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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!!

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To: jbe who wrote (42810)6/30/1999 4:37:00 PM
From: nihil  Read Replies (1) of 108807
 
"the possibility that America will ever become "atheist" [is] extremely remote"

"Ever" can be a long, long time. I believe America can be made to last for hundreds of thousands of years -- or longer -- as long as it keeps changing to enhance human liberty and free enquiry. To see how the country has evolved to become a working enterprise since 1776. Some close calls, but more and more peoples who had contempt for the republican experiment have gotten on board and are imitating more and more about the United States.
In a country where thought is truly free, where there is no effective prejudice against heterodoxy, where one can explore and market his or her ideas, the movement against sectarian Christianity seems quite likely to me to gather strength. The Roman Catholic Church in the U.S. is about to dissolve into fragments IMO if another reactionary pope like John Paul is elected. The only possible hope is to enable women to become priests.
The old-line Protestant churches are fragmenting over questions like ordaining homosexuals as priests.
The evangelical churches are pursuing heresy trials against their moderates.
I see the church people become wildly diverse, spinning off new weird and novels sects, shaking vigorously, waving their hands at the sky, waiting to be raptured into the sky. The failure of the millenium to bring the second coming should quiet things down for about a thousand years.
The growth of antidepression drugs such as Prozac and Paxil and much more targeted analgesics, will reduce the stress, obsession, and nervousness that drives many people to the church. De facto egalization of marijuana will help lay back the population (or help people to lie back).
More and more people will check the box --don't know and don't care.
A charming woman who won't disclose her spiritual belief will become our first atheist president. And we will not even notice.
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