Author Topic: The rise of aetheism in America. (Read 2441 times)

ironglow · « **Reply #60 on:** April 15, 2012, 09:52:16 AM »

Quote from: KIMBER45 on April 15, 2012, 09:40:40 AM

Quote from: ironglow on April 15, 2012, 08:34:32 AM
Quote from: KIMBER45 on April 14, 2012, 03:45:36 PM
According to some Americans, foreigners are welcome in America as long as they behave and worship as Caucasians do. Sad , but true.
ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Where has race been mentioned here..Caucasian or otherwise ? Perhaps I missed something and you can show me where I missed it, prior to your post # 39.
Really; I would rather what is happening spiritually in Africa...start happening here ! Evangelicals are booming there ..
http://www.ummah.com/forum/showthread.php?82750-Evangelicals-boom-in-Africa
With certain races comes certain religions other than Christianity.

oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Not quite sure I understand, I see at least the three majors all over the world...please elaborate.

teamnelson · « **Reply #61 on:** April 15, 2012, 10:31:29 AM »

My own little anecdotal survey of the young folks entering service today leads me to conclude that what is rising isn't Atheism, its anti-establishmentism ... but that's nothing new. Church-ians have been raising little pharisees for generations now. We demand behavior, and neglect the heart. We give them rules, but never engage them in meaningful discourse. We demand they pray a prayer out loud, but their hearts are far from the words on their lips. They grow up, and leave all that behind ... having never actually tasted and seen that the Lord is good.

I think youth groups are an abomination before the Lord ... yea verily ... for the specific reason that it detaches the child from the parent for the "real" conversations, and instead we hand them over to a guy named pat with hip glasses, pot belly and a goatee, who is COOL, and serves pizza, talks about loving Jesus, etc. The fruit of this abomination checks into my command each week by the dozens - raised in church, never knew Christ. We've taken the outcome based education model and applied it to our children's eternity, and then scraped the bottom of the barrel for a large kid that couldn't get a real job, and put him in charge of other kid's salvation. Not his fault ... it's ours. We hired him, chances are because he was the nicest kid in last year's graduating class and he's cheap because he still lives with his Mom, who is a matron of the church.

Atheism is no-kidding philosophical movement that has a rational set of presuppositions to reject Theism. Most of these kids believe in deity or deities, just have no connection with the one they were raised near, and we the parents failed to assist them in that relationship. I think Atheists are happy to count these confused young people in their ranks, but its a false inflation of reality. Left unchecked, some of the more interested ones will become atheists, or more likely join a cult.

Swampman · « **Reply #62 on:** April 15, 2012, 10:42:03 AM »

Probably the best post I've ever read on a forum of any kind. Can I borrow church-ians? That's a wonderful term.

teamnelson · « **Reply #63 on:** April 15, 2012, 11:16:32 AM »

Quote from: Swampman on April 15, 2012, 10:42:03 AM

Probably the best post I've ever read on a forum of any kind. Can I borrow church-ians? That's a wonderful term.

Swampy, its all yours brother.

r29l20 · « **Reply #64 on:** April 15, 2012, 11:54:45 AM »

Church-ians, I love it.

.

powderman · « **Reply #65 on:** April 15, 2012, 12:26:48 PM »

On another board a guy asked a serious question about the Bible, and this know it all jumps in telling him how full of inaccuracies and lies the Bible is full of. He argues that this or that could not have happened because it wasn't logical. He had read all the right books written by people just like him. He and others like him contribute greatly to non belief.
TEAMNELSON. Some youth programs are good, others simply to entertain and gain new member, and money. Our pastor was asked, what do you do for the children?? He smiled and said, we teach em about Jesus. POWDERMAN.

Swampman · « **Reply #66 on:** April 15, 2012, 12:30:55 PM »

If all I knew was what the church teaches, I'd be an Aetheist too.

teamnelson · « **Reply #67 on:** April 15, 2012, 12:55:25 PM »

One of our stronger young men in the Lord on my ship showed me a book, Not A Fan. I think the author is on to something, we've got a lot of folks who are big fans of Jesus ... but not followers. They've got Jesus on their neckalace ... ace ... ace (ask your daughter, she'll get the reference), but not in their heart, and definitely not on their mind. They make great neo-atheists when they leave their momma's house, and get really cool celtic tattoos all over their body, or angels wings on their back. Until parents treat Jesus as something greater than Tebow, the church is statistically the largest producer of non-Christians in America.

Not all churches, sure. There are individual exceptions, but the aggregate, across all things calling themself a church, is that we're not reproducing at a replacement rate (1 for 1) in our children, nevermind in conversion of the non-churched. Parachurch organizations aren't producing any either, per capita. Numbers yes, but not per capita. The only thing that has ever produced Christians reliably are ... Christians. Genuine followers of Christ. And you shall teach these things to your children ...

