The Death of Religion

Millennials

Religion is in serious trouble.

No, it’s not going to disappear completely.  There will still be Catholics, Protestants, Muslims and Jews. Just not very many of them.  One science fiction story, arguably one of the best, titled The Stars My Destination, called the few hard-core believers in the future “closet Christians.”  They skulked about the back alleys of cities, not discriminated against, just ignored.

That time is definitely getting closer, at least based on recent studies of Millennials, which is the nickname given to people born between 1982 and 2000.  There are more of them than Baby Boomers, who once bubbled their way through the American economy.  In their day, they said don’t trust anyone over 30.  That saying can be revived with the Millennials.

They are different, too.  Only 60 percent are white, making them the most ethnically diverse group in this country’s history.  In fact, in a few years, based on birth rates, whites will be a minority in this country.  Millennials are progressive, supporting more liberal candidates.  Conservatives are barking at a narrowing constituency.

Millennials also back gay marriage and gender equality.  The old glass ceiling has been shattered.  So has a bunch of other stereotypes.  Millennials aren’t into marriage and family, marrying later and not caring as much about the race of their mate.  They are better educated, far more aware of technology and politically active.  In some ways, they represent the strident 1960s without the confrontational approach.

Mostly, though, they are turning away from religion.

Bible under a microscope

Some of that has to do with knowledge.  Anyone interested in in-depth scholarly criticism of the Bible can find all the information on line.   When I was younger, I read endless books in an effort to become a religious scholar.  These days, the data is available on line with the tap on a mouse.  Archaeology, linguistics, anthropology and comparative studies have clearly demonstrated that the Bible contains loads of borrowed material from multiple cultures, has been clumsily edited and undoubtedly represents only the beliefs of the authors, not some divine imprint.

At the same time, various scandals – from priests molesting children to admitted charlatans pushing religion -- have undermined credibility.  Millennials do not remember Marjoe Gortner, who in 1944 became the youngest ordained minister at age 4, but he went on to expose the crass Pentecostal ministers more interested in mammon than belief.  What a near-Baby Boomer started, today’s Millennials have continued.

Folk Mass

Then, too, religious services have become increasingly old fashioned, contrasting badly with the vast array of entertainment available to younger members of society.  A sermon simply doesn’t hold anyone’s attention these days.  A minister is literally preaching only to the choir. Back in the 1960s,  the Roman Catholic Church introduced folk masses to try to draw parishioners back to the pews. They were successful, but those approaches now are dated.

In addition, Millennials reject Christian teachings as hypocritical, judgmental and anti-gay.  More than a third of self-identified born-again Christians reject bans against gay marriage.

Of course, many teens in their rebellious states spurn religion, only to return later in life.  So far, however, Millennials have spurned that trend.  Surveys show that as Millennials age, they move even further away from religion.    

As a final spike in the heart of religion, Climate Change, which will affect us all and is definitely not driven by any deity, almost guarantees that the claims of the faithful will increasingly take a backseat.  It’s hard to argue that God watches out for everyone when humans are provably causing the destruction of the world. 

The implications of the Millennial lack of faith remains to be seen.  Definitely, believers will respond with more hysterical claims and demands, just as already seen in lawsuits and, on occasion, in violence.

Dionysus imagined

If anything, that response will only drive Millennials further away.

All religions have a lifespan.  Dionysus, Marduk, Baal, Moloch and Osiris, among other bygone deities, have fallen away.  Jesus, Allah, Yahweh and Zoroaster, among others, are into their golden years.  In the past, new god arose to replace those fading into history.  Based on the current, trend, that may not happen now.  For many Millennials, the new god seems to be -- nothing.

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

Education Faces Religious Assault

Efforts to inject religion into public education continue unabated.  

In Alabama, for example, legislators debated two bills that would have required public school teachers to recite prayers each morning at the beginning of school. The other bill would have allowed students to use the classroom to proselytize to fellow students. 

In New Orleans, one school regularly incorporates official Christian prayer into class and school events.  In addition, the school scrolls Bible verses on an electronic marquee in front of the school.  This came to light after a Buddhist student complained about being harassed by a teacher.  The family filed suit when a teacher told them "this is the Bible Belt" and suggested the parents change their son's faith.

Stephenson

In Texas, State Rep. Phil Stephenson (R) called for more "acknowledgement" of Christianity in public schools, encouraging Ten Commandments displays, prayer, and use of the word "God."  His resolution stated, "The overwhelming of majority of voters in the 2010 Republican Party Primary Election voted in favor of the public acknowledgement of God, and the 2012 platform of the Republican Party of Texas affirms 'that the public acknowledgement of God is undeniable in our history and is vital to our freedom, prosperity, and strength.”

