The Power of the Internet on the Younger Generation
Parents beware! The younger generation is rejecting the faith of their fathers and the rise of the internet is making a great impact on them. Today's music, movies, and video games are also making an impact.
Just yesterday a young friend told me that in a newly released very popular video game players are shocked to find on the last level they must kill the Pope! ;-) Hint: This game! Is that not the hoot? Also, the movie The Invention of Lying contains an atheist message. Robert Price has even argued that the changing morals of the younger generation will be the undoing of evangelicalism, seen here.
What other signs have you detected? There are plenty others.
Just yesterday a young friend told me that in a newly released very popular video game players are shocked to find on the last level they must kill the Pope! ;-) Hint: This game! Is that not the hoot? Also, the movie The Invention of Lying contains an atheist message. Robert Price has even argued that the changing morals of the younger generation will be the undoing of evangelicalism, seen here.
What other signs have you detected? There are plenty others.
20 comments:
As if there weren't enough reasons to get Assassin's Creed II!
Of course in AC I the final confrontation was with some religious nutjob who could do real magic, so even though we may be killing the pope he's probably shooting lasers out of his eyes at the time. So if your parents kick up a fuss, remind them that AC II reaffirms the idea that the pope has special Pope Powers. That makes it okay, right?
Price's assessment was dead on. What a brilliant man.
I think we should expect a snowball effect from people deconverting from evangelicalism to atheism. The evangelical spirit dies hard, my friends, and will undoubtedly be used by infidels to promote critical thought and hopefully unity across conceptual borders.
I'm on Huffington Post and You Tube a lot during the day. I tend to gravitate towards religious/atheism related topics. What I find surprising is the of atheistic comments out number the christian comments by a HUGE amount. Plus just about every college campus has a secular club. I also think having a President who recognizes us as a group who are welcome at the table helps tremendously. No longer are we closeted and you can see how this has sent the Evangelicals into a tizzy (Kirk Cameron & Ray Comfort)..lol. I definitely see a huge push in this movement. Plus new foundations such as Richard Dawkin's and Sam Harris's are paving the way for people to get involved in spreading the message of science, reason and critical thinking. Just like the gay community, we will be a more tolerated (a sad way to put it) fact of life.
I'd like to throw in my piece and say that, without a single doubt in my mind the Internet was the biggest contributor to my leaving the faith.
I used to spend hours and hours reading articles, papers, and even chapters out of books on the internet - while at Bible School. I learned ten times more online than I did in my classes - including how to think critically.
I agree with you: the internet should be scaring the crap out of conservative parents who want to shelter their children from information and evidence contrary to what they believe.
I wouldn't be an atheist today without the Internet.
The zero-sum nature of time management has a bearing on the religious indoctrination of children, especially during their vulnerable adolescent years. Every hour a kid spends reading, discussing or blogging about a Harry Potter or Twilight novel, takes away an hour from learning about his or her parents' religious beliefs and getting pressured to make a profession of faith in the tribal cult.
Youngsters become so obsessed with reading these novels, and watching their film adaptations, that they even risk defying their parents' prohibitions against doing so. Contrast that with the reluctance today's children show towards reading the bible or other religious texts. While these secular mythologies don't answer life's serious questions, they probably do tend to interfere with the transmission of older mythologies like the Gospel which didn't really have the answers, either.
I wouldn't be an atheist today without the Internet.
And I found on the internet both challenges to my faith and the information and food for thought to critically question those challenges and respond to them either way. In the process I widened my horizons dramatically. As a result I made the rational decision to keep my faith but I am a far more conscious and informed believer than just a few years ago, with a much richer faith than before.
while i agree that the internet has helped quite a few of us come out of the "closet" so to speak, we must remember two things:
1. a good number of us are young and are so rebellious when we are that way. Usually young people revert to what they were taught as they get older, get married, and have children.
it's the reason why so called radicals later become hardcore neo cons a few years after college.
2. never underestimate the power of the fear of death. when we are young, we see ourselves as bulletproof. but as we get older and come to grips with our mortality, a lot of us get scared.
I had a lot of friends who were agnostic/atheist during their college years and were very vocal about it. now they are the biggest evangelicals I have ever known.
never underestimate the power of the fear of death. when we are young, we see ourselves as bulletproof. but as we get older and come to grips with our mortality, a lot of us get scared.
Gregory S. Paul points out that this seems to happen a lot less in developed countries with universal health coverage. For example, the French die just as inevitably as Americans, yet Christianity continues to decline in their country despite their slightly older median age.
2. never underestimate the power of the fear of death. when we are young, we see ourselves as bulletproof. but as we get older and come to grips with our mortality, a lot of us get scared.
I had a lot of friends who were agnostic/atheist during their college years and were very vocal about it. now they are the biggest evangelicals I have ever known.
Interesting. My worldview choices are not driven by fear of mortality (and I am not that young anymore, 47). I lead a great life that is intellectually and emotionally fulfilling and which I am happy with, imperfections included. If atheism would convince me, I could easily envision there to be no life after this one, without undue fear of death. Rejecting atheism is for me a purely rational choice into which considerations of life after death simply do not enter. Yet of course I am delighted and thankful to God for His promise of an eternal afterlife in His glorious presence.