The atheists have the schools, what are the parents doing?

Hooker · « **Reply #68 on:** April 15, 2012, 04:25:03 PM »

There is no such thing as an Atheist.
There are plenty of liars though and that is what those that claim to be atheists are.
They may not care that God exists but they know that he does.

Pat

powderman · « **Reply #69 on:** April 15, 2012, 04:44:26 PM »

Quote

The atheists have the schools, what are the parents doing?

This has been going on since 1963, unfortunately many, if not most of these parents were raised in the same schools. The result is what we see today. POWDERMAN.

yellowtail3 · « **Reply #70 on:** April 15, 2012, 05:05:27 PM »

Quote from: Hooker on April 15, 2012, 04:25:03 PM

There is no such thing as an Atheist.
There are plenty of liars though and that is what those that claim to be atheists are.
They may not care that God exists but they know that he does.

How do you figure that they know?

They've not been convinced... calling them liars is unfounded speculation and slander, just as if they'd called you a liar for saying God is there.

thumper113 · « **Reply #71 on:** April 15, 2012, 05:14:38 PM »

Many on here some to be rooted in the church (meaning regular attendance to Worship, not to just say you were there).

I am a devoted Christian and have looked for a Church home but can't find one that practices what it preaches!

No, I'm not talking about the pastor. The pastor isn't the church.

Jesus walked among the lepers and the worst of His day. I'm so thankful He didn't believe in only sharing with those the Church felt worthy. If someone new comes to your Church, they came there out of trying to fill a need. I just don't see the Churches reaching to those people anymore. When I was young every Tuesday night was visitation. Members of our church would go see those who had visited on Sunday. A lot of those people joined our church. I've never even gotten a call or a note from anybody at the churches around here after visiting.

I Love our Lord. I try to improve my walk on a daily basis.

Our children are turning away because of the hypocrisy they see on a daily basis. They are turning away because our society is telling them we have no right to pray or practice our beliefs. It's fine if you are anything but a Christian.

So society tells them we are bad and then we prove it on a daily basis.

How can we expect them to stand up for our beliefs when they are not practiced outside the Church walls?

I do not believe there are true atheists. I think there are folks who are mad at Him and people who refuse to admit they are not the final authority.

No offense meant to any, I just feel that you can't even lean on science since if you really follow science you'd know Darwinism is out and all they've proved is there is a lot we don't comprehend.

To me science is man trying to reverse engineer what God has already done. They don't call it the "God particle" for nothing. It's the building block He used to put it all together.

If we want a true rise in real Christianity we need to start being missionaries here at home. Reach out to someone every day. Quit being too busy to help.

powderman · « **Reply #72 on:** April 15, 2012, 06:11:24 PM »

THUMPER. Darn good post. POWDERMAN.

ironglow · « **Reply #73 on:** April 16, 2012, 01:58:35 AM »

Good post Thumper;

I am one who believes in "free will"..a man can choose to believe in God, or not to do so..their choice. Perhaps I am speaking to a crowd that is either too young or too inexperienced to remember the relationship between Christians and their country.
I am 75 years old and I can testify to the fact that in the 40s-50s & early 60s, there was a form of 'mutual respect' being practiced in civil society. Most were Christians, some serious..some nominal. My folks were "Chreasters"..sure to attend church on Christmas & Easter, and perhaps a couple other occasions during the year. Some never attended any church and may well have been agnostics.. nobody gave anybody else a hard time over it. We were released for "church school" for the last period of school every Thursday..if we chose to attend..nobody was forced to do so and nobody hassled either group.
After the early 60s things started to change..I believe, brought about by the Fabian Socialist growth in our society. Things were instituted which common decency had always recoiled at. Abortion, sexual promiscuity at an unprecedented level, no stigma attached to these practices, nor to drunkeness etc. Now we face a time when some feel there should be no stigma attached to using mind numbing/bending drugs..consumed or smoked.
A culture can only sustain itself if the bulk of it's citizens are in agreement on it's standards (see my signature line). If not, and every man "does as seems right in his own eyes", chaos results and the culture implodes; which is where we are at now.
We have a "culture war" going on these days, basically between the traditionalists/Christians vs the non-believers/ "progressives".
Speaking as a traditionalist/Christian, I want the younger people to understand..we did not start this conflict which threatens to destroy our way of life.. it was thrust upon us by the "progressives". It is a decay of our culture (IMO) and we are against such a decay..surely, we are "anti-decay".
Even though they sometimes deny it, progressives behind their facade..are at war with against Christ and his people. What does that make them ?

BTW: Before you even mention it..other faiths were respected in the USA..in the 40s,50s and 60s...

littlecanoe · « **Reply #74 on:** April 16, 2012, 02:08:29 AM »

I'm jumping in a bit late in this conversation so I hope I'm not repeating what someone has already said.