In case anyone thinks these kinds of things happen only in the South, in Indiana, a Republican state senator wants Indiana's public school students to begin each day by reciting the Lord's Prayer "in order that each student recognize the importance of spiritual development in establishing character and becoming a good citizen."

Kruse

Naturally, the man who made the proposal, State Sen. Dennis Kruse, is chair of the state Senate's education committee.

These attempts won’t be stopping any time soon.  Not with the increased efforts to dumb down education.  Our system, which used to be the best in the world, now lingers near the bottom of multiple educational ranks.

We are 33^rd in reading, behind such foreign powerhouses as Korea (1), Poland (7), Iceland (19) and Mexico (31).  In math, we zoom all the way the 227^th, trailing Finland (1) Ireland (16), Luxembourg (23) and the Russian Federation (26).  In science, we are 22^nd.  Finland again tops the list, but others include New Zealand (4), Belgium (13), Hungary (15) and Iceland (21).

In all three categories, the United States falls below the international averages.

Big Bang Theory

As a result, our citizens are awash in pseudoscience and reject scientifically proven research, such as the Big Bang, evolution and human responsibility for global warming, according to a March 2014 Associated Press survey. 

More than half of all Americans do not believe the university arose 13.8 billion years ago.  That’s despite overwhelming evidence supporting the Big Bang, such as the abundance of hydrogen in the universe, the discovery that galaxies are speeding away from us, and the cosmic microwave background radiation. Naysayers know nothing of the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe that provided detailed maps of variations in the microwave background radiation, explaining why matter exists as well as the rapidly spreading mist of hydrogen.

More than 40 percent refuse to accept that “life on Earth, including human beings, evolved through a process of natural selection,” completing shunning intense studies in anthropology and the abundance of fossil records.  Some 37 percent reject humans as the cause of Climate Change, despite both visual and chemical evidence, while 36 percent reject the proven conclusion that “the Earth is 4.5 billion years old,” completing spurning the repeated chemical analyses that conclusively pinpointed the date.

Lefkowitz

Of course, as compensation, 54 percent agree that the “universe is so complex, there must be a supreme being guiding its creation.”

The results didn’t shock scholars who have to labor against the tide of ignorance.  “When you are putting up facts against faith, facts can’t argue against faith,” Duke University biochemist Robert Lefkowitz, who won a Nobel Prize in 2012, said. He called faith “untestable.”

It also tips the scale when science and religion face off.  A separate study found that “22 percent of scientists and 20 percent of the general population say religious people are hostile to science.” When the two are at odds, more than 52 percent opted for religion.  Ironically the study found that nearly 36 percent of scientists believe in God and attend weekly religious services at the same rate as non-scientists.

The decline in American education comes as the amount of knowledge increases.  We know so much more about the world and the reality of our universe than any other generation.  Our children should know even more, which is why pious politicians and conservative Christians are trying so hard to infiltrate the classroom with their claptrap.  

There is only one bulwark against them, the U.S. Constitution.  In multiple cases, the Court has pointed out that “the First Amendment does not forbid all mention of religion in public schools; it is the advancement or inhibition of religion that is prohibited.”

Maybe the gung-ho religion types should study the law first.  Of course, that would require a real education, something they are trying to smother under the blanket of religious faith.

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.

Evolution Collides with Politics

Debaters

Several Texas Republican political candidates for lieutenant governor recently got together for what was claimed to be a debate and came to the same conclusion: creationism should be taught in schools.

Incumbent Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst was generous: “I believe in creationism, but I understand it alone cannot be taught. And I am fine with teaching creationism, intelligent design, evolution.” He was echoed by Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson who said that “creationism, intelligent design, evolution should be taught in school.”

Agricultural Commissioner Todd Staples wouldn’t concede anything: “Creationism can be taught in our schools. It is something most Texans believe in.”  State Sen. Dan Patrick added, “When it comes to creationism, not only should it be taught, it should be triumphed, it should be heralded.”  

Some debate.

Their comments have been repeated around the country.   Most Americans don’t “believe” in evolution.  Most of them simply can’t shake the stranglehold imposed by religious conservatives that has stifled logic and analytical thought.  Lacking any ability to comprehend scientific research, they

Judge Jones III

want creationism or, as it is now labeled, intelligent design, taught as equal to evolution despite the 2005 ruling by Federal District Judge John E. Jones III that intelligent design "is a religious view, a mere re-labeling of creationism, and not a scientific theory.''

