution of Christians was rare, and the persecution of Christians was limited to no more than a handful of years.”

Her thesis is not going over well with such pundits as Bill O’Reilly and others who insist Christians are being persecuted today and have been from the beginning.

The truth can have an unsettling effect on lots of people.

Herodotus

Unfortunately, much of what we think about the past is facile and wrong.  In many ways, that’s understandable.  Early people didn’t have our concept of history.  They didn’t necessarily draw on sources or any kind of research.  Herodotus, the “father” of history, simply wrote down what people told him.  He was often skeptical, but he recorded the data anyway.

Other historians didn’t identify sources.  Still others had hidden agendas that warped their accounts.  Most early historians were sponsored; their books often constituted key components of public relations’ campaigns.  

Just because someone wrote about Julius Caesar, for example, does not mean that the information is an accurate biography of the famed Roman leader.  Caesar’s own books on the wars in Gaul are not completely truthful.  They were intended as propaganda, written to boost his status.  

Multiple accounts that have survived often contradict each other.  An historian has to choose the most plausible and compare facts with material uncovered from the correct time period.  

In truth, much of what we know about the past can only be drawn from inferences.  That’s particularly true in time periods when historical documentation is nonexistent.  There may only be a few ruined buildings still around, but little else.  Fortunately, modern technology combined with known facts have helped clarify otherwise murky situations.

Nevertheless, historians and archaeologists try to be very careful when they find something to avoid sensationalist claims. The general public has less control.  So an old home near the Sea of Galilee

Peter's home?

was introduced as the Apostle Peter’s resident because it is located near where he supposedly lived and includes a cross etched into the wall.

Now, it’s a site often visited by pilgrims to the Holy Land.  It could be just a house.  It could be an early Church building; it could be Peter’s house.  Or, it could be just a home where someone etched a cross into the wall.  After all, there may never have been an Apostle Peter, who appears only in the New Testament.

We may never know the truth.

Some things have been figured out.  The story of the Tower of Babel in the Bible is fiction.  It was created around a real tower to eviscerate claims that the massive ziggurat in Babylon was the “gateway to heaven” as Babylonians claimed.  The writers of the Bible assigned that title to Jerusalem and so wanted to ridicule the Babylonian belief.

Ancient holy city of Shechem

They promoted Jerusalem in another way, by debasing claims of the rival northern city of Shechem.  The writers went so far as to change the name in the text of Shechem’s founder, Gershom, the son of Moses.  The authors of the Bible didn’t want Shechem so elevated, so added a letter to convert the name Moses into Manassas.  

There are many more examples like that.

However, that kind of history doesn’t go well with pious readers.  So, they don’t bother to read farther into the background research on the scriptures.  They accept the loud pronouncements of so-called experts who have their own agenda.  People who believe are more willing to open their purses.  Give to stop the centuries of persecution, even if there never was much.  Give to make sure people follow Jesus, even if he wouldn’t recognize anything said today in his name.  Give to support efforts to find Noah’s Ark, even if the story is a myth, and there is no ark on any mountain.

Ironically, realists today are the ones being persecuted – by "true believers" refusing to face reality as carefully and accurately delineated by modern scholarship.

Long-time religious historian Bill Lazarus regularly writes about religion and religious history.  He also speaks at various religious organizations throughout Florida.  You can reach him at www.williamplazarus.net.  He is the author of the famed Unauthorized Biography of Nostradamus; The Last Testament of Simon Peter; The Gospel Truth: Where Did the Gospel Writers Get Their Information; Noel: The Lore and Tradition of Christmas Carols; and Dummies Guide to Comparative Religion.  His books are available on Amazon.com, Kindle, bookstores and via various publishers.  He can also be followed on Twitter.

You can enroll in his on-line class, Comparative Religion for Dummies, at http://www.udemy.com/comparative-religion-for-dummies/?promote=1