sighhswolf

"Sorry, christianity isn't self-destructing, at least around the world, and last Sunday when I drove by a church, the parking lot was full, and I live in a heathen agnostic part of the USA-Massachusetts."

Sullster makes an excellent point here.
When my wife Sandy and I moved back to North Carolina from Southie, South Boston, she was amazed at the number of churches in this area.
Within a 6 block radius of our house there are at least 8 different churches, all filled to overflowing every Sunday and most wed. nights.
Catholic, Baptist (2) Pentacostal, Church of Christ, Presbyterian (2) and a church of the Risen Lord of Glory (?) dont ask I dont know.

Boston is a city with some of the finest institutions of higher learning in the US.
A concentrated intellectually progressive population center.
Yet the catholic church remains very strong and maintains a highly visible position in the community.
But it's high visibility and position does not
control lifestyles in that area as religion does in the South.
In the South and Midwest religion is part of a way of life.
It is for the most part the central gathering point for the members of a community.
It has traditionally been this way due to the rural farming communities dependence on the church for it's role of a social focus point and local newsgathering organization.
TV has nullified the newsgathering function in those communities but the visitation between community members still is usually done at church social functions.
Farming is a very tough existence, that requires
24 hour a day 7 day a week vigilance, a sombre
lifestyle with little social interaction between families.
The distance between neighbors usually precludes
"dropping by" to see friends, so the church becomes the center of visitation and socialization, a central point for interaction.
This is not going to change anytime soon, because even with the advent of telephones, TV's and good transportation the habit of church is still there
ingrained in the very fabric of the rural lifestyle.
I honestly believe that we must address the real function of the church in rural America.
And it has very little to do with actual worship,
but a great deal to do with habit and tradition.
Those things do not die quickly, they remain ingrained in the community for generation after generation, the mindset of the rural sections of this country will be very difficult to break.
And the reality is that many of the rural communities and their families are distrustful of
academics and liberals from the "git go".
Wolf

sullster

Wolf,
I agree very much that christianity is not going away any time soon. Your points about the strong roots of the religion in rural areas is well taken. We anti-theists find massive problems with the theologies and all the illusions of the religion, but the fact remains that most people just do not think so deeply. They believe the stuff, they find support from others and it gets them through their lives.

Even here in Massachusetts, which people from most of the rest of the USA consider as a state full of atheists, godless liberals and intellectual snobs, is jammed with churches which seem full all the time. Granted the churches are not as wide-spread as down South and are usually more substantial buildings, yet they are in every town and city. It is a particular legacy of the battle between the old Yankee Protestants and the Irish/Italian Catholics, that you commonly see huge Protestant churhes opposite huge Catholic churhes.

We are stuck with the religion. The enormous institution combined with the irrational nature of humans, means it isn't hurt so bad that it is going away.

never been there

How about:

- The Origin of Species published
- cosmo- and astronauts don't find heaven while in space