[NYCFarmboy]

http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtri...432.91875.html

God not so dead: Atheism
in decline worldwide

By Uwe Siemon-Netto
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONALThursday, March 3, 2005

Gurat, France � There seems to be a growing consensus around the globe that godlessness is in trouble.

"Atheism as a theoretical position is in decline worldwide," Munich theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg told United Press International Tuesday.

His Oxford colleague Alister McGrath agrees. Atheism's "future seems increasingly to lie in the private beliefs of individuals rather than in the great public domain it once regarded as its habitat," he wrote in the U.S. magazine, Christianity Today.

Two developments are plaguing atheism these days. One is that it appears to be losing its scientific underpinnings. The other is the historical experience of hundreds of millions of people worldwide that atheists are in no position to claim the moral high ground.

Writes Turkish philosopher Harun Yahya, "Atheism, which people have tried to for hundreds of years as 'the ways of reason and science,' is proving to be mere irrationality and ignorance."

As British philosopher Anthony Flew, once as hard-nosed a humanist as any, mused when turning his back on his former belief: It is, for example, impossible for evolution to account for the fact than one single cell can carry more data than all the volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica put together.

Flew still does not accept the God of the Bible. But he has embraced the intelligent design concept of scholars such as William Dembski who only four years ago claimed to have been mobbed by pro-evolutionist colleagues at � of all places � Baylor University, a highly respected Southern Baptist institution in Waco, Tex.

The stunning desertion of a former intellectual ambassador of secular humanism to the belief in some form of intelligence behind the design of the universe makes Yahya's prediction sound probable: "The time is fast approaching when many people who are living in ignorance with no knowledge of their Creator will be graced by faith in the impending post-atheist world."

A few years ago, European scientists sniggered when studies in the United States � for example, at Harvard and Duke universities � showed a correlation between faith, prayer and recovery from illness. Now 1,200 studies at research centers around the world have come to similar conclusions, according to "Psychologie Heute," a German journal, citing, for example, the marked improvement of multiple sclerosis patients in Germany's Ruhr District due to "spiritual resources."

Atheism's other Achilles heel are the acts on inhumanity and lunacy committed in its name. As McGrath relates in Christianity Today: "With time (atheism) turned out to have just as many frauds, psychopaths, and careerists as religion does. ... With Stalin and Madalyn Murray O'Hair, atheism seems to have ended up mimicking the vices of the Spanish Inquisition and the worst televangelists, respectively."

John Updike's observation, "Among the repulsions of atheism for me has been is drastic uninterestingness as an intellectual position," appears to become common currency throughout much of the West. The Rev. Paul M. Zulehner, dean of Vienna University's divinity school and one of the world's most distinguished sociologists of religion, told UPI Tuesday: "True atheists in Europe have become an infinitesimally small group. There are not enough of them to be used for sociological research."

The only exceptions to this rule, Zulehner said, are the former East Germany and the Czech Republic, where, as the saying goes, de-Christianization has been the only proven success of these regions' former communist rulers.

Zulehner cautions, however, that in the rest of Europe re-Christianization is by no means occurring. "What we are observing instead is a re-paganization," he went on, and this worries Christian theologians such as Munich's Pannenberg and the Rev. Gerald McDermott, an Episcopal priest and professor of religion and philosophy at Roanoke College in Salem, Va.

For although in every major European city except Paris spirituality is booming, according to Zulehner, this only proves the emergence of a diffuse belief system, Pannenberg said, but not the revitalization of traditional Christian religious faith.

Observing a similar phenomenon in the United States, McDermott stated that the "rise of all sorts of paganism is creating a false spirituality that proves to be a more dangerous rival to the Christian faith than atheism."

After all, a Satanist is also "spiritual."

Pannenberg, a Lutheran, praised the Roman Catholic Church for handling this peril more wisely than many of his fellow Protestants. "The Catholics stick to the central message of Christianity without making any concessions in the ethical realm," he said, referring to issues such as same-sex "marriages" and abortion.

In a similar vain, Zulehner, a Catholic, sees Christianity's greatest opportunity when its message addresses two seemingly irreconcilable quests of contemporary humanity - the quest for freedom and truth. "Christianity alone affirms that truth and God's dependability are inseparable properties to which freedom is linked."

As for the "peril of spirituality," Zulehner sounded quite sanguine. He concluded from his research that in the long run the survival of worldviews should be expected to follow this lineup:

"The great world religions are best placed," he said. As a distant second he sees the diffuse forms of spirituality. Atheism, he insisted, will come in at the tail end.

[BRussell]

Topic: Atheism in decline worldwide

Are there any data there, or is this piece just a polemic against atheism? I don't necessarily disagree, but it would be nice to see something to back up the conclusion of the piece other than religious people saying they don't like atheism.

Atheism/no religion is the third biggest "religious belief" in the world, after Christinaity (#1) and Islam (#2), according to this. It says that it's dropping, but doesn't provide any specifics.

