3 posts tagged “religion”

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Creation VS. Evolution Rant

Jun 16, 2008
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I weary of the seeming constant yammer of the creation/evolution debate. I weary of the evangelical requirement to check my brain at the door of the church. I weary of the fear and distain many of the churched have for those in the sciences. I weary of science’s fear of the church, built on the puny shoulders of Hitchens and Dawkins, who build arguments against straw men and state and restate the threadbare mantra that religion does bad things, when everyone know the greatest bloodletting of the 20th century were done by confirmed secularists and atheists! I weary of the lack of conversation between science and religion. I long for an openness and understanding, a dialogue based upon mutual respect and adherence to the notion, on the side of religion that all truth is God’s truth -- so science must be given freedom to explore and explore, and on the side of science that they (and their technological cousins) do not have all the answers -- so that religion can come to the table not with the how of things (say of origins) but perhaps the why...

Mike Huckabee responds to evolution question

The Evolution Of Homer Simpson's Voice

following up

Feb 27, 2008
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question

One more follow-up on yesterday’s post:

So, what if the The American Church article’s assessment is true? What if the vaunted number -- 40% of the American population attends church on any given Sunday -- is actually 10% to 15%, what then because of the "halo affect"?

Well, it might very well mean that we are much farther down the road toward Christendom’s final gasp than we previously thought.

And what if the mega-church growth is actually and mostly transfer growth -- the mere moving from small to large -- and not the power of evangelism? Could it be that there will be a tip-point when the mega-churches have all the people willing to move to larger digs?

And what if the The American Church assessment is true: "Attendance is down. The picture is bleak. New research reveals startling and sobering facts. What do they mean for you, your church and Christianity in America?," then what will our churches do? That is, how should we live?

But, might the twist in the tail to all this just be that what we are experiencing as death and exile in the disintegration of Christendom is actually renaissance, a re-birth to something new? And that the generation not yet Christian will usher in a new way of church?

a slippery Rock of Ages

Feb 26, 2008
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SafariScreenSnapz002

http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/religion/story/934BCF1F39D4C0F3862573FB001392D6?OpenDocument

The St. Louis Post Dispatch reported today that many are leaving their childhood faith. This comes from the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

The upshot of this report is some that churches are emptying, and those who haven't left altogether are heading for the last bastion of Christendom's success -- the megachurch.

In another survey, this time from The American Church

The American Church

- http://www.theamericanchurch.org/

we are told that the church is in crisis, and here the statistics are startling and dire:

Less than 20% of Americans regularly attend church—half of what the pollsters report
American church attendance is steadily declining
Only one state is outpacing its population growth
Mid-sized churches are shrinking; the smallest and largest churches are growing
Established churches—40 to 190 years old—are, on average, declining
The increase in churches is only 1/4 of what's needed to keep up with population growth
In 2050, the percentage of the U.S. population attending church will be almost half of what it was in 1990

Christendom is dying. We in the church are on death watch. An old friend is about to expire. And for those of us left at the death scene, we grieve our exile, but we do not grieve as those who have no hope. I think is was G.K Chesterson who said, throughout history, five times the church has gone to the dogs, and each time it was the dogs that died.