Either way, postmodernists would argue that these people are not going to church to form a community or to help others, but for pure individual gain only. For example, they take what they can from religion without giving anything back. Also, as far as being temporary is concerned, though churches and religions are centuries and even thousands of years old, postmodernists would look at their followers today who are often introduced to religion through primary socialisation but turn away from it as they age before turning back to religion as they near death. Therefore it could be said that support for religion today is temporary rather than permanent because most people today do not constantly follow a religion. Secondly, a postmodern world has no objective truth or knowledge because it argues that the world is so unstable because every individual attaches different meanings to different things and so society fails to exist and so progress cannot be made.
Notes on: http://www.wayofthemind.org/2006/09/27/why-do-people-believe-in-god/ Why do people believe in God * People can’t explain the existence or origin of something, so people believe God must have done it Back to the origination of the human species people didn’t know a lot of things about the universe however through scientific discoveries there are only a few things left to discover. E.g. how did the universe and life begin * The universe seems too complex, too ordered, too beautiful to have appeared naturally Some people think things seem too interconnected to have appeared randomly and how everything we need to survive was created for us by a supreme force. * People have been educated that way People accept knowledge on authority and not through their own discovery. Parents and teachers can also be wrong (Earth being centre of universe/Whites being more supreme than blacks).
Due to a pick and mix society and the fact people are free to choose, they look for alternation, this may be because the church is seen to be out-dated, although many NAMs are very old such as tarot cards, or the church has been watered down due to fundamentalists. Change in societal values, It is no longer expected of people to join a church, many years ago people felt that joining a church would bring the society together, however this is no longer the case. Due to change in societal values people no longer feel the need to go to church to fit into society as there are plenty of other ways to do this. People are now looking for alternative ways to believe in something for example the Moonies, however, this is not always a good thing as it can fragment families. There is a change in social attitudes and there is also a decline in religion, this may be because of people lacking spiritual fulfilment and look for it somewhere else, or that they have enough spiritual fulfilment but want some material fulfilment so again look to
In the past, divorce was seen as a negative thing, as society at the time was more religious and also churches never allowed people to remarry. In 1997 a survey was carried out which found out that divorce was quickly becoming “normalised” and it was socially acceptable for people to be divorced and even remarried. The views on women and equality have changed recently too. Employment of women has increased over the last year and this has increases their financial independence, so a husband is no longer a necessity for financial security. They can also receive a range of government benefits to
To start off with, before anyone can pick a side they need background information. Unfortunately, with many of the debates today, in previous years people are uneducated about the topic in which they are arguing. Most people that strongly disagree with the theory of evolution are very closed minded and are not willing to accept or listen to any ideas that do not support their own. All of these people chooses to believe and accept their religion and god. Many of these people think that evolution disproves their religion and throws away their god and this is not true.
With the church unable to produce arguments to defend the story of Genesis three against the growing number of questions about it, more and more people defected away from the church, preferring to listen to science. The Roman Catholic Church still holds to the literal picture the Bible presents us with, and holds that sin is the inherited defect that all humans are born with, because we are all descended from Adam, who committed the Original sin. This view is partially held by followers of the other denominations, but more often it is a much looser idea. For example, the Church of England does not put so much pressure on whether or not Genesis three is literal or not, rather their church leaders tend to look at what it contains slightly differently, by suggesting that whether or not the Bible is literal does not matter, as it still provides us with the means of how to live a life away from sin. Another issue that arises out from this however, is the person of Adam, is he
Also, many people do not believe in God. Jung himself countered this argument by stating that atheism itself is a religion. It seems that he will not allow anything to counter his ideas. If his theory is not open to falsification, some would argue that it is meaningless. • Jung’s idea of religious experience – Martin Buber argues that an experience which takes place in the mind, rather than externally to the individual, is not a religious experience.
Religion was still very much a part of the average American’s life in the late eighteenth century, with three-quarters of America attending church on a regular basis. Despite this fact, some people became indifferent to the ossified traditions of the old church. Strict Calvinist beliefs and conventions slowly seeped out of the church and were replaced with more permissive ideas. Deism was a school of thought that gained much popularity in this time period. Inverse to Puritan and Calvinist faith, deism favored science over the bible, something that would have been shunned a century before.
It says “seek not after riches nor the vain things of the world.” Does this mean we shouldn’t try to get a good paying job that will allow us to live comfortably and with leftover money to spend on trips with our families, or to get a better car? This same teaching comes up multiple times throughout the scriptures, found not only in the Book of Mormon but throughout the New Testament as well. These scriptures do state
With the passing of time, many question if religion is still a relavant institution in the modern world. Indeed, in the age of science, many religions have lost their central role in the lives of people. At times, conflicts have even arisen due to the "irrelevance" of religion. Darwin, in his pursuit of science, was forced by the church to cease his support of the theory of evolution which tries to explain how all organisms evolved from simplistic ancestors over time. Inter-religious conflicts dominate the headlines and casts doubts on the positive role of religion.