By the way, Jones is a Republican and a churchgoer appointed to the Federal bench in 2002 by George W. Bush.

I would love to actually confront any of those Texas candidates.  I’ve already had that experience in a college classroom.  The students were debating the Theory of Evolution.  The student responsible for speaking on behalf of evolution failed to show up that day, so I took the pro side.

While I was speaking, a young man in class, James, held up a sign that said “I believe in God.”  That was his way of rejecting the theory.

That’s when I asked him the same questions I would ask those four mental midgets in Texas.
“Did God create man?”

Of course, James answered yes.

“Did God create man in His own image?”  James said yes again.  After all, that’s what the Bible reports.

Michelangelo's view of God creating man

“In that case, are you created in God’s image?”

Again, he replied with a confident yes.  He had no choice.

Then, I pointed to an African-American and an Asian in the same class, and asked James if they, too, were created in God’s image.

Once again, James answered yes.

Then, finally, I asked him a question he could answer:  “Why don’t they look like you?”  James sputtered.

“They must have changed from the original design,” I assured him.  “That’s called evolution.”

James’ inability to answer is not a shock.  No one could explain the obvious differences between humans for thousands of years until the Theory of Evolution provided the solution.  English naturalist Charles Darwin is credited with introducing the Theory in 1859, but, actually, that’s not completely right.  More than 2,500 years ago, Greek philosophers suggested that man evolved.  So did Erasmus Darwin, Charles’ famed grandfather.

What Darwin did was published a book that finally explained the process allowing evolution to take place.  He called it Natural Selection.

People with darker skin can endure the sun better and so survived longer to have offspring, who

Genetic differences

inherited that coloring.  Eventually, in African, anyone with light-colored skin died out.   Asians have a different shape to their eyes because a mutation added fat, creating the oval design.  It reduced glare and subsequent eye damage, so people with that trait lived longer and had more offspring.  Eventually, all Asian people inherited that change.

At a distance, the process seems obvious.  Natural selection is why now-extinct humans once shrank in size to endure on Flores, a small Indonesian island, and why sheep in northern climes are getting smaller now.  It is why snakes still have vestigial leg bones under their skin, as do whales.  Snakes once had legs; whales were once land animals.  However, a snake born without legs actually surpassed its legged relatives and passed on its genes.  The whales that returned to the ocean have survived; the land versions have not.

Darwin

Scientists after Darwin have subsequently learned that mutations play an evolutionary role, too.  Sometimes, a mutation is so valuable that it allows the animal to easily out-reproduce its relatives.  The mutation is dominant and wins.  That’s all.

Predators affect evolution, too.  So does environment.  So does crossbreeding.  Most of us have genes contributed by extinct relatives like Neanderthal and Denisovan.  Maybe the Asian eye shape came from them.  

Sometimes change is quick, through mutation.  Sometimes, it's slow.  The only thing that matters is if the change helps the creature survive and have offspring that carry on the new trait.  It doesn’t have to be an improvement, just enhancement.

As a result, all creatures evolve constantly.  If they find an ideal design that can’t be improved, such as a snake or crocodile, the changes are small and not necessarily visible.  If they evolve a design that does not allow them to thrive as the environment changes, they die out.  Extinctions are happening every day: some are natural.  Sadly, some are caused by humans.  An estimated 99 percent of living creatures on this planet are now extinct.  What we are seeing around us now is not the final creation, but rather simply one moment in time on an endless reel of life.

Evolution of man shown through fossils

That means humans evolve, too, which became clearly evident to James and might actually dawn on the four Texan politicians.

James rejected evolution because he’s convinced that God created everything one day and nothing has changed since.  That’s what the Texans think, too.  Of course, it never occurs to any of them that if God can create life, He can also create evolution as His tool to make sure everything functioned properly.  Besides, all the fossil evidence demonstrates that creationists are completely wrong.  

They also point to the word “theory” is attached to evolution.  In everyday life, that means a guess.  To scientists, however, it refers to something proven in laboratories and field studies.  A guess to them is a postulation.  Theories are always tested.  Anything in science always is.  The Theory of Evolution can never be proven 100 percent.  There are too many variables.  That’s true for the Theory of Relativity, too. 

However, there’s no question of the accuracy of such theories.  They have proven out unerringly through the years.

There are a couple of good things that will come out of any debate over evolution.  James will grow up.  He might actually learn something about the real world.   And three of the four Texas debaters won’t win the primary and will be out of office.  

At the same time, they represent millions of Americans who lack basic scientific knowledge and are willing to elect troglodytes who would destroy American education and freedom of religion in the name of faith.

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