229: Death of religion?

[Packbat]

Strip link.

I suspect Ellen is overextrapolating from present trends, personally. Analyzing from the perspective of memes, religions are by force of evolutionary pressure hardy, virulent, and adaptable - and experimentally, the Ideological Turing Test shows that atheist ideas are understood by a significant number of people who nevertheless reject their conclusions.

That most Christians a century from now would be considered heretics by most Christians today seems to me obvious ... but I would be shocked if there was not a significant portion of the populace who identified as Christian in a hundred years.

[Globus]

Agreed.

Also, the fact that it is in the West means nothing, there are always weirdos among many, easy-to-communicate-with people.
But what I think what the main influence behind Christianity's survival will be, ironically enough, is Jews. They are a people whose culture/ethnicity is tied in with their religion. They won't let theirs die, as it would somehow "lessen" their people, and as long as people mention YHVH, Islam and Christianity will live on, if only to present a contrast.

[Packbat]

I don't see the connection between the persistence of Judaism and Christianity, much less Islam. Why would the presence of Jews in the world encourage people to convert to Christianity?

[Sylvia]

Christianity has lasted 2000 years. I don't think it would die in the next 100. Although I can see a lot of the current forms of it not surviving, or evolving dramatically. I think there are some Christian ideologies that exist now that are sustainable.

[pumpkincat]

I'm curious about that as well. It's quite true that Jews tend to take that heritage seriously, but how does it cause persistence for Christianity? Christianity tends to place more emphasis on Judaism than the other way around.

[jinx]

I highly doubt Christianity or religion in general will die that soon. As was said religion adapts itself so that people can continue to follow it (hence the creation of Christianity in the first place). The fact of the matter is that currently the most hated group in America are atheists, so Christianity isn't going anywhere soon. Just like fashion, I think that religion will swing back around and become a rising trend, if it hasn't already. I also agree with Globus that the second one religion exists in the world others will always rise up around it.

[doctor100]

Referring to the second link in the first post (and the follow-up visa versa linked in the story), I am guessing that the people who do not understand are not Christians.

I have trouble expressing the exact place of correlation. Though i do believe there is one. Perhaps it is the belief in a righteous god, or a true authority of morality. Perhaps it is a sense of intentional cause and effect, beyond a single person's plans, which is the whole 'excuse' for the history of the Jews. Perhaps people just want to say they are special too. Or perhaps a connection to history should be blamed. Who knows, perhaps it is a desire to sympathize with people different from you, even share an experience, empathize.

Who knows? This is of course, not the virtues of Christianity itself, but merely speculation if Judaism continued, why Christianity is likely to as well.

It was the Job of the Jews to maintain knowledge of and glorify the righteous God. So long as they continue to speak of it, it will be glorified by some.

[Globus]

Islam definitely because it makes a pretext for the Arabic people to defend their land from Jewish intrusion (yes, they need a pretext, obviously they don't have an inherent right for self-defense, they are arabic FFS) - and I don't see that war ending any time soon. Though, in 100 years... that's too far away to predict this sort of thing. As for Christianity, well, let's try to sound polcorrect... Jewish minorities tend to attract the sort of barbarians who blame them for things they couldn't possibly have a hand in, and to justify this, "they crucified our god" sounds good. In fact, Christianity tends to be a good excuse for anything, even, say, Communism. This makes people go to churches, later they bring their families too, there they witness miracles (percieved or not), and if two children of a family stay, it's already stagnant instead of declining - not to mention new converts. As for the other half of my argument, jinx just explained it.

[pumpkincat]

You're correct; I'm Jewish. Hence my saying that Judaism does not tend to place an emphasis on Christianity, but that the reverse is more the case, Christianity placing an emphasis on Judaism for 'paving the way' for the Messiah.

If you want a decent layman's view on Judaism from the Jew's perspective, I recommend checking out a specific, fictional book on a nonfictional topic, _Conversations with Rabbi Small_ by Harry Kemelman. It covers a lot of ground, and while it won't cover everything (and can't), it's useful for covering a lot of the basics, including intersections with Christianity in modern America.

ETA that while I'm Jewish, I have spent time in Christianity of a Protestant form, so I've been on both sides of that particular divide.

[pumpkincat]

Islam definitely because it makes a pretext for the Arabic people to defend their land from Jewish intrusion (yes, they need a pretext, obviously they don't have an inherent right for self-defense, they are arabic FFS) - and I don't see that war ending any time soon. Though, in 100 years... that's too far away to predict this sort of thing. As for Christianity, well, let's try to sound polcorrect... Jewish minorities tend to attract the sort of barbarians who blame them for things they couldn't possibly have a hand in, and to justify this, "they crucified our god" sounds good. In fact, Christianity tends to be a good excuse for anything, even, say, Communism. This makes people go to churches, later they bring their families too, there they witness miracles (percieved or not), and if two children of a family stay, it's already stagnant instead of declining - not to mention new converts. As for the other half of my argument, jinx just explained it.

It looks like you're being sarcastic throughout, but I admit that I really can't tell for sure. However, leaving that aside, you're correct on pretty much all of this to one degree or another. (I've been personally accused of having a hand in the current bad economy because I'm Jewish and the Jews control the global economy. While I don't tend to think of 'em as barbarians, it was certainly a what moment.)

The main thing to remember about Judaism is it's a religion which discourages conversion. It happens, but it's discouraged (Sammy Davis Jr being I think one of the higher-profile converts) so its growth is largely confined to breeding population. Christianity does not have that bar; quite the opposite. Of course, being a Jew is trickier since one need not be practicing the religion to qualify as a Jew, and there are many more ethnic Jews than there are practicing. Though the Lubavitch movement is certainly trying almost singlehandedly to change that.