[roberto blanco]

Originally posted by BRussell:
Atheism/no religion is the third biggest "religious belief" in the world...

and that's saying a LOT, considering that 70% of the world's population is basic illiterate, - nor have they ever heard about atheism.

[TETENAL]

Originally posted by roberto blanco:
Atheism/no religion is the third biggest "religious belief" in the world...

I'm sorry to have to point out that atheism is not the same as agnosticism. The majority of enlightened reasonable people probably doesn't hold any religious beliefe � neither that there is a god, nor that there isn't one.

[mitchell_pgh]

I pray to the glowing box that sits on my computer desk.

All hail... Viewsonic... giver of light and entertainment...

[macintologist]

That article was terrible. All it did was take a bunch of little minor incidents, blow them up, and say that atheism is in decline.

I heard somewhere that atheists made up about 5% or so of Americans.

I know for sure that there were ZERO atheists in the puritanical times.

I think atheism has been on a steady rise since then and isn't going away.

[dcmacdaddy]

Originally posted by NYCFarmboy:
http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtri...432.91875.html

God not so dead: Atheism
in decline worldwide

By Uwe Siemon-Netto
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONALThursday, March 3, 2005

Zulehner cautions, however, that in the rest of Europe re-Christianization is by no means occurring. "What we are observing instead is a re-paganization," he went on, and this worries Christian theologians such as Munich's Pannenberg and the Rev. Gerald McDermott, an Episcopal priest and professor of religion and philosophy at Roanoke College in Salem, Va.

For although in every major European city except Paris spirituality is booming, according to Zulehner, this only proves the emergence of a diffuse belief system, Pannenberg said, but not the revitalization of traditional Christian religious faith.

Observing a similar phenomenon in the United States, McDermott stated that the "rise of all sorts of paganism is creating a false spirituality that proves to be a more dangerous rival to the Christian faith than atheism."

After all, a Satanist is also "spiritual."

So, is what these folks MOST worried about not the increase in spirituality but the increase in beliefs in non-Christian, non-traditional religions?

An Episcopal priest railing against a "false spirituality"?!? In the end I guess adherence to a specific set of religious beliefs IS more important than having religious beliefs in the first place.

[demograph68]

Is this a popularity contest? I don't think it really matters.

[Zimphire]

Originally posted by roberto blanco:
and that's saying a LOT, considering that 70% of the world's population is basic illiterate, - nor have they ever heard about atheism.

Does one have to hear about atheism to not believe in God?

Does anyone have to be able to read, to hear the word of God?

That's a big no to both questions.

Originally posted by macintologist:
That article was terrible. All it did was take a bunch of little minor incidents, blow them up, and say that atheism is in decline.

Sorta like you just did below? But actually he didn't do that.

I heard somewhere that atheists made up about 5% or so of Americans.

I know for sure that there were ZERO atheists in the puritanical times.

I think atheism has been on a steady rise since then and isn't going away.

And I am sure there was atheists back then as well. They just knew better than to speak about it.

[Ω]

We should stop allowing people to post other people's work, and then not comment on it. We have turned into a cut and paste society.

[Scientist]

I do find the comments regarding the rise of "paganism" encouraging. I am saddened by how many religions Christianity and Islam have driven into extinction. Christianity and Islam are far, far more destructive to the "religion" concept than atheism will ever be.

[malvolio]

Originally posted by macintologist:
I know for sure that there were ZERO atheists in the puritanical times.

Wow, so you got your time machine and your mind-reading machine working?

You could state with reasonable certainty that there were no publicly self-proclaimed atheists among the various groups we refer to as Puritans. Anything further is pure speculation on your part.

[budster101]

Just saw this thread, and had to make a comment without reading a shred of any post in it. Not that I had to.

All I can offer is that I will pray that those former atheists who chose to stray from the path of not believing with soon find their way back to the path...



Whatever.

[thunderous_funker]

The second the author equated paganism to satanism is the second my fears concerning his intelligence and expertise, not to mention his journalistic integrity, were confirmed.

That a ridiculous peice of tripe. I need to go into journalism. Apparently, they'll hire anyone.

[BRussell]

Originally posted by thunderous_funker:
That a ridiculous peice of tripe. I need to go into journalism. Apparently, they'll hire anyone.

Anyone (.mov clip).

[vmpaul]

Originally posted by thunderous_funker:
I need to go into journalism. Apparently, they'll hire anyone.

I'm not certain but I'd bet there's some money allocated in the new Bush budget for a wannabe journalist. You'd have to say the 'right' things in your interview though.

Do you have any escort experience?

[mikellanes]

Originally posted by demograph68:
Is this a popularity contest? I don't think it really matters.

If you need an article, a shoddy one at that, to affirm your beliefs or to poke fun at others there are bigger issues here.

[thunderous_funker]

Originally posted by BRussell:
Anyone (.mov clip).

OMG!! Man, I miss having cable sometimes. That is brilliant.