Faith culture reporters view religion as under withering assault as the growth of atheism throughout the world is seen as “growing at an alarming rate across the globe.”
Anthony DeStefano reported that countries in Western Europe and North America have been increasing in atheism in a “very short time.” He notes that the second largest group of the religious demographics are the religiously unaffiliated.
The United States of America is comprised of a quarter of that population, the religiously unaffiliated or the Nones. Within the previous decade, the Nones have overtaken the Roman Catholic Church in the United States as a faith group.
The Nones, according to the Pew Forum, are growing and the faithful have been ridding themselves of faith to become more non-religious for a myriad of reasons. Some of those include the idea that religious belief and rational thought are incommensurable.
People of faith have been behaving in atrocious and domineering ways, bad ways. Others do want the spiritual elements of life but without the formal strictures one can find in the traditional religious denominations within the continents mentioned.
The firebrand atheists found in the New Atheism are seen, by DeStefano, as confident and that this is seductive allure for the younger generations, who he sees as “hedonistic, self-centered, self-absorbed… with no moral truths or commandments.”
Atheists are rejecting the dominant dogmas of the majority religions, which is a concern for DeStefano because the religious beliefs and ethics appear to not have much relevance for their lives. This extends to believers; “they are believers in name only.”
He views them as functional atheist or those who live as if God does not exist.
DeStefano opined, “It’s not an exaggeration to say that the world we live in today is literally facing a crisis of faith. I believe that too many Christians today are sleeping. They live a very comfortable Christianity.”
He considers that Christian is under attack in a “very bold, aggressive, and fearless way.” He asserts, “…the new atheism is a religion that has its own philosophy (materialism), morality (relativism), politics (social Darwinism), and culture (secularism). It even has its own sacraments (abortion and euthanasia).”
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