I think he's just speculating and scapegoating.  Maybe church attendance is dropping because people just don't see the point of going to church.

eudaimonia,

Mark

Oct 18, 2011 -- 4:15AM, Eudaimonist wrote:

I think he's just speculating and scapegoating.  Maybe church attendance is dropping because people just don't see the point of going to church.

 

eudaimonia,

Mark

Perhaps it's a sign that religion has become a kind of special olympics, one where the leaders of boring, uninspiring organizations whose ideology - some 400 years past its due date - blame atheists for their troubles.

We cooled it up, probably with sex symbols like Ricky Gervais.

Oct 18, 2012 -- 6:15PM, wuliheron wrote:

Religion has been on the decline in even countries like the US for 40 years and it has nothing to do with it being "cool".

I have never heard any Atheist claim that Atheism is "cool".

The simple fact is as entitlements have expanded the poor have abandoned religious services en mass and the wealthy never did attend.

The first part of that argument is based on Regressives lies. And, basically, who cares what church the rich do, or do not, attend? I don't.

The growing majority of the world's thriving democracies are secular for the same reason. Once their government starts providing a decent standard of living and a comprehensive safety net people simply lose interest in religion. They don't all become atheists, but they lose interest in organized religion. The only cool thing about atheism is it's now the newest militant fight the system group to start to organize. The uncool thing is they almost never acknowledge the economics factors that make atheism so unpopular.

That's a pretty shallow view. It's not about being poor, it's about income disparity. Here is a nice paper that shows how that is.

Nov 23, 2012 -- 3:42AM, BillThinks4Himself wrote:

There was a time, not that long ago, when atheists were under attack - not that it has ever really stopped.  I think, after 9/11, a lot of people responded to fundamentalism - in Islam - with fundamentalism in religions like Christianity and Judaism.  In its own way, this was fortuitous because it created a context that would support a more vigorous argument against God and religion.

The so-called "new atheists" found a lot of success as a few brave souls pushed back against the idiocy and regressiveness we have seen in the last decade.  When the Archbishop of Canterbury complains that atheism is "cool," he's obviously dismissing atheism as a fad, while complaining that his church is no longer "cool," though it hasn't been in four centuries.

Certainly, atheism is bigger with the young than it has been in a long, long time.  If that's what's meant by "cool," then atheism has more of it than it used to.  Still, some of atheism's most famous and successful advocates are men with gray hair.  Atheism isn't the popcultural equivalent of the iPad Mini.

I agree with the statement that the archbishop is simply whining that nobody wants to show up to his church - because it offers nothing.

I dont kow if I agree with this but I live in dallas Tx which is still so conservative and religious .On the other hand Ive met seevral men who clamed to be either atheist agnostic.Ive almost dated a few went on a  few dates. I think is there more atheists and agnostics around then I knew about?

But texas all be it the non religious agnosticism and Atheism maybe on the rise its still the under dog Church still rules out here.