Sometimes you find interesting material without even looking.
Take this, for instance. I was reading an article on how a Brooklyn band claims that Coldplay plagiarized one of their songs for “Viva La Vida,”, when I found this article — “Christianity Could Die Out Within a Century.”
That’s far more interesting to me. 🙂
Take, for instance, John Lennon’s famous statement: “Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. I am right and have been proven right. We’re bigger than Jesus now.” Demographic trends in Europe have shown that religious attendence and observance has dropped sharply over the past fifty years. Secularism is on the rise.
Although four in 10 people said they would choose to be a member of the Christian religion, almost the same number said they would rather practice no religion at all.
and
Research published earlier this year suggested that church attendance is declining so fast that the number of regular churchgoers will be fewer than those attending mosques within a generation.
According to Religious Trends, an analysis of religious practice in Britain, the huge drop off in attendance means that the Church of England, Catholicism and other denominations will become financially unviable.
are the money quotes.
Except. There’s very little content in the article beyond that.
It’s not talking worldwide trends. Africa will remain religious. Indeed, the weight of religious importance and worship has moved steadily south of the equator in the last century. It’s maybe a matter of a decade or two before the Roman Catholic Church is governed by a Pope from South America or Africa — and it will, in all likelihood, remain that way. The United States will remain the religious nation that it is — and it’s entirely possible that evangelicals will point to the dwindling Christian populations of Europe as a warning.
In short, Christianity isn’t going to die. There’s cultural and historical inertia behind it. But in some places, like the UK, cultural interia in a different direction is taking root.
I’m thinking that’s a good thing. 🙂