A Local Pastor and a Local Atheist Debate The Decline of Christianity

The End of Times or Reason to Celebrate?

June 3, 2016

A Local Pastor and a Local Atheist Debate The Decline of Christianity – The End of Times or Reason to Celebrate?

"A people’s religion, their faith, creates their culture, and their culture creates their civilization. And when faith dies, the culture dies, the civilization dies, and the people begin to die." – Pat Buchanan

Rev. Dr. William C. Myers

Senior Pastor at Presbyterian Church of Traverse City

Buchanan’s Eurocentric bias is disconcerting. The Golden Age was not so golden! Yet his thoughts on the decline arising from increased secularism are worth noting. Citing demographic trends and secular systems of belief, Buchanan finds a correlation between the declines of Christianity and Western civilization.

Some will scoff that there is no evidence: "This is a correlation, not a causation." But there is common sense! Actions are the best measure of belief.

Even non-theists know this, as their favorite attack on Christians is the hypocrisy card. "You say

you believe this, but you do this." Like Jesus, they see, "by their fruits, you shall know them."

Western civilization in all its glory was the fruit of Western Christianity. Aided by the patronage of the church, some of the world’s greatest art, music, literature, and social reforms came to be because of the divine inspiration of creative spirits engaged in a passionate and transcendent relationship with the Living God.

Among the markers of decline Buchanan identifies – which arose while our culture and schools became increasingly secular – are: record levels of abortions, violent crimes, incarcerations, and drug consumption. Buchanan also cites the high level of births "out of wedlock" (40 percent in America), declining high school test scores, and increased suicides among middle aged whites.

Ironically, similar concerns were raised in Michael Moore’s movie, "Where to Invade Next." The common denominator? The loss of the Judeo-Christian belief that "all people are created in the image of God." As our appreciation for the sanctity of life dies, so does our culture.

Yes, Christians have not always lived up to their beliefs. But Christianity gives us the hope and the faith to be better.

GARY’S RESPONSE

The fact that humans have been treating each other badly since their inception is not likely to change regardless of the ebb and flow of religious belief systems.

Commentators like Buchanan equate the development of Western civilization with decline simply because it doesn’t feel good to them. The horror of any alternative to dominance by white men is simply too much for Pat to bear. After all, Noah, Moses, Abraham, Jesus, Superman, and Santa Claus were all white men, right?

Bill and I, like many with opposing views, look at the same situations and see alternate causes. Declining test scores result in part from decreased funding on education; increasing suicide rates result from the growth of an unregulated drug market and insufficient recovery programs; incarceration rates are the obscene by-product of our failure to address the causes. These are facts born of research and evidence, not unsupported, whatever-sounds-good-to-me babble. The causation is established and beyond reproach.

Race, gender, and religion segregate people. In my view, the fewer sources of segregation, the better. Only one of those is optional.

Gary Singer

Gary helps businesses with their Internet marketing. He was raised a Catholic.

Noted Holocaust denier, anti-Semite, failed presidential candidate, white supremacy fan, and all-around developer of absurdity Pat Buchanan wants to inform and uplift all of us with his superior knowledge and wealth of insight in his blog post from April 27th. There is so much male bovine excrement within these scintillating 817 words that one hardly knows where to begin the questioning.

Take the quote above. Thank you Pat, for clearing that up for us. In two sweeping sen

tences he states that humanity dies off as religious belief diminishes. Since human population has never done anything except expand (exponentially in the last 150 years) his argument is immediately moot.

Like many others of his ilk, he makes sweeping broad-stroked comments with zero evidence to back them up. Pat just knows stuff and figures he can help rescue you from the great morass of ignorance if you just listen and learn. It brings to mind one of our current presidential candidates"¦

The decline of Christianity is nothing more than a generalized rejection of fantasies that have been passed down over thousands of years. People throughout the world, young and old, no longer accept preposterous tales and predictions accompanied by zero substantiation. The religious counter that without religion, morality is impossible. Which is to say, unless societies blindly accept ridiculous notions, most people cannot discern between right and wrong. To me, that is tantamount to reducing human cognizance to domestic pet status. We all know when we have harmed someone and are elated when we assist others in need. The unnatural addition of retribution or reward from some deity in an afterlife does nothing but create fear and waste resources.

BILL’S RESPONSE

Am I responding to Gary or Trump? Welcome to the new world; when reason fails, resort to name calling. Politically I’m not a Buchanan fan. However, his correlation between Western Christianity and culture is valid.

Gary criticizes Buchanan for making the observation "the death of faith leads to the death of culture." Where is Gary’s evidence to the contrary? Western culture was deeply influenced by Western Christianity for centuries, how can the decline of one not have an impact upon the other?

Gary believes the world is a better place, if we just ignore God. But if the highest court in Gary’s world is personal opinion, how do we judge between Gary and Pat? Reason, says the person enculturated in a Christian culture’s values and beliefs.

Bill and Gary agree that regardless of the reasons, many of our current socioeconomic systems and our very culture are in dire need of improvements that can benefit from each of us working for change.