Today, the churches and their ministers have lost the respect and support of the masses. In fact, many people believe that religion contributes to or causes conflict. An increasingly vocal and militant group of Western intellectuals is calling for the end of religion’s influence on society.
MrGordon,
Here I agree with you 100%.
Religion is losing ground in the most educated countries in the world (USA, Europe, Australia, New Zealand etc). It seems that the strongholds of religion are in countries that not fortunate enough to have good, universal education available, and those dominated by Islam.
I think that religious people often provide the best advertising for atheists, especially those groups that claim a monopoly on the correct interpretation of scripture and hence on God and salvation. To many of us this comes across as senseless positioning to stand out in the crowd.
The Internet is an important contributor to the easy access of information and exchange of ideas. You can easily find ranges of view points.
Examples: From fundamentalist Christianity and Islam to atheism, and from 6 day creationism to cosmology and evolution.
I think that the article is just pointing out that people are less inclined to just accept what is said by priests, pastors, elders, and others church leaders on face value and are probing. It is easy to find information on the Internet and check what others think, and then to come to a considered, rational conclusion.
In my opinion the worst thing a religious person trying to promote his/her religion is to sidestep or ignore questions. When this happens, I assume that that the answer is either unknown or embarrassing - I suspect the later most the time.
On questions, MrGordon, I would still like to know whether JWs should be putting effort into feeding the hungry, housing the poor etc. And I mean now, not at some date in the future.
