The Fate Of Christianity?

QUEST said:

Lastly do you believe that Christianity will have the same fate as Gods of the past, and eventually wither away, as another God takes over the masses. Why or why not?
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I went to church today and attendence was around 8000 people -- still alive and well I'd say. People that say christianity is dieing haven't been to church in a while.

Christianity offers a message of hope that others religions haven't been able to overtake. The bible is the alltime best-selling book in the world.

Good news travels. Most People want good news, but they don't want to make the changes that are needed. Many christians are just buying "fire insurance," and don't pursue an active walk with the Lord in their life. Don't look at the church as the standard for christianity, instead look at Christ.
 
As skin says and in addition - 2/3rds of the world are not Christian, but more importantly although the number of Christians are growing in number in absolute terms, the world population is growing faster. This means that as a percentage of world population Christianity is in decline.
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Well, yes, but you're not considering that much of the world is in the hand of tyranical dictators. Places such as China and N. Korea harbor large population sizes, but have political systems in place to stop the spread of Christianity. Iran and Saudi Arabia and much of the middle east, too, have certain barriers to the spread of Christianity. Basically, if you're born a muslim you cannot join Christianity without becoming an apostate, and an apostate, you know, gets the death penalty. Of course this is radical view of Islam, one for which many muslims don't believe.


We also see the interesting phenomenon that even though statisticians are counting large tracts of population as Christain, actual attendance at Churches around the world is at an all time extreme low.
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Depends of course on the country.
 
The last time I checked the history books, leaving Christianity makes one an apostate as well. So said the most Holy Popes.
 
SouthStar, I'm not arguing over the use of the term apostate. Obviously, if someone leaves their belief, while having knowledge their belief is correct, they've committed apostasy. And loosely speaking, anyone who's left any belief system could be considered an apostate. Modern Christian countries do not have any punishments for apostates. While some countries with large populations are under tyranical dictatorships today, eventually, I believe, this tyrany will subside and Christianity will spread further.
 
Woody: I went to church today and attendence was around 8000 people -- still alive and well I'd say. People that say christianity is dieing haven't been to church in a while.
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M*W: Does the name "Lakewood" mean anything to you?
 
Cris said:
The percentage of American adults who identify themselves as Christians dropped from 86% in 1990 to 77% in 2001. This is an unprecedented drop.
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That doesn't mean that Christianity is dying, in another 10 years it might increase again, then fall again, and so on... But certainly, everything that are born also die, and the only thing that isn't born is the self within everything which some might call God.
 
okinrus said:
Well, yes, but you're not considering that much of the world is in the hand of tyranical dictators. Places such as China and N. Korea harbor large population sizes, but have political systems in place to stop the spread of Christianity. Iran and Saudi Arabia and much of the middle east, too, have certain barriers to the spread of Christianity.
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And yet, when you examine the data compiled (Kosmin et al, 2001) regarding United States populations of religious beliefs, you see the following:

The number of people that consider themselves to be "christian" was 151,225,000 in 1990 and increases to 159,030,000 in 2000, which is 76.5% of the U.S. population. The amount of change is +5% for Christianity from 1990 to 2000.

The number of people that consider themselves to be "muslim" was 527,000 in 1990 and increases to 1,104,000 in 2000, which is 0.5% of the population, but an increase of +109%.

On the bright side, the number of people that consider themselves non-religious or secular was 13,116,000 in 1990 and increases to 27,539,000 in 2000, which is 13.2% of the U.S. population, but an increase of +110%.


Reference
Kosmin, Barry A.; Mayer, Egon; and Keysar, Ariela (2001) American Religious Identification Survey New York: The Graduate Center, City University of New York.
 
Yorda,

That doesn't mean that Christianity is dying, in another 10 years it might increase again, then fall again, and so on...
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There doesn’t appear to be any statistics to support that – the trend appears to be consistently towards less religion.

… the only thing that isn't born is the self within everything which some might call God.
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Imaginative but otherwise doesn’t relate to anything known.
 
