What do you think has been the biggest impact made agaisnt religion?

Question

in the past decade from growing secularism?
And for the people here over 35 can you really say that the USA is better off today than the USA you knew from years back?

Answer 1

I would say a lack of education. The church has been afraid to confront anything that has to do with knowledge because they didn't want to get involved. What is needed today is to get back to strong philosophy and apologetics.

Answer 2

The biggest impact from the past 35 years against religion has just been the life philosophy of "live and let live." And yes, it sort of is an offshoot of Woodstock, free love, anti-establishmentism. What I mean is, people saw the hypocrisy and failings of government over Vietnam, and news became a voice for things the general public never saw before, like the deaths that occur in war on the 6:00 evening news. That era turned everything in a different direction. And don't get me wrong. Not all of the direction was bad. There have been some advances that are okay. Science and medicine and invention have progressed wonderfully. But society started to unhinge itself between the Korean War (police action), and Vietnam. I am 40 years old, and I remember watching innocence be changed and impinged upon again and again. And I was not a christian as a child. But I remember the era. Not fondly, with emotional nostalgia, but accurately as a time where there was more innocence at the beginning of it, but as more and more unrighteous decisions became embraced as the "acceptance of others", everything began to fall apart. But this just hastens the end of things, and that's okay. In the meanwhile, our call is to stay righteous, live as examples, vote our conscience and not be pushed to give in. By the way, I mean that this is God's call to ALL people, not just christians.

Answer 3

Yes, the US is better today than in my childhood.

You literally have no idea about the level of school violence and poverty in the US in the 1970s and early 1980s.

I recently watched the movie The Pursuit of Happyness (with Will Smith) and I had to stop the DVD a few times because I was SO overwhelmed by the images of poverty in 1981. My mom was a divorced single mother and in college at the time, and we were one bad turn from the same situation as the family therein.

Watch sitcoms from the 1970s set in the 1970s and you will see levels of violence and a low quality of life that are not added to make an impact- they are just there because they were facts of life at the time. Do you remember when Reagan closed down all the mental asylums and people who'd been locked up (rightly or wrongly) their whole lives were suddenly on the steets?

Have you ever waited in line for gas and been told there wasn't any? Have you ever had to choose between eating and parking at work?

The world is pretty crappy compared to the Clinton days, but it's downright DREAMY compared to Ford, Carter and Reagan!

Answer 4

Probably the popularity of the internet. It offered a way to read all of that "apostate literature" and to put more atheists and other minorities in touch with each other.

I don't know why people say it's the teaching of evolution in biology class. That's hardly a new thing. Creationists have just found new ways to get outraged over it. If anything, it's religious zealotry that's preventing people from learning about evolution. Because if you actually take the time to examine evolution, you see that it doesn't contradict religion. In fact the only people saying otherwise are people who don't know anything about biology.

And the USA is better than it was 35 years ago (well aside from the music). Older generations will always have this illusion that "times are at their worst these days", but this is just a subjective illusion. You can verify this from finding people making the same complaints in every decade for centuries.

Answer 5

Oh I think certainly the loss of the media and classrooms to secularism and liberalism dealt a critical blow. Now future generations grow up hearing how stupid and anti-science believers are, they grow up with every reason to disbelieve God. Nothing in our current educational system or media inspires people to faith, just the opposite.

Im afraid things are just going to get worse as time goes on and believers will constantly look back to when there were more believers, and Godly virtues were celebrated by society, not mocked and scorned and evil was celebrated.

Answer 6

The biggest impact against religion is selfishness. Our ancestors, both Christian and Pagan, approached God (or the gods) as if we were on trial. We approached knowing that the power is greater than we were, we fell on our faces and begged to be found favorable. Now, we act as if we are the judges and God is on trial. "What has God done for ME lately?" we ask. "Yeah, I have life and a house and a full belly, but what has God really done for ME?" (Ironically, it is those who suffer the most who do not use the case that suffering is proof for the non-existence of a benevolent God.) We have a new Holy Trinity: my Holy Wants, my Holy Needs, and my Holy Feelings. We as a society have exalted the individual to god-like heights. This empty love of oneself is what damages the relationship with God the most.