Is atheism really on the rise or are we just seeing our nation separate from Judeo/Christian values that used to be the cultural norm?

Looking back to what I know of my community there used to be greater church attendance. However, church attendance was a social/cultural norm for many rather than a spiritual exercise.
As social/cultural trends have changed the influence of teaching and peer pressure from such a setting has diminished. Could explain much of what we perceive as a trend away from belief?

lc

thumper113 · « **Reply #75 on:** April 16, 2012, 07:41:37 AM »

I hadn't thought about it, ironglow, but I think you're right. About the 60's it became more about "what I want" and the start of the "me" generation.

Dixie Dude · « **Reply #76 on:** April 16, 2012, 08:54:04 AM »

I think today only about 10% of Americans are true Christians. Those who have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Then there are about 10% atheists. The rest are somewhere in the middle. Billy Graham once said of my generation (baby boomers) that we had a "coat tail religion" We attended the church that our parents attended, not knowing the reason why. Then we only attended at Christmas and Easter, maybe a few other times. In the south, about 50% today actually attend chruch, however, a lot attend just to try to get business. They own some type of business and want to be seen at chruch and have referal business. I attended one of these chruches. Had a great pastor, but I was contacted by phone soliciting my business. I asked for me personally, and got the information from the chruch directory. I didn't even know him. I left that church. Smaller seems to be better. Not too small or they work you to much and you get burn out. I don't think you have to have a building with grounds to keep up. I have been to storefront chruches. They were easier. Work centered on witnessing, prayer, and helping others. No grass to cut, not much to clean except the inside of the building on occational rotation. I talked to a so called atheist once, and while talking, he said well maybe he was agnostic.

For some of you guy's information, atheism was actually the "religion" of communists, with Darwinism as its core beliefs. Right and wrong were always changing to meet conditions, (situation ethics), not firm and reliable like "religion". For instance, communists would kill someone if it was for the "greater collective good". In Christianity killing is murder unless it is for self defence of self or nation. Lying was ok to reach a "utopian" goal. It is not ok in Christianity. You don't even have to tell a "white" lie, but you don't always have to tell all you know either.

I would say 20-30% of Americans are agnostic, and another 20-30% attend chruch but aren't solid Christians. So, we end up with the current gridlock.

teamnelson · « **Reply #77 on:** April 16, 2012, 09:48:06 AM »

I think an aggravating factor that IG alluded to is the death of pluralism.

Used to be that we understood folks had a right to think different than us about God, we could respect that, maybe have a friendly argument about it at the academic level or at a social function, maybe tell a joke now and again. Sure, within the confines of your church/temple/what have you, you might hear someone speak of the evils of other religions. But by and large, as long as we all met up and agreed on common community moral standards, we left each other alone. Recent studies indicate that during that time, religious literacy was light years ahead of what it is now - we knew more about what other people thought, than kids do today. It was discussed in schools, and like IG said, kids would go off to their religious education, respective to whatever their family believed.

Progressives hate pluralism, they want conformity, by regulation and violence if necessary. Its not enough to disagree with them; they take it personal. Those who disagree are of a subset of humanity, intrinsically less educated, less intelligent, probably of questionable genetic heritage, or possibly just evil. Progressive don't want you to be merely silent - they want you to embrace their view, clapping, smiling. Reminds me of 1984. Pluralism is no longer tolerated in government, schools, politics, media, culture, etc. The acceptable intolerance is of those you feel are intolerant ... which is hilarious given that literacy is so low. How would they know how tolerant someone else is when they have no clue what they believe? Its all stereotyping ... dare I say: profiling. Progressives love to profile those with whom they disagree, but will adamantly argue that profiling is wrong. They love to persecute those with whom they disagree, but will adamantly argue that they deserve it because they hold ideas that might lead them to persecute someone else. They want free will, as long as you choose their way. They want liberty for all ... who behave as they think is appropriate. Our nation fought against that on foreign soils, while we trusted schools and churches to keep us safe at home.

BUGEYE · « **Reply #78 on:** April 16, 2012, 10:19:33 AM »

I agree with IG, it's free will, plus when we were kids we was taught to respect other people, sanctity of life etc. having been around education since 99, I've seen the product of the parasite class. their Church services is not worship, they're political rallies.
so the lib class and their offspring will soon have us outnumbered and God may turn his back on us.

Dixie Dude · « **Reply #79 on:** April 16, 2012, 10:28:13 AM »

I think God is already turning. We must pray for revival, and soon. War, another terroist attack, might turn some to or back to God. I know after 9-11, the church I attended had an overflow crowd the next Sunday. Same think happened in WWII, and in the Great Depression. Today, everyone who needs help, depends on the government instead of families, chruches, and charities, all of which helped make things more personal and more meaningful, more thankful. No one thanks or is appreciative of government handouts.