The Lack of Adaptability of the Church

In many countries, religious institutions are unable or barely able to adapt to changing mindsets and progress. As a result, people are leaving religion or converting to other religions such as buddhism. Should the Christian churches adapt a Jesuan (Christian atheist) outlook to gain more support or members? Or do you think the churches are irreversibly doomed?

What's the advantage of Christian atheism? What does it hold over Buddhism?

Christian atheism offers a naturalistic take on following the altruistic teachings of Jesus. Compared to Buddhism, it is not a spiritualist practice. In comparison to humanism, Christian atheism isn't necessarily human-centric. It is more that you should fulfill yourself by helping others rather than just focusing on your person. Humanism (as in the atheist church) focuses on a community that consists of people that often are there for self-realization rather than altruism. However within humanism altruist elements exist. Christian atheism puts more emphasis on the altruism and in comparison to Christian theism doesn't do it out of self-interest or building influence.

Christianity is one of the most adaptable religions around! I know it is rather trendy these days to knock Christianity but the religion you want to look at as far as being rigid and even intolerant goes is Islam.

Says the sinking attendance numbers in developed nations. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_attendance

Hmm
i would argue it doesnt matter whether christianity, buddhism, hinduism, islam or any other religion
- though islam is a pain in the ass, hence it isn't able to control its own radical fundamentalists

The point is, that with intellectual development the people begin to separate faith from religion,
which is quite rational in my oppinion. If you believe there is a god and if he/she/it does care to listen,
what the hell do you need all that religious flic-flac for?- just talk directly to god and be happy.

Besides - the church needs money to hold up all that flic-flac and it does need it so badly, that they go out
to beg people for their hard earned money - getting on the nerves -Well on top of the fact that money and faith
are hard to get under the same roof - what other answer would you expect

Back to the logical chain:
- development causes separtion of faith and religion
- people look for faith in religion and find only a money grabbing institution
- people loose interest for religion
- churches loose members
You can continue this spiral as you like... i don't see a solution to this

The original claim is that Christian religion is unable to compete with progress, but what this age calls progress is actually backwards. How is it altruist to kill children? How is it a good thing to bend over backwards to follow every change in the wind? Chasing after the wind is a self-defeating action. How is it good or altruistic to punish by bankruptcy or silence with threats people who disagree with you?

God's law never changes. God's law is against these progressive ideas, because they are dangerous to mankind. God's law is now and always has been perfect. It is men who confuse and confound it. God's law was given for a reason. God created mankind with his own hands, so as the Creator he knows what is best for His creation. He commanded Israel not to eat the blood and fat of animals, and we know now that eating raw meat (meat still with the blood in it) makes people ill, and eating too much fat has it's own health problems. So commanding the Israelites not to eat the blood and fat clearly protects their health.

Jesus was never an atheist either. He is the Son of God, and never rejected His own Father. His purpose was to heal and save people on earth from the cancer of sin. To do this, he offered up His own life as the ultimate sacrifice. Sacrificing one's own life for another is greater than altruism. It is love, the greatest love. Altruism often is no more than giving away goods, goods that can be replaced. Human lives cannot be replaced.

I will concede that there are problems in churches, some of them do only care about money, which is a reason that one of my relatives left a church, but she went to another church that did not have that problem. I left the Catholic Church because there were many things I saw there that I knew were wrong, even without access to a Bible. My Catholic Church did not encourage laypeople to read the Bible, which is also wrong. If the Bible is the foundation of the faith, everyone should be allowed and encouraged to read it. I will even encourage you here to read the Bible.

The Catholic Church continues to fall and die because it has allowed too much of the secular culture to enter it. As such few Catholics even know what is true and right. Since they are not encouraged to read the Bible the people slip even further away, because they have no foundation and are just floating in the wind.

I am a Christian and my foundation is the Bible. I cannot chase after the wind, because I have an anchor on rock. The Bible does forbid homosexuality, and slander, and killing children. He commands Israel not to sacrifice their children to Molech. He protected children who were commanded to die under man's laws in Egypt.

God's law is always greater than man's laws because God created mankind and knows men better than they know themselves, He also sees the long-term effects these dangerous ideas have. Men cannot see the long-term, because their lives are short.

Interesting!- I like your view on the current state of the society
Within the moral reasoning there is a regression indeed. The capitalistic system is based on the idea of competition, which on itself is divisive. The successfull ones get wealth and power, leaving others in lack of it. In fact 1% of the world population has the same amount of wealth as the other 99% and still is greedy enough to let children die of poverty. Greed and gluttony are indeed called out by the bible as sins, implaying the failure of moral reasoning and naturally followed up by consequences ( which lead to the churches not having money in the first place)

If this is the best mankind can do- im officially not impressed!

-However,
i'll totally disagree with you, that the bible is the source of moral values as such. I believe there are morally adequate people, never considered reading the bible. In fact - how come theres so much greed and gluttony, if not from the lack of the morally better sides of the coins?. Where is god?

- but let me go even further,
where is god, when "ISIS" is raping women and killing in his name?
Where is god, when the nations initiate wars based on lies, after swearing their leadership on the bible?
I'm just saying...

Religion is nothing more than an idea - faith on countrary has a moral meaning to it - but still takes a rational mind to interprete. Dont throw your responsibilities at god and wait for miracles to happen- that'd be rude dont you think?
How about doing miracles yourself and shoulder the burden of responibility for your actions?
( isnt that the message of jesus in the first place- bear your cross)
It is the rational mind that should control faith, not the other way around - religion is just a joke compared to that conflict.

It isn't about religion but about institutions. Christian, even Muslim institutions tend to be conservative beyond common reason. Due to the institution lagging behind the general average of the general population in Western countries, the institution is losing members. The only reason muslim institutions are seeing growth is because immigration to the west is higher than people leaving the institution.

FyreT1ger wrote:To do this, he offered up His own life as the ultimate sacrifice. Sacrificing one's own life for another is greater than altruism.

Martyrdom is not noble. For someone who knows the consequences of their actions, it's nothing short of suicide. If Jesus lived longer, might he have changed his mind? Should we change it for him?

The Greatest Mistakes of Jesus.

Red_Cardinal wrote:If this is the best mankind can do- im officially not impressed!

Is that really the best that humankind can do? As an individual, even I can do better.