Science, 'frauds' trigger a decline in atheism

By Uwe Siemon-Netto
United Press International
The Wahington Times

"Atheism as a theoretical position is in decline
worldwide," Munich theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg said in
an interview.

"Atheism as a theoretical position is in decline
worldwide," Munich theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg said in
an interview.

The Wahington Times

Science, 'frauds' trigger a decline in atheism

Science, 'frauds' trigger a decline in atheism

By Uwe Siemon-Netto
United Press International
The Wahington Times
March 4, 2005

Gurat, France - Godlessness is in trouble, according to a
growing consensus among philosophers, intellectuals and
scholars.

"Atheism as a theoretical position is in decline
worldwide," Munich theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg said in
an interview.

His Oxford colleague Alister McGrath agrees.

Atheism's "future seems increasingly to lie in the
private beliefs of individuals rather than in the great
public domain it once regarded as its habitat," Mr.
McGrath wrote in the U.S. magazine, Christianity Today.

Two developments are plaguing atheism these days. One is
that it appears to be losing its scientific
underpinnings.

The other is the historical experience of hundreds of
millions of people worldwide that atheists are in no
position to claim the moral high ground.

British philosopher Anthony Flew, once as hard-nosed a
humanist as any, has turned his back on atheism, saying
it is impossible for evolution to account for the fact
that one single cell can carry more data than all the
volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

Mr. Flew still does not accept the God of the Bible.

But he has embraced the concept of intelligent design --a
stunning desertion of a former intellectual ambassador of
secular humanism to the belief in some form of
intelligence behind the design of the universe.

A few years ago, European scientists snickered when
studies in the United States -- for example, at Harvard
and Duke universities -- showed a correlation between
faith, prayer and recovery from illness.

Now 1,200 studies at research centers around the world
have come to similar conclusions, according to
"Psychologie Heute," a German journal, citing, for
example, the marked improvement of multiple sclerosis
patients in Germany's Ruhr District because of "spiritual
resources."

Atheism's other Achilles' heels are the acts on
inhumanity and lunacy committed in its name.

"With time, [atheism] turned out to have just as many
frauds, psychopaths and careerists as religion does. ...
With Stalin and Madalyn Murray O'Hair, atheism seems to
have ended up mimicking the vices of the Spanish
Inquisition and the worst televangelists, respectively,"
Mr. McGrath wrote in Christianity Today.

The Rev. Paul M. Zulehner, dean of Vienna University's
divinity school and one of the world's most distinguished
sociologists of religion, said atheists in Europe have
become "an infinitesimally small group."

"There are not enough of them to be used for sociological
research," he said.

Mr. Zulehner cautioned, however, that the decline of
atheism in Europe does not mean that re-Christianization
is taking place.

"What we are observing instead is a re-paganization," he
said.

The Rev. Gerald McDermott, an Episcopal priest and
professor of religion and philosophy at Roanoke College
in Salem, Va., said a similar phenomenon is taking place
in the United States.

"The rise of all sorts of paganism is creating a false
spirituality that proves to be a more dangerous rival to
the Christian faith than atheism," he said.

After all, a Satanist is also "spiritual."

Mr. Pannenberg, a Lutheran, praised the Roman Catholic
Church for handling this peril more wisely than many of
his fellow Protestants.

"The Catholics stick to the central message of
Christianity without making any concessions in the
ethical realm," he said, referring to issues such as
same-sex "marriages" and abortion.

In a similar vein, Mr. Zulehner, a Catholic, sees
Christianity's greatest opportunity when its message
addresses two seemingly irreconcilable quests of
contemporary humanity -- the quest for freedom and truth.

"Christianity alone affirms that truth and God's
dependability are inseparable properties to which freedom
is linked." As for the "peril of spirituality," Mr.
Zulehner sounded quite sanguine.

He concluded from his research that in the long run, the
survival of worldviews should be expected to follow this
lineup: "The great world religions are best placed," he
said.

As a distant second he sees the diffuse forms of
spirituality. Atheism, he said, will come in at the tail
end.

http://www.washtimes.com/world/20050303-115733-9519r.htm

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Posted on 3/04/2005 in part by Cincinatus' Wife

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End of forwarded message

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The terrorist mission of Jesus stated in the Christian bible:

"Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not so
send peace, but a sword.
"For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and
the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her
mother in law.
"And a man's foes shall be they of his own household.
- Matthew 10:34-36.

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