And no, we are not better off. Our jobs are being expatriated in ways we never thought would happen, the middle-class is rapid disappearing, divorce and abortion are more common than ever, our childrem have more technology than ever, but they are learning less and growing fatter, et cetera. Look outside. Do you see kids climbing trees and playing like they did 25 years ago or even 15 years ago? They are all glued to TV screens and computers, absorbing violence and a perverse version of sex that robs it of its beauty. They are trained to satisfy themselves immediately. The idea of putting the group's needs above one's own is as foreign as sitting down and reading a book for fun.

Answer 7

The biggest impact made against religion is the blind and unconditional belief in it- that God exists in three persons, the infallibility of the pope, alleged inheritance of sin, a beautiful angel alleged to have 'fallen' and became very ugly, magic of turning wine into blood by sacrificial sacraments, confessing your sins and expects to be pardoned by some whispered prayers, or the extreme belief to be the chosen people, or the multiple personalities of god being endlessly reincarnated, or himself incarnated...these are the magical impacts to name a few. At the end, we have religious leaders being millionaires overnight and being used during the so called democratic elections, or being used to invade, usurp demoralize people. The rest is uncountable. Religion is a simple phenomenon. One God, Eternal, Does not beget nor is begotten, nobody can be like God not even can come close to God's attribute, because if this is the case, God, as is very common nowadays, is just a good business to start with.
The USA is far, far better today than the USA i know years back- when it comes to technological progress being used solely to its advantage (never mind if the sanctity of lives is at stake-who cares), better in combining words together to take advantage of poor, weak countries; with better weapons of mass destruction distributed to few "close allies", which in turn uses them indescriminately, better in only GOD knows whatever more they plan to do to justify their strategies. Even better in believing that the whole world lies in their ability to be its ultimate prophet and savior and that only them could dictate whats good for any country and whats not good. Better in forgetting that at the end of all these things, there will come a time when a final judgement would certainly come, and the least atom of intended sin is to be paid fully.
Another impact made by religion-when leaders believe that they have been chosen by their god, to usher in a new world order- when leaders delude themselves to be talking to their gods and that they are being supported. Pity them. But whatever we think about america, it is still better off today.
There are still so many good americans, sincere, uncontaminated by materialism, honest, and can be trusted.

Answer 8

Is the USA better? Well it depends on what part of life you are reffering to?

Life is allot more comfortable, thanks to science. We can now use things like microwave and convection ovens to cook food quicker. We all have indoor plumbing, we enjoy a much better medical community and life expectancy is much longer.

We also have a greater choice of entertainment, food, travel options and living arrangements. There are many more Job opportunities, and we are actually much safer since communisim started failing.

Christians love to look at natural disasters and see the growing violence and forget that the population is also growing. They look at all the bad things and say that life is getting worse. I would hate to live like that. In reality life is wonderful, there are so many opportunities to live life now, I have the freedom to move anywhere and the ability to make a tangible difference in another persons life. Living life in a Christian bubble seeking disasters to point at would be terribly depressing.

Answer 9

Women's rights.
I know more people leaving Christianty because of thier attitude toward women more then anything else.
Its funny, its the reason many Christians look down on Islam, but the Bible teaches the same things. There denominations of Christianity that still cover thier hair when they enter a church, women are to follow thier husbands choices no matter what and the fall of man was all out fault.

Answer 10

No the US is not better off today than it was in years past.

As for growing Secularism... it's a combination of things, from errant priests to a very left wing bias in both educational institutions and in the media.... but mostly it's time.... as one population grows old and becomes less and less relevant, a younger one takes its place.... this generation isn't aware of history and how other societies (the soviet union, the nazi's, etc.... ) tried to embrace secularism and eventually lost their moral compass.... this lack of a compass eventually led to their decline.