Dubious wrote: ↑Tue May 30, 2017 4:06 am
If religion is on the rise, and it very well could be, it's mainly because of expanding Muslim populations but that's not what you had in mind since their view of Jesus doesn't conform to the christian view.
It's not just because of Islam, although its rise is certainly a problem -- on that we can agree -- but especially in the Developing World, conservative Christianity is growing rapidly as well.
Not that numbers matter a whit: were everyone a Nazi, that still wouldn't make Nazism right. Truth is a very different issue from numbers. But it does show that the Secularization Hypothesis, the idea that religion will die "naturally," was prematurely celebrated.
I think a better explanation is as follows: it's fair to say that in places where life is hard, people tend to be more thoughtful about religion. But (and here Nietzsche was right) when people get rich they can afford to get careless about their metaphysics as well, and can start to believe anything at all...even Atheism. It doesn't matter anymore, they think, because their needs are taken care of by modern means. Their health will be attended by doctors, their food supply by supermarkets, contingencies by insurance, security by the police, their anxieties by media distractions, their old age by pensions...so they start to wonder, "Is God dead," because they can't think of how to fit Him into anything they care about. Why do they need Him anymore, they wonder.
At the same time, they're left in a vacuum in regard to meaning, morality, purpose, significance and the afterlife. They have to distract themselves with the acquisition of yet one more material possession, or the having of one more experience, or the longing for one more thrill...and all the while, their bodies and minds run down through middle age and into old age. Eventually, they all die alone...and what's it all worth?
And that's the existential plight of the Western world today; once all "religion" is denied, what has Atheism got to offer in its place? Nothing. No guidance, no purpose, no meaning, no morals, and no hope.
Is this the alternative a rational person should wish to embrace?
One would have to be shown why.
Anyways enjoy your god. His followers are getting fewer especially among those trained to think!
"Trained to think":
that can be a synonym for "indoctrinated," which is a good description of anyone who imagines they can rationally sustain their Atheism. It's not a rational or evidentiary position: it's just a denial of belief. And when it comes down to the crunch, they've been "trained to think" that, maybe...but there's no rational warrant for their confidence.
And I'm sure they'd know that, if "trained to think" meant, "being self-critical," not merely gratuitously and smugly denying the existence of God.
But at the end of the day, as Pascal pointed out, the Theists have the ace on this question. If Atheists turn out to be right, they'll never find out. But if they're wrong, both the Theists and the Atheists will discover it eventually. But if that latter happens, then were will the Atheist be?
The Theist has nothing to fear, and the Atheist has nothing to win.
Better to rethink now than later.