In the article “To everything there is a season” (Sun Journal, July 21), scholars are mentioned as giving the following reasons for the dwindling of American churches, although the same holds true for churches in Western Europe: “scandal, conflict, mobility, indifference, lower birth rates, members shifting to a church they like better.”
Not mentioned, oddly, is the widespread loss of faith in the supernatural, i.e., belief in realities beyond the reach of human reason and revealed by God, such as the fall of mankind, the incarnation, the resurrection, etc. That surely accounts for many Americans turning away from Christianity, thanks in no small part to the internet.
One reason I myself ceased to believe in it is well expressed in a meme quoted in the book “Ten Tough Problems in Christian Thought and Belief” by David Madison, a former evangelical pastor turned atheist. That meme defines Christianity as “the belief that a god created a universe 13.75 billion light years across, containing 100 billion galaxies, each of which contains an average of more than 100 billion stars, just so he could have a personal relationship with you.”
A hundred billion galaxies? Actually, the most recent estimate is two trillion and counting.
William LaRochelle, Lewiston
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