Christianity &Islam &Judaism Thomas on 29 Dec 2010 12:52 am
Where fundamentalism comes from in modern society
Religion should be dying – in fact it is dying – but it appears that it is ascending. That is the optical illusion explained in this article:
Two tectonic shifts have produced the gap that fundamentalism fills. One concerns the question that has dominated the sociology of religion for more than a century: Will faith decline as modernity advances? The great thinkers of another era — Karl Marx, Émile Durkheim and Max Weber — believed that in one way or another it would. Today’s leading sociologists point to Jerry Falwell and Osama bin Laden to claim that it will not. Roy stands with yesterday’s giants. It is true, he concedes, that conservative religion is growing. But any talk of a religious revival is “an optical illusion.” Religion, he writes, “is both more visible and at the same time frequently in decline.” It cedes so much to the secular world that it can no longer offer a transcendental alternative to it.
on 29 Dec 2010 at 8:02 pm 1.Dutch said …
“Admittedly, some other surveys – including the last census – have produced different findings on these issues, usually to the advantage of the religious option.”
This was in the article…awwhh. The last census is probably much closer to accurate.
Anywho, no surprise as Christianity has declined in this once large Christian nation, GB has declined as a nation The correlation is always there.
Then again I have no religion but I am a follower of Christ.