Stunning Admission By Renowned Atheist; Decline of Christianity is Hurting Society

Everyone needs something to believe in, everyone needs a higher sense of being to give them a sense of self worth.

When people turn away from religion, they still need to fill that void with something. Hence, filling it with social justice, left wing politics and worshipping the almighty state/government.

I'd rather live in a society where people yield to Christianity, than yield to the state.

South Park nailed this in the Wii episode 12 years ago.

You mean to tell me, we can't just suddenly declare we are completely doing away with something that has been an essential component of human existence since the beginning of civilization (for which there are some scholarly arguments that say it was actually the impetus for such civilization), and simply not miss a beat in the process?

No fricking way?

Of course it is. The logical outflowing of atheism is that there is no objective moral standard and no inherent human value. What kind of society are you going to have when you claim a utilitarian view of existence? The kind that says the ends justify the means.

nm

Duh. When people who innately are guided by evolutionary self interest instinct, and believe that it's one and done with zero accountability...it's not rocket science to predict their action. Dogfight for the meat.

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In a truly secular society, in which men and women live their lives beneath empty heavens and expect to be recycled rather than resurrected, there is no solid moral foundation for good and evil

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I'm fairly agnostic and lean atheist.

This is something I've said to others (both believers and not) several times the last few years. Humans need written religion, of which Christianity is the best, to give moral stability to society. Removing it is like ancient doctors removing organs that 'don't seem to do anything'. Once gone, the realization comes too late that that piece you worked to hard to remove was actually vital for the whole system to work.

“But as Christianity fades further and further into our civilization’s rear-view mirror,“


I can’t you guys seriously.

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Stunning Admission By Renowned Atheist; Decline of Christianity is Hurting Society

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This is something I've long argued.

When you remove the mysticism from it any religion is nothing more than a philosophical framework for accepted and shunned behaviors both in society and when alone. When religion was removed from schools no other philosophy was put in to fill the gap for children. So we went from having at least daily reaffirmations of a philosophical structure of not just right and wrong but the penalties and benefits associated therewith to more and more people putting into place their increasingly individualized philosophies.

As a society we forget the lessons of the past after around 2-3 generations (while technically a generation is considered 30 years, I consider more closer to 20 as the time period is defined as "the average period during which children are born, grow up, become adults and begin to have children of their own"). Religion was removed from public schools ~1963. Advance that 30 years and we hit 1993, another 30 and here we are (approximately).

But why is this bad? Generally speaking, the more homogeneous a society is in its behavioral philosophies, the less conflict you'll have within that society. Conversely, the more spread out a society's beliefs on behavioral philosophies then the more likely there is to be conflict within that society.

Look at Japan, for instance. They don't have religion in their schools but they don't have the rampant violence and disrespect we have in ours. What's the difference?

Instead of religion they have a system set up around self-responsibility and respect. For instance, Japanese students don’t take any exams until they reach 10yrs old (instead they take small tests). They believe the goal for the first 3 years of school should not be to judge the child’s knowledge or learning, but to instead establish good manners and to develop their character. They are taught to respect other people and to be gentle to animals/nature. They also taught to be generous, compassionate and empathetic. Besides this, pupils are taught qualities like grit, self-control, and given a sense justice.

Fun fact: most Japanese schools do not employ janitors. Why? Because the students clean the schools themselves (the classrooms, the cafeteria, even the bathrooms). They believe that teaching the kids to clean their school teaches them to treat one another with respect and it infuses a sense of responsibility.

So while we don't necessarily need religion in schools, the removal of it left a vacuum that was filled with something far less adequate and that is in part why we see such a major degradation in our schools and in student behavior in general when compared to how those things were when religion was still allowed in schools.

The seeds to the demise of Christian civilization and values were sewn on October 31, 1517. It's been downhill ever since.