Okinrus,

Well, yes, but you're not considering that much of the world is in the hand of tyranical dictators. Places such as China and N. Korea harbor large population sizes, but have political systems in place to stop the spread of Christianity. Iran and Saudi Arabia and much of the middle east, too, have certain barriers to the spread of Christianity.
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These countries weren’t Christian even before they were controlled by tyrannical regimes. There is no reason to suppose these peoples would adopt an alien cultural concept like Christianity if their current governments fell.
 
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M*W: From http://www.open-christianity.com:

Although Christianity is the largest religion in the world and there are massive missionary efforts under way, as a whole it is declining in terms of the overall population. While the population of the world grows at roughly 1.25% per year, Christianity is growing at about 1.12% per year. By contrast, Islam is growing at 1.76% per year. The slow growth can be attributed to most of the Christian population residing in affluent nations where the birth rate is quite low. By contrast, Islamic nations have a higher birth rate and by effect have a larger growth percentage.

From http://www.freerepublic.com

The Christian population decline has two main causes: emigration and declining birth rates.

From http://www.gospelcom.net

Quoting from the recently published 'World Churches Handbook', he [Houston] claimed the proportion of Christians in the world has declined from 30 percent in 1960 to 28 percent in 1995; and is projected to fall further to 27 percent by 2010. Houston stressed that Christians continue to grow in absolute terms. But churches are getting smaller. The average sized church in 1960 was 1,000; by 2010 it will be 670. Adopting the 'shepherd/sheep' motif, he warned that there are many wandering sheep, particularly between charismatic and traditional churches and, in Africa, from the denominations to the African independent churches. He saw the modern diasporas as one of the key areas where lost sheep can be enfolded in the church.
 
Wow, according to the facts some have presented on this page, it looks like the future could be full of Muslims, and Non-relgious. I often wonder how much better,.. or worse,.. the world would be if Non-religious groups dominated?
 
Your points are not without merit, but I made that comment with the following two things in mind: 1) values and morality aren not exclusive to religion, and 2) values and morality seem rather deficit and in religion -though I would agree that there are many, many good theists who do good things with good intentions. But the prisons are full of theists not atheists. The percentage of atheists in the United States is far under-represented in prisons.

But I would agree with what you stated: people would simply use other beliefs and worldviews to justify their bad deeds.
 
what does 'the prisons are full of theists not athiests' MEAN Skin Walker?

where do you get yer facts from? and who is PUTTING them in prison....also another question?
 
It might mean nothing. I was pointing out to itopal that this was something that was on my mind when I made the post prior to that one. But it is suggestive of the fact that theists don't have the market cornered on morality and values. If they did, wouldn't we expect to see less of a percentage of theists in prison than not?

As to where I get my facts from, I've been posting citations to what I'm saying (I note also that you typically don't cite any sources for your "facts") throughout this thread, though I did leave that one out and went by memory. The citation is, however, in Woody's "Hell" thread.
 
SkinWalker said:
Progress and advancement is inevitable as demonstrated by the historical and archaeological records.
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SkinWalker said:
So I think we, as a species, are hard-wired to believe and to engage in magical thinking.
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Thus, we will continue to advance beyond the point that current belief systems will be completely untenable from a scientific and social point of view. On the other hand, we are also hard-wired to entertain and act upon illogical reasoning.

In what will this result? Christianity may fade out, only to be replaced with a belief system more adapted to scientific and social advancements while, given our natural disposition for beliefs, atheism will unfortunately remain the underdog?
 
Atheisism didn't do much for the communist block.

The worst tyrannies in history were run by atheists. Over 100 million people murdered by their own atheistic governments since 1917.
 
Muhlenberg said:
Atheisism didn't do much for the communist block.

The worst tyrannies in history were run by atheists. Over 100 million people murdered by their own atheistic governments since 1917.
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could you include some reference material for your assertions thank you

I would like to know, which countrys and who where there leaders and how you know they where atheists.
thank you again
 
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