Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Christianity could possibly become a minority religion in US as early as 2045…

I have spoken with those who can beat me in an IQ test that say, "I don't believe in God, I believe in science."

Their statements do not bear much scrutiny.

No amount of science has built a living cell.
No amount of science has explained consciousness.

Religion says God gave life and God gave you a spirit.

God is the better model for explaining these things.

Does ‘the Church’…the body of believers, individually and collectively…bear any responsibility at all……? When they come home from college with real academic questions about the faith of Christianity (for example), and they’re given Sunday School answers, does that have a negative impact…? When they’re told they must believe in the literal 6 day creation in Genesis (for example) in order to believe The Gospel, does that have a negative impact…? When they see Christians selectively ranking sin, and focusing on the moral failures of others while ignoring their own moral failures, and pretending that someone else’s sin is worse than their own sin, does that have a negative impact…?

Nailed it.

Proverbs 22:6
"Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it."

It is a parental responsibility that has been grossly neglected. Goes right to the heart of the destruction of the family unit.

My conscience is clear. My kids have been free to choose their religious affiliations, or not.

Bluefish, I think that your thoughts toward religion and baptism are as far from mainstream as are Jag's and Ringman's.

The only people I have heard talk that way are a very few "old school" Catholics.

Hell, I don't know. Maybe you are the one who got it right. Maybe God does exist and yours is the only way to appease Him. But, to me, it seems more likely to be THE way to keep the pews and the coffers filled. Priests have to be kept fat and happy.

But I am forever skeptical.

You do not have to live your life that way. Peace can be found through belief in God. It is a personal relationship, not between you and some group/organization/leader.

2 Timothy 1:12
"For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day."

I respect your right to not be convinced, I only hope that you too can feel the gift of peace which has been made available to mankind.

You are the perfect example. Feminized men in a feminized society believe in feminized morality and reject masculinity.

So what’s the majority religion gonna be? Woke Communism?

Jesus was a pretty masculine looking dude. Wore a dress, sandals, and had real nice hair. Seemed to love everybody around him and hung out with mostly other dudes.

Pretty feminine by today's standards, wouldn't you agree?..you have any problem with that?

I don't.

Not a bad description. But I'd just call it "Materialism".

Let’s get one thing straight.

Humanity is, by its nature, religious.

The OP said that the US is growing less and less Christian... Duh. Anyone who couldn’t see that coming 40 yrs ago has serious isssues.

But we are NOT becoming less religious.

Wokeness is a religion.

Scientistic Materialism is a religion.

We all have to have a narrative we live within which gives coherence to our continued existence; those narratives are religions. Everyone has one, tho some who aren’t so intellectually honest deny they do.

They’re whistling passed the graveyard.

Believe me. I feel peaceful.

Belief is not a choice. It is, or it is not.

I disagree. Do not religions by definition require faith?

When a belief is founded on hard data and proven facts, it is not a religion. Most importantly, when that belief is subject to modification, change, or even abandonment subject to new data, it definitely is not a religion.

Glad to hear that. You seem to be a man who has lived your life well with purpose and honor while raising strong children to be good citizens.
Continued health and happiness!

Thank you

A) how do you define “faith”?

B) how do you define “hard data”?

Your entire set of objections above places as a foundational subject of faith that you think rationally, that you have the ability to process data in a (relatively) objective manner, and make predictions based upon that processing.

Objective based upon what? What is the objective standard against which you judge your own conclusions? Is it “just turtles all the way down”?

Ultimately everyone is religious. You included. You place your faith in your rational faculties as reliable. You believe in your mind and in the order of the universe.

They all reject Christianity for the same reason. They want to be in charge of their own lives. Any excuse reason will be good enough.

Where is the hard data that explains how self aware beings made out of meat spontaneously squirted up out of a chunk of rock?

Some people might say, "Well,...lightning struck a mud puddle and it caused the first one celled life form to exist."

Well,...okay,....that's a bit hard to digest all by itself. Lightning strikes stuff all the time. But I've never heard anybody say that it creates even an extremely primitive life form when it does so. Lightning struck a tree next door a while ago. Not the first tadpole turned up as a result of it.

But anyway,...what force caused that original one celled live form to turn into a Peacock,...let alone a human being?

Humans attempt to explain the unexplainable with science.

Science has its place. But it resorts to bullshit when it attempts to explain the origin of even extremely basic life forms.

It doesn't even try to explain how a lump of meat produces consciousness.

You are correct in as much that when I see two apples, and then add two more apples, I now believe I see four apples.

You may call that faith. I call it hard data.