Theologian: Facebook and modern technology are killing churches

There is no god, and we are all dying. The sooner we recognize this, the sooner we can appreciate our lives and live free.

  On 2/16/2011 at 4:31 PM, EDGEY said:

There is no god, and we are all dying. The sooner we recognize this, the sooner we can appreciate our lives and live free.

The fact that we are aware of our own mortality is probably a reason religions popped up in the first place.

It should also be noted that secularization does not mean a decline in people's spirituality, just a decline in the interest of established organized religions. It seems that most people still have an appetite for something transcendent but they find it elsewhere than in organized religion, which people find as being hierarchical, patriarchal and authoritarian.

  On 2/16/2011 at 5:14 PM, azatoth said:

  On 2/16/2011 at 4:31 PM, EDGEY said:

There is no god, and we are all dying. The sooner we recognize this, the sooner we can appreciate our lives and live free.

The fact that we are aware of our own mortality is probably a reason religions popped up in the first place.

And that mortality should encourage us to live the lives we have, not the ones we are promised in some afterlife. That's why I make those 2 statements together, there is no god, and we're dying. Time's running out guys.

Unfortunately people simply can't handle the fact that one day they will not exist and need a crutch in the form of a religion that promises them an afterlife or some sort of salvation to cope with this fact.

  On 2/16/2011 at 5:44 PM, azatoth said:

Unfortunately people simply can't handle the fact that one day they will not exist and need a crutch in the form of a religion that promises them an afterlife or some sort of salvatorin to cope with this fact.

hey....things will get better.

  On 2/16/2011 at 1:45 PM, delet... said:

  On 2/16/2011 at 4:51 AM, analogue wings said:

analogue wings likes this

 

people definitely join churches for a sense of belonging first and foremost. dunno if facebook is a great substitute for that though...

 

I think if you looked at a graph of decline in church attendance, it would be pretty bloody steady over the last 40 years or so. So by way of an explanation, we say of the reasons, a modern education system and society, yes. And individual factors like singling out a particular generation or social media service, a resounding no.

a church basically produces a quick fix in 3 key areas

1. the answers to the BIG questions

2. loneliness

3. low self worth

basically science and reason have eroded #1 to the point where pretty much only slow people actually really believe a church's metaphysical claims, and this has impacted on church numbers. but the fact remains that #2 and #3 are damn hard to come by, especially in a "quick fix" type of way and especially if you're not that smart, good looking, rich, whatever.

so basically you have a whole bunch of people who are prepared to pretend they believe all the silly bullshit in return for those quick fixes.

of course like all quick fixes in life there are harmful long term effects.

this is why the church finds it so easy to prey on "recovering" addicts. they are not asking them to stop being addicts, they are just asking them to swap one harmful quick fix for another.