Church going is resurging worldwide especially in young men

[Tank]

...

People as you have agreed are clearly searching for something during these difficult times and since I wrote this even there have been new strikes going on in the military. This is a hard time to be a young person no doubt.

Religions have never made it a secret that they prey on the vulnerable as their main source of victims.

[Asmodean]

This is a hard time to be a young person no doubt.

I agree. The pervasive doom peddling online does not help. Western kids today have more or less been born with a smart phone and grow up with TikToks and Snapchats and are connected to the outside world in a way unique to the past two generations - sometimes with very little "street smarts" in how to approach half-truths, propaganda, conspiracy theories, etc.

I say that because their parents suck at that too. For far too many people, if a legitimate-sounding talking head says something, they may believe it. If some other talking head takes that exact point from that exact source and repeats it, they get reinforced in their belief. And so a brand new bullshit train is born. That happens many times a day, unfortunately.

And so, many of them kids can be forgiven for thinking that the world is circling the drain and the sky is falling. In some very specific ways, that is true. However, that has always been true. For instance, I see your COVID and raise you smallpox, poliomyelitis and plague - just to start with. I see your Middle East and raise you the Crusades. I see your hurricane <insert name> and raise you the fall of Pompeii. So forth. The difference is that today, even if it's not in your living room, the media and social networks will bring it there "by force." Far too many people, even - perhaps especially - the younger ones, don't know how to deal with it in a sustainable, mentally-healthy way.

There is a light at the end of the current tunnel. For those who only see Metallica's freight train coming their way, however, the divine may offer... An alternate reality, of sorts. Or a happy ending at its end. Or both.

So yeah... The skeptics among us do have quite a job to do still - and we "always" will.

[zorkan]

https://www.christianpost.com/news/uk-churches-rebuked-for-hosting-rave-in-the-nave-events.html

"The decision to host such events has been met with protests and objections from various groups, including Catholics, Orthodox Christians, Evangelicals, Anglicans and even atheists and agnostics."

For me to go along they'd have to at least play a few Abba hits.

[Recusant]

https://www.christianpost.com/news/uk-churches-rebuked-for-hosting-rave-in-the-nave-events.html

"The decision to host such events has been met with protests and objections from various groups, including Catholics, Orthodox Christians, Evangelicals, Anglicans and even atheists and agnostics."

For me to go along they'd have to at least play a few Abba hits.

They didn't bother to explain what objection an atheist might have to this. Personally I don't see a problem.

[Asmodean]

Indeed. Oh, I'm certain that there are a few embittered Atheists out there, who would have objections "just" because a church does a thing. Personally, I'm not one of those.

[zorkan]

In the right circumstances some atheists might find they are theists after all.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Anglicanism/comments/1amsytc/last_nights_rave_party_at_canterbury_cathedral_is/

I don't subscribe to the idea we are all born atheists, then we are brainwashed into theism until we gain control of our mind and then become atheists.
When I was born I knew nothing.
When I die I will know nothing.
I came out of the darkness and accept one day I will return there.
The universe works like that.

What made me an atheist were church posters which get away with lies because religion gets away with it.
"God saved me. I had cancer. I prayed. I got better!"
No mention of any accepted medical treatments that were taken.
"God (or Jesus) loves you!"
I don't like veiled threats.

[Asmodean]

I don't subscribe to the idea we are all born atheists, then we are brainwashed into theism until we gain control of our mind and then become atheists.

You say that, and yet...
 

When I was born I knew nothing.
When I die I will know nothing.

Gnosticism/agnosticism pertain to knowledge; theism/atheism pertain to belief in deities.

If you were born without such belief, you were born atheist. Whether or not you sit on the fence knowledge-wise (or even the possibility thereof) is a different answer to a different question.

It is largely a semantic argument though. People are not precisely born as blank slates, but they are born very little in terms of outside input processing in their "data warehouse." There is little to suggest that religion, therein its deities, is any more fundamental than those outside inputs to be processed, categorised and potentially result in complex behaviour.

I came out of the darkness and accept one day I will return there.
The universe works like that.

I'd say life works like that, but from what we know of the Universe, that too is largely accurate.

What made me an atheist were church posters which get away with lies because religion gets away with it.
"God saved me. I had cancer. I prayed. I got better!"
No mention of any accepted medical treatments that were taken.

They often do have a correlation-causation problem. B came after A, therefore A must have caused or at least affected B. And so one day it rains buckets after the village shaman was seen prancing around his hut while shroomed out of his mind aaand just like that, a ritual is born. (There is a bit more to it, but it does hold as a first degree approximation)

"God (or Jesus) loves you!"
I don't like veiled threats.

Yeah, I got a bit of that over the years. So some dude of questionable cosmic origin has feelings for me. And..? So..? OK..? Yes..? What?! If you happen to love me, that's a you problem. I am under no social, moral or other obligation of any kind to reciprocate that love.

So yeah. Sorry, Jesus, it's just not going to go anywhere.

[zorkan]

What are your answers to these questions, please.

What supporting evidence do we have for any event mentioned in the bible?
Who were the gospel writers?
Did any of them ever meet "Jesus"?
Why were the Dead Sea Scrolls quietly forgotten?
If god is love then why does he send souls to the lake of fire?
How old is the first surviving biblical manuscript?
If the bible is replete with contradictions, then which ones are we supposed to trust?
Why are we expected to rely on faith?