Atheists, Christianity, Bush, Religion, and Why God Is Not Dead
By Bonnie Erbe, Thomas Jefferson Street blog.
Atheists, come out of the closet. You won't be struck by lightning. I promise. I've been an "out of the closet atheist" for years now, and God (and her followers) have yet to cause me to perish. The New York Times has finally picked up on the trend and published the following this week, which I believe was the Times 's take on a front-page article in the National Journal earlier this year:
Polls show that the ranks of atheists are growing. The American Religious Identification Survey, a major study released last month, found that those who claimed "no religion" were the only demographic group that grew in all 50 states in the last 18 years.
Nationally, the "nones" in the population nearly doubled, to 15 percent in 2008 from 8 percent in 1990. In South Carolina, they more than tripled, to 10 percent from 3 percent. Not all the "nones" are necessarily committed atheists or agnostics, but they make up a pool of potential supporters.
While I hope atheism continues to expand, something tells me I've seen this movie before. I still remember the 1966 Time magazine cover that asked, "Is God Dead?":
Princeton Theologian Paul Ramsey observes that "ours is the first attempt in recorded history to build a culture upon the premise that God is dead." In the traditional citadels of Christendom, grey Gothic cathedrals stand empty, mute witnesses to a rejected faith. From the scrofulous hobos of Samuel Beckett to Antonioni's tired-blooded aristocrats, the anti-heroes of modern art endlessly suggest that waiting for God is futile, since life is without meaning.
During W's presidency, I often scratched my head and asked, after the liberating '60s and '70s, how did we ever go "back to the future" and end up in the political clutches of the religious Right? The fact is, '60s and '70s atheism was a bit too uninformed about the psychological and social benefits of churchgoing. Religion answers the unanswerable. It creates powerful and important social networks among churchgoers. Unless and until atheists, agnostics, and other nonbelievers can somehow replace those benefits, or form their own version of same, religion will continue to be a powerful cultural force.
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Tags: George W. Bush | religion | Christianity
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Reader Comments
Reply to A Child of GOD!
"Something so bad must have happened in your life that made you turn from GOD. Bonnie, where do you think you come from. If there is no GOD then what, who and where was the earth form?"
I think that this is covered in science? That the Earth was formed from particles in the universe. Besides, EVEN IF God created Earth, that DOES NOT mean that he is the Christian God, just that he exists, i.e. deitist god.
"I had a supervisor that was like yourself, unbelieving in GOD who died a horrific death. She too, felt like you do! She thought that she was also living a good life, but GOD shine on the just and the unjust."
I believe a lot of Christians, Catholics, Jews die horrible deaths. Most obvious: The Holocaust. Besides, don't LOADS of religious people die from cancer EVERY day?
"Woe unto you Bonnie! This life is not forever, we die Bonnie everyday. There is a part 2 to your being and I would hate to be in your shoes."
Are her shoes any different from yours? See above.
"GOD hear you and knows your heart Bonnie, He love you! You have to love yourself"
Isn't this the argument: God loves you! God loves you! God loves you! Therefore God exists. ??? And besides, just because someone ELSE loves you, you have to love yourself? (Don't get me wrong, I encourage people to love themselves, but not for this reason.)
"In all your happiness and wealth, you can not take one thing with you when you die, just your selfishness of your heart , here trying to mislead people into damnation. Shame on you woman!"
Why is it, that in a modern society, we can discuss issues like abortion and gay rights, but we can't discuss religion? Is this then the American "free speech"?
"GOD do not owe you nothing, you are bless and don't even know it."
Same emotional blackmail argument as above.
"Seek GOD with all your heart before it is to late! Ask HIM to come into your life and that heart of your's. HE is in control of everything. Lean on GOD and not your own understanding."
That is if God exists, which you haven't even started to prove. Besides, how different is a world with God compared to a world WITHOUT God? Science explains a lot. Besides, if God controls everything, what's the point of science? Also, if you "lean on God and not your own understanding", isn't that against everything everyone is trying to do to modernise society?
" Do not die in you sins."
Sins as defined by who? As Alan has mentioned, God did a lot of things that we would consider sins today.
I have attempted to address all the points in the comment. Please correct me if I am wrong.
Mercy?!
'I have no promise to finish this posting, however, I believe in a God of Mercy and Grace'
Really now, the same one that did all this?
'Let's look at a few of God's exploits first. His most famous act of genocide was the flood of Noah when he killed every living thing on the planet, except for the handful in the Ark. Not just every man, woman and innocent child, but every animal, fish and plant as well. Then he wiped out Sodom and Gomorrah, even the innocent babies, and then killed Lot's wife for daring to watch his murderous rampage. He killed every single innocent firstborn in Egypt, humans and livestock, over a tiff he was having with the Pharaoh. He slaughtered personally or ordered killed 12,000 people of Ai, 10,000 Moabites, 10,000 Perizzites and Cannanites, 120,000 Midianites, 50,070 at Bethshemesh, 70,000 people from Dan to Beersheba, 185,000 Assyrians, 24,000 Israelites on one occasion and 14,700 on another, not to mention the peoples and cities in which he killed 'many' or destroyed completely. And this is just a small sample of God's murderous interaction with mankind. The disgusting, barbaric nature of God as detailed in the Old Testament is beyond belief, and the Bible should be reclassified as 'horror', not religion.'
I really feel sorry for you Bonnie!
Something so bad must have happened in your life that made you turn from GOD. Bonnie, where do you think you come from. If there is no GOD then what, who and where was the earth form?
I had a supervisor that was like yourself, unbelieving in GOD who died a horrific death. She too, felt like you do! She thought that she was also living a good life, but GOD shine on the just and the unjust. Woe unto you Bonnie! This life is not forever, we die Bonnie everyday. There is a part 2 to your being and I would hate to be in your shoes. GOD hear you and knows your heart Bonnie, He love you! You have to love yourself!
In all your happiness and wealth, you can not take one thing with you when you die, just your selfishness of your heart , here trying to mislead people into damnation. Shame on you woman! GOD do not owe you nothing, you are bless and don't even know it. Seek GOD with all your heart before it is to late! Ask HIM to come into your life and that heart of your's. HE is in control of everything. Lean on GOD and not your own understanding. Do not die in you sins.
I will pray for you!
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