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Teleology, the idea of purpose behind things is a part of why people are religious. The promise of a happy afterlife explains why Christianity is popular. The ability to delude oneself is why those who treat the bible as fact do so.
First-mover status and momentum are in play as well. Christianity and Islam have tremendous cultural momentum (the latter, actually, more than the former on an overall basis; in another generation or two, Islam will likely have more worldwide adherents than Christianity).
If I started a new religion today with memes equally as effective as Christianity's, or even better, I would have to overcome that advantage. I'd have to breach that wall, so to speak, of self-ratifying and self-reinforcing nonsense with my own nonsense. I'd have to do it while offering nothing substantive in the way of an actual advantage, and being at the disadvantage of being the "opposition" to the "establishment".
I think Christianity is probably "good enough" as a dominant belief-system or it would already lie in ruins. It is of course doomed in the long run because of the gradual shift in society toward people valuing empirical, critical thought. But for now ... it suffices for those who want such things.
That's really not the problem you think it is. There are many churches who are just fine without any of the fundamentalist aspects. They have absolutely no problem with other major religious traditions either. It's as if atheists have never even heard of interfaith fellowship. These liberal Christians know that the Bible was written by religious people, rather than by "God". So you can't attempt to lump them all together as "Christians" as I'm sure many atheists make the mistake of doing.
They consider themselves to be Christians. Christianity is a big tent.
As others have said, I recognize that interfaith fellowship exists, and I have no real problem with it, because such people are generally content to live and let live -- as am I. I confine myself mostly to the roughly 20% or so of Christianity that emphasizes correctness of dogma over goodness of character. My only quibble with the other 80% is that they don't speak out enough against the 20% that has such an outsize influence on the rest of us. Those 20% are causing 80% of the problems coming from Christianity.
Anyway, to your actual point ... I'm not aware of any liberal Christians who reject the label "Christian" for themselves or even for fundamentalists. Even fundamentalists don't generally reject that label for liberals, they consider them misguided or wrong or weak, but not full-on apostates. If they unambiguously rejected the liberal wing of Christianity as apostate, they wouldn't have the luxury of arguing from popularity in defense of the faith. It's more appealing, when it suits them, to say "2.2 billion Christians can't be wrong" rather than "630 million evangelicals can't be wrong". Indeed, since Christianity is only 1/3 of the world population after fully 2,000 years of advancing its value proposition, they need all the quantity they can come up with to minimize how pathetic and embarrassing those figures actually are.
Interfaith fellowship is more to the credit of political expediency or humanist morality than religion, because war between rival doctrines as much as rival religions has been a regular feature of history, and still is today. In the face of Doubt and Question, even Christianity Judaism and Islam can put on a show of solidarity, but there's not one of them would shed a tear if the other creeds were wiped from the face of the earth. Nor in the case of rival doctrines.
Interfaith fellowship is more to the credit of political expediency or humanist morality than religion, because war between rival doctrines as much as rival religions has been a regular feature of history, and still is today. In the face of Doubt and Question, even Christianity Judaism and Islam can put on a show of solidarity, but there's not one of them would shed a tear if the other creeds were wiped from the face of the earth. Nor in the case of rival doctrines.
I don't agree with any of that. Only the most fundamentalist ones would feel that way.
I could be wrong of course, but I'll be happy to sit back and let then wrangle about doctrine, and do the atheist campaign some good while they do it.
I'm happy for those who find a home in atheism. But some of the "converts" from religion to atheism (or paganism, etc) will eventually find their way back to a more liberal church once they realize what they have missed about church while being away.
I'm happy for those who find a home in atheism. But some of the "converts" from religion to atheism (or paganism, etc) will eventually find their way back to a more liberal church once they realize what they have missed about church while being away.
Hard to miss something once you take off it’s rose colored glasses.
I'm happy for those who find a home in atheism. But some of the "converts" from religion to atheism (or paganism, etc) will eventually find their way back to a more liberal church once they realize what they have missed about church while being away.
For once you've made a statement that can't really be argued with since you did use the word 'some' which could even mean just one or two and 'what they missed' could be pot luck dinners or a chance to hit on that lady in the red dress that sits in the 4th pew on the right
I'm happy for those who find a home in atheism. But some of the "converts" from religion to atheism (or paganism, etc) will eventually find their way back to a more liberal church once they realize what they have missed about church while being away.
I have heard a few who still believe in a sorta -god are happy to have given up the boredom of Church, and yet others who are willing to attend U/U churches while happy to have given up any but the vaguest sorta -god. I, myself, am happy to have given up either, long ago.
There's room in a secular society for all of us, and for those who believe anything they like, provided they keep it to their group and do not try to impose it on society. They can even have their festivals, publication, celebrations even financial support from the members, and even government for cultural and artistic purposes. but they will have no clout with law, Politics, (airlines ) education or those who do not belong.
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) education or those who do not belong.
