Atheist campaign drives drop in Danish Church membership

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A bit misleading–these guys clearly aren’t believers ceasing to believe, but people being nudged to drop their formal (and financially costly) membership in an institution to which they are not that committed anyway.
 
Contarini said:
A bit misleading–these guys clearly aren’t believers ceasing to believe, but people being nudged to drop their formal (and financially costly) membership in an institution to which they are not that committed anyway.
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Ditto
 
Contarini said:
A bit misleading–these guys clearly aren’t believers ceasing to believe, but people being nudged to drop their formal (and financially costly) membership in an institution to which they are not that committed anyway.
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Yes, agreed. Being a “Christian” is often a cultural thing nowadays anyhow. Why do many people in the United States have Christian weddings and funerals but do not adhere to the principals? It’s not for me to decide, but we can take note of when this is a real, living faith or just a vague cultural concept with no bearings on one’s real life.
 
Hatikvah said:
Yes, agreed. Being a “Christian” is often a cultural thing nowadays anyhow. Why do many people in the United States have Christian weddings and funerals but do not adhere to the principals? It’s not for me to decide, but we can take note of when this is a real, living faith or just a vague cultural concept with no bearings on one’s real life.
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This is very true.
 
Contarini said:
A bit misleading–these guys clearly aren’t believers ceasing to believe, but people being nudged to drop their formal (and financially costly) membership in an institution to which they are not that committed anyway.
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Could be. Global population of atheists will soon start to diminish.
 
Contarini said:
A bit misleading–these guys clearly aren’t believers ceasing to believe, but people being nudged to drop their formal (and financially costly) membership in an institution to which they are not that committed anyway.
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Church tax is a very bad idea. In Austria where I grew up we had that too. It leads to people formally leaving the Church, which then makes it less easy for them to reconsider their faith later on. Very bad. Thank God for the separation of church and state as we have in the US.
 
Padres1969 said:
Not sure how you make that leap. If anything I’d think the opposite is true.
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I’ve heard that, as far as the United States goes, people are becoming more “spiritual” but are “none” (e.g., could care less about religion). Then again, we have studies popping up all over about these things from time to time.
 
Hatikvah said:
Yes, agreed. Being a “Christian” is often a cultural thing nowadays anyhow. Why do many people in the United States have Christian weddings and funerals but do not adhere to the principals? It’s not for me to decide, but we can take note of when this is a real, living faith or just a vague cultural concept with no bearings on one’s real life.
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Well expressed and becoming more and more true here in Ireland. Always was thus to some extent. eg First Communion and then hardly going to Mass and it was the same in the Church of England in the 50s.
 
DaddyGirl said:
Yes, polls in the last few years show the "none"s are on the rise and I think from there, the number of atheists will rise, too.

The rise of “nones” seems to be the logical next step for many “cultural Christians” Hatikvah mentioned. I would imagine that at some point, they realize they are just going through the motions of belonging to a religion, so they finally make the official break.

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True, plus polling has shown elsewhere that the number of atheists directly is rising right along with nones. As a supercategory containing both groups, the “non-religious” are one of if not the fastest growing category in the west.
 
Contarini said:
A bit misleading–these guys clearly aren’t believers ceasing to believe, but people being nudged to drop their formal (and financially costly) membership in an institution to which they are not that committed anyway.
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Not that this has anything to do with much but it made me remember when I was in Denmark a local told me they have a saying “Hatching Matching and dispatching” there. Meaning you only see them on Baptisms, weddings and funerals in a Church.
 
Padres1969 said:
Not sure how you make that leap. If anything I’d think the opposite is true.
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A lot of the atheists by certain classifications live in China. Also, in the West many atheists are left-leaning and subscribe to the culture of death.

There is an amount of diminishing return, even for them.

And I think progressive atheists have sold the idea that they are automatically the future just because and it’s a false ideal that is regularly reinforced in the media.

Just look at Generation Z in the USA—2.5 more Churched than Millennials. What’s the atheist response “Gee, er, um, we just have to hope that they will decide to leave one day, because it’s not like we can directly confront a diverse generation like that and risk being called a racist”.
 
DaddyGirl said:
Yes, polls in the last few years show the "none"s are on the rise and I think from there, the number of atheists will rise, too.

The rise of “nones” seems to be the logical next step for many “cultural Christians” Hatikvah mentioned. I would imagine that at some point, they realize they are just going through the motions of belonging to a religion, so they finally make the official break.

.
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The long-term trends say otherwise.

cnsnews.com/news/article/global-study-atheists-decline-only-18-world-population-2020
 
Contarini said:
A bit misleading–these guys clearly aren’t believers ceasing to believe, but people being nudged to drop their formal (and financially costly) membership in an institution to which they are not that committed anyway.
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I agree with that too. In my country, the churches do not receive money from the government, with the exception of religious schools. That’s the result of a deal made in 1917, when Christians opposed women’s suffrage. The liberals struck a deal with Christian politicians: Women would get the vote if the Christians got state-funded religious education. It’s called the “Pacification of 1917”.
SuperLuigi said:
The long-term trends say otherwise.

cnsnews.com/news/article/global-study-atheists-decline-only-18-world-population-2020
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According to the article, that ‘worldwide’ decline is mainly caused by changes in the religious landscape in China. Most studies about this subject assume children will have the same worldview as their parents, which I don’t think is necessarily the case.
 
SuperLuigi said:
A lot of the atheists by certain classifications live in China. Also, in the West many atheists are left-leaning and subscribe to the culture of death.

There is an amount of diminishing return, even for them.

And I think progressive atheists have sold the idea that they are automatically the future just because and it’s a false ideal that is regularly reinforced in the media.

Just look at Generation Z in the USA—2.5 more Churched than Millennials. What’s the atheist response “Gee, er, um, we just have to hope that they will decide to leave one day, because it’s not like we can directly confront a diverse generation like that and risk being called a racist”.
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To be fair, it’s hard to judge Generation Z yet. They’re not adults so they’re not necessarily more churched than Millennials. Their parents are still the ones ensuring they’re in church. Check back in 10 years and we’ll see how churched they really are.
 
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