I think that less people will be interested in God as...

[Shirina]

Originally Posted by Mr5150

...technology advances and people's standard of living rises.

Distraction and materialism. Who needs God? It's not about whether God is real, but rather human nature. Truth is some people who call themselves Christian, Jew, Muslim, etc., are just going along with the culture. So yea if life is going well and they have enough stuff and entertainment they will drift away. Jesus said as much. Read Matthew 13 and focus on verse 22, which says: Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.

So to sum it up; The decline in religion and spirituality in the modern age has nothing to do with whether God is real, but rather a disinterest in spiritual matters. It's not that some people are becoming atheists per se, but rather those people just don't care about the spiritual. Their focus is on the things of the world. Not surprising.

This is the nature of every cult. There has to be a mechanism to keep people from drifting away, to keep people interested.

Let's face facts. Humanity has only had "real" technology for roughly 150 or so years (give or take). True affluence for the average person did not really exist until then. Ergo, what did a person do 150 years ago that was so awesome and distracting that they abandoned their religion? Well ... nothing. Except drink, perhaps. Those folks didn't have all of this spirituality-defeating technology.

And yet there are thousands of defunct religions and defunct gods, MOST of which came and went long before the discovery of electricity or the invention of cable television.

The point here is that what you're proposing is nothing new. People lose interest over time - especially if nothing really seems to be happening with their religious beliefs. Some will abandon Christianity to become atheistic or agnostic; others will abandon it in favor of another religion. Still others will just stop practicing their religions and will cease giving validation to their beliefs (even though they still call themselves "Christian").

Going as far back as the dawning of Christianity, there had to be a mechanism for keeping Christianity a viable cult - and later perhaps a thriving religion. After all, the founders of Christianity were up against a massive pagan, polytheistic religion that most people believed in at the time. And yet Christianity managed to steal most of its followers. No, not because of some "truth" that everyone saw in Christianity. No, no, it was because of brute force, being told to convert or die, and many rulers from Clovis to Charlamaigne forced people into Christianity by the point of their sword.

But, I digress. A fledgling cult has to keep its members, and one of the easiest ways to do this - especially among the poor who don't have squat to begin with - is to tell everyone to ignore the worldly. Be "from" this world but not "of" this world. In other words, don't get too comfortable; don't enjoy life TOO much or you might not want to be part of the cult any more.

This is precisely the reason why worldliness scares the bejesus out of religious leaders - worldliness and education.

Sure, it's easy to blame religion's decline on external factors, but the question should be directed at Christianity. What about it is so unappealing in the modern Western world?

The answer isn't too hard to understand. Christianity is a religion founded for the poor, the uneducated, the persecuted, and the marginalized. In many respects, Christianity was a vengeance cult, for it gave the destitute and downtrodden the idea that cosmic justice would be dispensed on the other side of the veil; if one can soldier on through this life starving, dressed in rags, being a slave, living in hovels, and watching most of your offspring die, well, have no fear. It will all be made right in the end, and the meek shall inherit the earth. The poor, after all, were highly regarded by Jesus, and Jesus literally promised them the world. That sounds pretty good to the average Roman peasant, Viking, Visigoth, or Gaul.

Wow, a religion for the common man, for a change!

But all of that is now obsolete. In nations where Christianity dominates there is unprecedented wealth and luxury. Even a rather poor person in America lives in a state of luxury even a Roman patrician would envy. In addition, with Christianity so solidly controlling politics and the economy, there's no valid reason for Christians to feel downtrodden or persecuted. In short, the need for Christianity has declined. Once the dependency for religion and a savior diminishes, most of the other mambo-jahambo concerning religion also comes under fire from the individual intellect.

It is no small "coincidence" that churches do not send missionaries to the Havard Club or to Beverly Hills. Even today, Christianity works best among the destitute, the desperate, the downtrodden, and the disenfranchised, because those are who Christianity was designed to raise up. This is why there is a heavy religious presence in places like homeless shelters, prisons, military bases, hospitals (both medical and psychiatric), and anywhere where poverty and war are rampant.

The average America - and indeed the average European - have enough "blessings" in their lives (generally) that the need to spend the bulk of their time praying and worshiping has long ago fallen by the wayside. Now they have jobs, a paycheck, food on the table, roofs over their heads - and luxuries like a car, cable, computers/internet, comfy furniture, central air/heat, hot/cold running water - things people in other places and other times could only dream about having. They can focus their energies on putting their kids through college, adding the deck to the back of the house, the Saturday night bowling league, and a thousand other things that fill up a person's life that are just as rewarding - if not more so - than religious belief.