What do you think about the decrease in Christianity and increase in atheism in the US?

[David1701]

5 hours ago, Drafido said:

Yes, you took the words right out of my mouth.  I suspect also that due to the anonymous nature of the internet, people feel free to air their beliefs more often than not.  But I can't tell you how many times I have seen atheists posting on Christian videos in the comments on Youtube.

Yes, it happens quite often.  It is an outlet for their antagonism.

[David1701]

3 hours ago, Josheb said:

No, it is not. Words have meaning and terms are defined accordingly. Intelligent conversation is not possible with people who conflate disparate terms.... even if their views are correct. An argument cannot just be factually correct; it must be logically sound to be valid. 

Abiogenesis is not scientifically or linguistically the same as spontaneous generation. 

It is not the same linguistically; but abiogenesis, if it were real, would be a form of spontaneous generation.  This has been noticed by many before me.  There would have to be a moment in which non-living matter became living; and this would be spontaneous generation.

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Technically, it the arising of the organic from the inorganic...

Wrong...

"In evolutionary biology, abiogenesis, or informally the origin of life (OoL), is the natural process by which life has arisen from non-living matter, such as simple organic compounds."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abiogenesis#:~:text=In%20evolutionary%20biology%2C%20abiogenesis%2C%20or,such%20as%20simple%20organic%20compounds.

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...but what you've just said is exactly what happened in the Bible. God made life out of nothing. God made man out of the dust of the earth; the organic from the inorganic, life from non-life. You have just confirmed exactly what I stated in the previous post: both theism and non-theism have a problem with abiogenesis.

God made man's body out of the dust of the earth; but that body had no life in it, until God breathed into it the breath of life.  Life only comes from life.

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Neither "God did it," nor "a big bang did it," are explanatory and both are faith statements.

God did it, is certainly a statement of faith, based on God's revelation.

A big bang did it, is a statement of unbelief, based on inventing suppositions, to try to exclude God from the picture.

[Omegaman 3.0]

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"What do you think about the decrease in Christianity and increase in atheism in the US? "

Sounds like good news to me!

Some snippets from the text:

1 But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. 2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. 6 For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, 7 always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. 

 12 Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 13 while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

9 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name’s sake. 10 And then many will fall awaya and betray one another and hate one another. 11 And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. 12 And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. 13 But the one who endures to the end will be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.

 28 Now when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.” 29 And he told them a parable: “Look at the fig tree, and all the trees. 30 As soon as they come out in leaf, you see for yourselves and know that the summer is already near. 31 So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. 32 Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all has taken place. 33 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
34 “But watch yourselves lest your hearts be weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and cares of this life, and that day come upon you suddenly like a trap. 35 For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of the whole earth. 36 But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”

Now, those verses were captured from several passages, and somewhat different contexts. I am just using them to set up the flavor that gives be optimism.

I know that things are supposed to get worse, where that comes from atheism or other forms of unbelief, it is supposed to happen. That just means that we are drawing nearer to the end of the age, and the return of Christ. For those found in Him, that will mean grace and mercy, for others it will mean justice. As much as I am not fond of losing most of mankind to eternal separation from God, I recognize that God is soveriegn, and His will is good.

[JohnD]

On 10/28/2020 at 11:31 AM, FluffyBunny. said:

 

https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/11/2015/05/PF_15.05.05_RLS2_1_310px.png

 

Hello,

how do you feel about the decrease in Christianity and the increase in atheism in the US? Do you think society will become worse, better or stay around the same?

Have you seen the news?

[RonaldBruno]

19 hours ago, Drafido said:

If the worldwide population of atheists is only 10%, how come the internet is filled to the brim with atheists commenting everywhere?  Somehow I am not convinced with this 10% figure.  It seems more likely that the statistics are skewed somehow.

They don't go to church or or any other religious place of worship. Christian church provides a loving atmosphere, fellowship, a sense of direction and purpose. Atheists don't have that so they must flock to the internet, follow other atheists, cling to the TOE, and  find a their support group - or be a silent private person -anti-social type.  Btw, there are only 2-3% homosexuals, yet they have a pronounced presence, parading, demanding their rights and getting into everyone business.

My Dad was an atheist, but he kept his believes to himself, because he knew it would create a disturbance. He was the silent, private type who just kept his personal beliefs to himself - to avoid ostracism or heated discussions. He did not like to rock the boat. A real gentleman, patient and good father. He made his peace with God just prior to his death at 83 years old. He was in God's list and God was caring for him all along his journey. At ten years old, his Dad became sick with TB and was dying. Being brought up in a Catholic family with seven sisters, with the little he knew how, he got on his knees and prayed for his Dads life. God said no, so he didn't believe anymore and was angry too _ for a very long time. Then later on my brother died at a young age and he said he believed less because of that. But it was interesting how he lived his life grounded in Biblical principals that he was talk by his parents and sisters. He even passed down many of those principles to his kids. As an adult, He believed in the TOE too. But later on in life after I became a Christian, I would ask him, "Where do you think the Golden Rule came from and many of the other principles he taught us?" He said they evolved from civilization! I said, "No they didn't" and told him they came from God's Word.

