Mushy Christians: More evidence Christianity is Dying

I love this new phrase: Mushy Christians!

Most American "Millenials" – those born between 1980 and 1991 – don't pray regularly. Few read their Bibles or other religious texts, and many don't attend church on a weekly basis, according to a LifeWay Research study. ...

Sixty-five percent of Millennials called themselves a Christian in the study that was conducted on 1,200 young Americans in August 2009. But Rainer estimates that 85 percent of young people are lost.

"Many are either mushy Christians or Christians in name only," [Thom Rainer, president of LifeWay Christian Resources] told USA Today. "Most are just indifferent. The more precisely you try to measure their Christianity, the fewer you find committed to the faith."

Isn't that a great term? Mushy Christians! They want to be Christians, probably because of family, a sense of nostalgia or social pressure, but when it comes time to be a Christian ... they get mushy.

We're in a "second generation" effect. It's exactly like what happens to immigrant families' language. The first generation learns to speak English when they come to America, but at home they still speak their native Polish, Spanish, Russian and so forth. They have kids, the kids become truly bilingual, but English is their primary tongue. And when they have kids, they speak English in the home. The grandchildren, who never hear the old language except when they go to Grandma and Grandpa's house, never learn the family's native tongue.

I see this same effect happening to Christianity in America.

Ha Ha! New Noah's Ark Age Proved with CARBON DATING

I love this stuff. Reality deniers, also known as Creationists, have for decades been refuting the scientific data about the age of the earth. Since some of the strongest data comes from radiometric data – the radioactive decay of various elements – they long ago "proved" that radiometric dating techniques are all wrong. Useless.

After all, if carbon dating says a frozen mastodon carcass is 20,000 years old, it must be the test that's wrong, since we know the Earth is only 6,000 years old.

That's why I gave a big hoot the other day when I read about the latest claim that Noah's Ark was found.

Yeung said he filmed inside the structure for about an hour. He brought back samples that were later tested in Iran.

They say the wood has been tested and carbon dates to around the time Noah was afloat.

Got that? Carbon dating.

Is Alcoholics Anonymous a Religion or Not?

Monday's blog about Alcoholics Anonymous brought quite a vigorous response from AA's defenders. The blog discussed scientific studies that show that attending AA makes people less likely to recover than if they got no treatment at all, and many readers were apparently offended by this.

The discussion reminded me yet again why I think religion is bad for society as a whole. It teaches that faith trumps reality, and convinces people that if they want something to be true, it must be true.

On the one hand, you have people trained in the sciences who work hard to remove their biases so that they can find the truth even if it is disagreeable. They've developed techniques that make it hard to fool themselves, such as randomly assigning people to one treatment or another, "double blind" studies where those evaluating the outcome don't know which person was assigned to which treatment, and many other tricks that help eliminate our wants, prior beliefs, and desires from biasing the results.

"A scientific man ought to have no wishes, no affections, a mere heart of stone."
– Charles Darwin

On the other hand, you have a large group of people brought up with religion.

Christian Shocker: God-Based AA Program Harms Alcoholics

Did you know that the Alcoholics Anonymous twelve-step program, which has God as the foundation of its program, doesn't work? Not only doesn't it work, but many scientific studies have shown pretty clearly that it does more harm than good! What's more, it appears that the religious component of the AA program is the culprit.

I was quite frankly shocked when I heard this. While I'm not religious, I have always admired AA members for their dedication and selfless efforts to help one another. I've had close friends and family members who were alcoholics, and wished they could find the strength to acknowledge their disease and go to AA for help.

But no more. After reading this damning article, which refers to dozens of scientific studies including several sponsored by AA board members and advocates, I now see AA for what it is: another faith-based folly that continues because of faith, not reason. In study after study, scientists, sociologists and doctors find that AA is worse that getting no help at all.

And it's pretty clear why.

Christian Whiner: JPL Scientist Punished for Proselytizing at Work

I respect honest Christian proselytizers, but I'm disgusted by whiners. If you read this story, you'd think David Coppedge is a poor innocent Christian who happens to believe in "Intelligent Design," and was demoted by NASA's JPL laboratory merely for being a Christian. You'd think that those JPL scientists were intolerant, disdainful and contemptuous of anyone who didn't share their atheist science. You might even get the idea that JPL is an exclusive atheism club, that they were trying to drive a competent scientist from their midst merely because he didn't kowtow to the atheist intelligentsia who run the place.

The truth appears to be much simpler and less sinister. According to this story and other reports, David Coppedge just plain broke his employer's rules, repeatedly. He violated the JPL personnel guidelines by discussing religion at work and passing out DVDs of the ID proponents' pseudo-science (which has already been ruled to be religion, not science, by courts).

Discussing religion at work is strictly against the JPL rules (and every employer I've ever worked for), and Coppedge knew it was against the rules because he was warned several times by his supervisors. He persisted, and finally was demoted for violating the rules and for ignoring his supervisor's explicit orders.

Let's make this clear: he was not demoted for espousing Christian ideas. He was demoted for violating policy and then ignoring his boss when ordered to stop. His Christianity was irrelevant.

I hate that sort of Christian revisionism.

Judge Backs Atheist Parolee who Refused God-Based Treatment

Here is some great news on the legal front for atheists. A judge in Northern California sided with an atheist who was forced, as part of his parole from prison, to attend the heavily religious Alcoholics Anonymous program. Barry Hazle kept complaining to his parole officer that he wanted a non-religious drug-rehab program, but the parole officer ignored his requests.

But Hazle was persistent, though consistently polite and non-confrontational. He continued to go to AA, but also continued to bug his parole officer. In frustration his parole officer finally arrested him and sent him back to prison for three more months.

The judge's ruling was perfect, saying the parole officer's behavior ran "afoul of the prohibition against the state's favoring religion in general over non-religion." Hazle is now suing the state for damages related to the extra three months of incarceration he had to server merely for being an atheist.

Celibacy IS the Issue: The Catholic Elephant

Did you know that only two percent of Catholic Priests keep their vow of celibacy?

"Survey and statistics that show only two percent of priests have been absolutely faithful to their vows of celibacy. Adjustment problems abound as demonstrated by repeated reports of priests abandoning their callings, fathering children, being charged with child molestation."

This is from a thesis written almost twenty years ago, back in 1992, entitled Celibacy Is the Issue by Thomas G. Lederer, which explains and predicts the current crisis of pedophilia in the Catholic Church.

Here are a couple interesting quotes.

"In late 1990, A.W. Richard Sipe's book, A Secret World – Sexuality and the Search for Celibacy, caused a veritable flood of controversy. The author, psychotherapist stated that that at least half the U.S. Priests at any given time are involved in some pattern of sexual activity."