Al Moritz writes:
Yet of course I am delighted and thankful to God for His promise of an eternal afterlife in His glorious presence.
But what if that form of existence doesn't give you a sense of meaning and purpose? Or what if you've drawn the short straw in god's ongoing plan, and he's predestined you to become the next satan?
I'm not alarmed nor intimidated -Jesus already acknowledged and described the trends in times that are described as having no light (an absence of grace) - in other words, truth actualized.
Or what if you've drawn the short straw in god's ongoing plan, and he's predestined you to become the next satan?
Hehe.
@Mark and Al
Oh don't get me wrong, I have no qualms with the idea that when when I pass away, I just pass away. no going to heaven or hell, or reincarnation, etc...
but i encounter a good number of people who have issues with that.
I am close to 40, and I keep encountering people who just accept the idea of going to heaven (yet scared to die--- "everybody wan heaven but no wan dead... RED RUM!)
I am close to 40, and I keep encountering people who just accept the idea of going to heaven (yet scared to die--- "everybody wan heaven but no wan dead... RED RUM!)
Holy Sh*t, scared to die?
I know how unreliable anecdotes are but I don't know any atheists who are scared to die. I wonder if, having accepted the existence of heaven, one then fears going to hell. Even heaven may be scary if you believe that you have to pass a test from God, especially when the bible and church leaders tell you you're a miserable sinner and are held up to impossibly high standards. Just speculating...
I've heard many times how religion is "necessary" for these weak-minded people who can't face reality and need to believe in some life after death. Has anyone ever tried to gather data on whether belief really does relieve anxiety about death or whether this is (as it appears to me) an insultingly paternalistic story told by religious leaders to ease their conscience for misleading to their followers and has no basis in fact?
I made the rational decision to keep my faith
Perhaps it is simply a matter of definition, but I would argue that if it is rational, it is not faith.
If you can rationally demonstrate that it is true, how then is it faith?
I first began my search on the internet for arguments against Christianity, and then followed it up with searching for the answers from Christians. If I had kept this up, I would have probably ended up in your shoes.
Then I decided instead to try and defend my own faith by writing a book and answering the questions by following rules in my thinking. If I had to break a rule or hold a double standard in any area of my thinking, I realized I had a problem. Eventually I realized that I could no longer believe because it forced me into a corner where I had to hold a double standard for my faith while judging the faith of another man. After all, the faith I held told me I had to believe that another man was going to suffer for having the same standard as me. Suddenly, I could not longer with a clean conscience keep my faith.
So, I agree that someone can scour the internet for evidence to back up what they believe (no God, God, aliens, conspiracies, Islam, Mormonism, Christianity, fairies, New Age healing techniques, evolution, etc.) You can always find 'evidence' to hold onto what you already believe. You always can.
But that wasn't my goal. My goal was to be consistent. I had no right to hold a belief that my fellow man would suffer at the hand of God on a standard of evidence that was no better than theirs. That would have been hypocricy.
So, given your study of that which is on the internet and the fact you kept your faith, please show me where I went wrong. And if I did not go wrong anywhere, what right do you have to hold a belief that I am wrong in the sight of your God?
Joshua,
before I answer, can you please explain the following sentences, which I simply do not understand (by grammatical construction or meaning, I don't know, really):
Eventually I realized that I could no longer believe because it forced me into a corner where I had to hold a double standard for my faith while judging the faith of another man. After all, the faith I held told me I had to believe that another man was going to suffer for having the same standard as me.
[...]
I had no right to hold a belief that my fellow man would suffer at the hand of God on a standard of evidence that was no better than theirs.
Thanks
Al
I can already reply to this part of the discussion. I said:
I made the rational decision to keep my faith
Joshua replied:
Perhaps it is simply a matter of definition, but I would argue that if it is rational, it is not faith.
It is rational, if you find the existence of God and divine revelation likely, to believe in divine revelation. Just like it is rational to believe your wife what she says when you trust her. So it is both rational and faith.
If you can rationally demonstrate that it is true, how then is it faith?
You cannot demonstrate the correctness of any worldviews, you can only argue for their probability. You cannot rationally demonstrate that faith is correct (otherwise it would cease to be faith), you can only point out the likelihood that it is correct, or not, and make a rational decision accordingly. By the same token, you cannot rationally demonstrate that atheism or naturalism is correct, but atheists have made the decision that they are probable, and therefore decided for themselves that they are the most rational assumptions. When it comes to worldviews, we all live by assumptions and what we decide are probabilities. If we could demonstrate the correctness of worldviews we would not have this discussion.
Tyro write:
I wonder if, having accepted the existence of heaven, one then fears going to hell.
But god created hell, along with heaven, to give life meaning & purpose. Annihilation never got much traction as an orthodox christian doctrine because many christians find the prospect of eternal nonexistence even worse than eternal punishment.
Annihilation never got much traction as an orthodox christian doctrine because many christians find the prospect of eternal nonexistence even worse than eternal punishment.
Really? I find that hard to believe. Possibly they feel that eternal punishment for others is better than nonexistence for them.
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