Is The End of Christendom Nigh?

[i kne albert davy]

Quite happy to quote some passage from a dusty old book that supports their narrative but lose their shit very quickly when you point out another passage in the same book that totally contradicts their narrative.

Ultimate hypocrites who live their lives by Jesus, but don't understand how to follow the basic "don't be a ****" morale code of conduct.

To be fair there's plenty who don't follow Jesus who have the same problem.

 

[horlock_was_super]

3 days later?

Always loved the story that Rick Mayall told everyone that he took longer than Jesus to rise from the dead.
Then he went and bloody died and didn’t.

 

[Bigga]

I've never really understood the separation of religion and spiritual. For me, they are one and the same. And, for me, if I was to go back to Church I could only go back to what I am/was familiar with.
I find comfort in familiarity, the sense that some things are unchanged and constant in a "mad" world.
However, each of us needs to find peace/inspiration in whatever way we can. So I take on board what you say.

For me it's familiarity and constancy, for you it might be something new and invigorating and for others it could be atheism.

No way is wrong as long as we try and be the best we can.

I respect that answer.

It's funny cos I grew up with my Ma taking me to church every Sunday, but it wasn't anybody telling me negativity about the church, I just seen things with my own eyes; preachers, pastors, revs, Popes, Imams etc all holding power. Okay, some positive, some negative, but all with power. I didn't like that.

Then on top of that, some of the most negative aspects of power stood out. Of course, I don't mean this as a blanket statement, but if religion can allow the negative people to hold power, I want nothing to do with it.

My spirituality comes most when I catch myself in a moment in space and time and I feel the glory in nature and I feel supremely connected to everything in the universe, it feels like. I've felt it sat on a bunch of rocks, high up on a beach front at sunrise and sat on the edge of a pier in Greece. I had 'died' many years ago and had a sense of peace, but felt the same peace in those moments, which I never thought would happen. It was, like 5 secs, but very emotional for me to find that again.

That's what makes me believe in something greater than religion and greater than I.

But, other than that, I understand the comfort and familiarity of church watching my Ma go every Sunday.

 

[Trevor Morley's Tache]

To be fair there's plenty who don't follow Jesus who have the same problem.

They usually don't try and claim some sort of moral high ground though.

 

[Bigga]

They usually don't try and claim some sort of moral high ground though.

I gotta say, the argument you made was a bit silly.

At the core of what you're saying is a Human problem, not atheist or religious.

 

[Trevor Morley's Tache]

Yet another thread that smacks of Anti-Americanism sentiment, it's so obvious it was going to turn that way when the peoples republic of envy get their danders up.

When you have the likes of Kenneth Copeland and Joel Osteen poncing round in private jets and a multitude of supercars in the name of religion, it becomes ridiculously easy to poke fun.

 

[i kne albert davy]

They usually don't try and claim some sort of moral high ground though.

Oh I don't know.

 

[mexico1970]

When you have the likes of Kenneth Copeland and Joel Osteen poncing round in private jets and a multitude of supercars in the name of religion, it becomes ridiculously easy to poke fun.

As I said, it's all envy isn't it? I wonder why religious nutters in other countries don't get the same flak?

Don't bother it's not rocket science :)

 

[mexico1970]

I gotta say, the argument you made was a bit silly.

At the core of what you're saying is a Human problem, not atheist or religious.

It's an American problem according to some.

 

[i kne albert davy]

When you have the likes of Kenneth Copeland and Joel Osteen poncing round in private jets and a multitude of supercars in the name of religion, it becomes ridiculously easy to poke fun.

There's good and bad people who follow all religions not just Christianity. Just as there's good and bad people who follow no religion, maybe it's some people who are the problem.

 

[Betterdeedthan red]

It's been dying for decades.
People less and less believe in fairy

Exactly
Complete madness.
Utter fantasy

 

[r.soleofsalford]

Quite happy to quote some passage from a dusty old book that supports their narrative but lose their shit very quickly when you point out another passage in the same book that totally contradicts their narrative.

Ultimate hypocrites who live their lives by Jesus, but don't understand how to follow the basic "don't be a ****" morale code of conduct.

Absolutely

 

[Trevor Morley's Tache]

As I said, it's all envy isn't it? I wonder why religious nutters in other countries don't get the same flak?

Don't bother it's not rocket science :)

Kalvin Robertson?