[RonaldBruno]

1 hour ago, Drafido said:

Atheists have congregations, they even have their own church now (though I doubt many of them attend!).  Forgive me, but I remain skeptical about statistics.

I think the homosexuals get a lot of support from heterosexuals, which would boost their numbers in general.  

That's an interesting story about your Dad.  I think the older generation were less outspoken in their atheism because it was almost like a social taboo in those days, yet they did hold to traditional religious ways, things have changed now with the internet.  It's also interesting how some people can hold a grudge against God when their loved ones die and yet still call themselves atheists!  It's good to hear he made his peace with God before he passed away.  

We never know how God is working in the lives of the unbeliever. They rebel, resist for decades sometimes. We refuse invitations, outward callings to go to church, reject witnesses, toss Gospel tracts in the garbage and so they learn the hard way. I didn't become a Christian until I was 35, 30 years ago. Sometimes we are so steeped in habits and/or materialism that GOD has to to strip those things away first to get our attention. In my Dads case it was his health that was fading and the Grim Reaper was knocking on the door! That usually works - unless they are truly a reprobate. But God lets some of these reprobates go early on in their lives as Romans 1 tells us. These individuals are wicked though, with a quite different life and attitude as those who are His sheep. I think of some of the most brilliant men who  were fools, like Stephen Hawking for instance. He was already judged in his life before he died. People like him and Richard Dawkins led many astray to believe lies

[Heleadethme]

30 minutes ago, Drafido said:

I was saved at 34, 6 years ago.  I spent the previous 15 years searching for God through yoga meditation (which didn't work by the way).  When Youtube first came out so did the "new atheists" and for a couple of weeks around 2006 I considered myself an atheist, before that I was agnostic.  It's tempting (at least it was to me) to reject God's existence because it gives the illusion we have autonomy completely.  For me, this was very freeing, because I also have schizophrenia which included the delusion that I was God.  So when atheism dangled the autonomy carrot for me I saw it as an opportunity to discard my personal delusionary belief.  However, the same thing is also true in a Christian belief system, because ironically when we come to God through that lens, it frees us from the same delusion.  We are NOT God.  So funnily enough, either way, I was set free.  I couldn't honestly, deep down inside, though, reject God because I had experienced too many things by that point that I had no natural explanation for and it seems the height of arrogance to me to think this entire intelligent universe had no creator.  And I can honestly say that those 2 weeks were the most miserable and depressing 2 weeks of my entire life.  I've read testimonies of people (and there are many of them) who came out of atheism who have said basically the same thing; how depressed they were by it.  But when they were atheists before they would of course shout loudly that they are perfectly happy.  

When I read The God Delusion in 2005 I really thought it was brilliant at the time.  Later on, I came to see just how silly it actually is.  I had the same experience with The Greatest Show on Earth by Dawkins, where he attempted to explain evolution.  It is just pathetically devoid of almost any positive evidence and contain lots of "maybe's" and other doubtful statements.  I also happened to have bought Hawkings "the Universe in a Nutshell" some years before and it was stored in the garage.  When I opened it up I found a lot of antichrist stuff in it, mocking drawings and headliners.  You really do have to ask yourself why a "science" book would have things like that in it.  It boggles the mind.

I remember after I was first saved I kept on coming across Antichrist stuff.  It's literally EVERYWHERE.  For example, just "randomly" I happened to pick up a video game manual for a Marvel game and in the middle of it there was a picture of the Hindu goddess Kali - and there was NO REASON WHY IT WAS IN THERE.  I also had a manual for a Vaping smoker that ridiculed the Trinity.  Everywhere I looked, I saw Antichrist stuff.  People think they can ridicule Jesus and Christians and get away with it because they presume we would just turn the other cheek.  I absolutely stopped watching comedy shows because they made me feel almost sick with all the ridicule of Christianity.  Same with TV.  I couldn't take it anymore.  Before I was a Christian, even in those days, I used to wonder why atheists have debates about God with other Christians and hardly ever with Hindus, BUddhists, Muslims etc.  I couldn't understand why atheists concentrated so much on Christianity.  But I know why now.

Praise the Lord for your salvation....He truly does work in mysterious ways that we wouldn't think or imagine.  How you were delivered from the delusion I believe is portrayed in the old testament when the enemies of God turn on each other.  God can use the enemy's own weapon against him, in other words.  He is SO worthy of our praise!  Thanks for sharing your testimony.