Religion is not reviving, it’s being forced on us

[Christa]

/snip

But “faith” has not made a comeback. As every poll and survey shows, “faith” is on its death bed. What has made a comeback — or more accurately hit the headlines — is violent, regressive, reactionary religion. A few strategically placed bombs, a few hijacked planes and religion is back at the top of the political agenda. But make no mistake, religious observance remains very much a minority pursuit in most Western countries, except the USA. It would be interesting to see just how devout Muslim countries would be if religion were not enforced with an iron fist. And in some of them, for example in Syria and Egypt, the proportion of the population that is secular or liberal is much greater than generally supposed.

The idea that suddenly everyone is flocking back to religion, that we are fascinated by it, and that people are queuing up to study theology, are all untrue. But yet we still have to endure the endless claims from people like Andrew Brown at the Guardian’s Comment is Free religion blog that we have to find out about religion, respect it and discuss it endlessly.

“Going on past correspondences, the sympathies of most New Statesman readers are with the ‘God-free’. There seems to be a widespread feeling that a magazine of the left should not only display a preference for secularism but for atheism, too: that we should take our editorial line from Richard Dawkins and agree with him that religion is, at best, as silly as believing in fairies at the bottom of the garden but is, more generally, ‘dangerous nonsense’ that devalues human life.”

He then goes on to say, in effect, that it doesn’t matter what the readers think – they’re going to have religion whether or not they want it. If they don’t like it, they’re branded “intolerant”.
/snip

http://www.secularism.org.uk/religion-is-not-reviving-its-bei.html





♪♫♪

[DeSwiss]

1. Yeah well, you know and I know that....

- K&R

[imdjh]

2. If Christianity were being imported to the US for the first time- we would see it as a menace.

Someone once said that if alcohol (liquor) were invented today it would be a controlled substance and considered a miracle drug.

Religion is only tolerable because we have put up with it for so long. We have finally beaten back Christianity (and Judaism) to the point at which we can almost render them harmless when Islam waits less than patiently on the shore. And we have people defending the existence and growth of Islam in this country. It's inexplicable.

Let me be very clear. I am a firm believer and supporter of the First Amendment. I absolutely support your right to believe in Judaism, Christianity, Islam or Puff The Magic Dragon. But I also am a firm believer and supporter of my right and the right of others to tell you it's bullshit, malevolent, primitive and infectious bullshit which erodes logical morality and poisons the minds of children and adults alike. I also am under no obligation to object evenly, consistently, or "fairly". I get to decide which religions I consider to be at which rankings in the order of most immediate menace.

[struggle4progress]

3. I will suggest that you might find it beneficial to look for ways to re-interpret

what people say they believe, in ways that enable you to find common ground with them, rather than simply assuming that your reaction "malevolent, primitive and infectious bullshit" exhausts the possibilities

I myself have often found this a useful way to proceed, when dealing with people who view the world differently than I do or who express themselves differently than I do

But of course it is your choice

[imdjh]

4. Stop being reasonable in the middle of my rant. please nt

[rrneck]

5. I don't know that faith

is on the way out, but religion is certainly taking a much deserved beating.

[ironbark]

6. And yet there is a huge religious revival underway in atheistic China.

“Although signs that Confucianism, Taoism, Buddhism, and even Christianity and Islam are taking off in what has been considered an atheistic society, banned sects such as the Falun Gong and "underground churches" face persecution.”
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/eo20051227a1.html

http://www.eai.nus.edu.sg/BB368.pdf
“A revival of religion is taking place in both rural and urban China. A recent
nationwide survey found 31% of the Chinese population above 16 years of age
or 300-400 million people are religious, almost tripling the official estimate.
The official estimate, however, did not take into account those in unregistered
“underground churches” and whose faith is outside the five major religions
approved by the government, namely Buddhism, Taoism, Islam, Catholicism
and Protestantism. An accurate estimate of the actual number of religious
believers is extremely difficult…………..
At varying paces, the five major faiths have revived their activities and
organizations, rebuilt their temples, mosques and churches, and claimed
growing numbers of believers. In the case of Catholicism, the estimated
membership increased from about 3 million in 1949 to 10-12 million in 2001;
Protestantism has expanded even more rapidly, from less than one million to 25-
30 million.”

The Copenhagen Journal of Asian Studies
The Religious Revival in China
Hongyi Harry Lai
http://ej.lib.cbs.dk/index.php/cjas/article/viewArticle/19

It is interesting to see just how devout atheistic countries are when atheism is not enforced with an iron fist.

;-)

[charlie]

7. Yeah, there's nowhere to go but up when you're starting from zero

Of course, religion never went away. You can't outlaw what's in someone's heart and mind. They're just groping their way back to natural equilibrium now. Good on them.

It's interesting to see like it's been interesting to see atheism and doubt publicly avowed after the threat of the rack was removed.

[RetiredTrotskyite]

8. Great Post, Crista.

All monotheistic religion should have the brakes put on them somewhere along the line. All are potentially dangerous with a high potential for homicidal fanaticism.