 

[Two Gun Bob]

We're all going to die, yet there's so many out there that find it difficult to come to terms with their ultimate demise. If it helps them transverse along life's golden pastures, by believing that they will live again, then fair fooks to them.

For me I know that this is my one and only Golden Wonka ticket, and that I'm no more entitled to a second sitting than that poor unfortunate chicken we ate for tonight's tea. Happy are those called to the supper. Amen:

 

[Trevor Morley's Tache]

There's good and bad people who follow all religions not just Christianity. Just as there's good and bad people who follow no religion, maybe it's some people who are the problem.

I don't deny that some people are trying to do good in the name of religion, and that others get solace from their beliefs in a higher being, but the whole 'god moves in mysterious ways' religious premise has been pretty much superseded by knowledge, specifically science.

 

[r.soleofsalford]

When you have the likes of Kenneth Copeland and Joel Osteen poncing round in private jets and a multitude of supercars in the name of religion, it becomes ridiculously easy to poke fun.

Kenneth Copeland is an absolute twat.

 

[Trevor Morley's Tache]

 

[Barcon]

We're all going to die, yet there's so many out there that find it difficult to come to terms with their ultimate demise. If it helps them transverse along life's golden pastures, by believing that they will live again, then fair fooks to them.

For me I know that this is my one and only Golden Wonka ticket, and that I'm no more entitled to a second sitting than that poor unfortunate chicken we ate for tonight's tea. Happy are those called to the supper. Amen:

Glass half full mate. Speak for yourself.

 

[Two Gun Bob]

Glass half full mate. Speak for yourself.

I knew you were special.

 

[.db.]

Thought I'd share an interesting article & podcast by A.N.Wilson questioning if Christianity can survive the next 50 years. In a recent Spectator article he predicted that within 50 years the great cathedrals of Europe would be no more than “heritage” sites, their meaning incomprehensible to the crowds who visit them. It would not be a complete end, though. Fine worship and charismatic preaching would still be able to attract a faithful remnant; a small number of grand churches would probably remain viable, and a few of the most famous choirs could survive. But the culture as a whole would have moved on to the point at which Christianity was largely extinct.

There is an alternative view, which notes the conversion of some significant public figures in recent years and predicts a revival of belief. The historian Tom Holland and the secular Muslim Ayaan Ali Hirsi are examples of former atheists who have embraced Christian faith — partly out of a recognition that the best of Western culture is a product of Christian values, and partly out of despair at the erosion of Christian culture by secular materialism and its consequences for our well-being.

Here is a link to Wilson's Holy Smoke Podcast

Is the end of Christendom nigh? with A.N. Wilson

Thousands of Brits will be attending Christmas and carol services throughout December. Yet festive attendance masks the reality that congregations just aren’t holding up. The most optimistic of estimates suggest that regular church attendance has almost halved in the UK since 2009. This is just...

www.spectator.co.uk

As we progress as a species, and learn more about the history of our species and of religions, we are seeing that religions are just a series of fantasy stories that are adaptations and plagiarisms of older religions which are all simply allegories and personifications of the Earth, sky, Sun, Moon, stars, planets and seasons.

Christianity adopted and adapted all of its stories and holidays to fit in with older Pagan festivals which were probably also all just copied from stories past down through generations of hunter gatherers, looking up at the sky around their camp fires at night, recognising the turn in the seasons, the constellations and planets in the sky at different times of the year and the importance of the Sun. I’m not sure if there’s a single authentic original holiday that Christianity didn’t just take from further back in past Paganism.

Religions felt they were needed to be the overseers of morality within society before governments, statutory law, courts, lawyers and Police forces were around. Now, we are seeing that we can live moral lives without the need for religion to keep us in check, just through normal human decency.

Religions also felt they were needed to control the masses, to band them together to fight, invade and conquer, and to convert and again control the new masses. Now that’s done in the name of countries or political ideologies.

Although, there are still some people living in the Dark Ages and following their religions. I predict that in 300 years from now, nobody on Earth will follow any religion. They will just uphold ancient Pagan holidays as traditions, like ‘Christmas’ (although a Christian word and Christians like to think it’s their holiday, it’s certainly not a Christian holiday), Pancake Day, Easter etc. all which have much more ancient history and iconography than the Christian bastardisation of them all.