16-29 year olds more hostile/resistant to Christianity.

Common negative perceptions among non-Christians is that present-day Christianity is judgmental (87 percent), hypocritical (85 percent), old-fashioned (78 percent), and too involved in politics (75 percent).

Criticism even comes from young church goers too

Criticism, however, was not limited to young people outside the Christian faith. Half of young churchgoers said they perceive Christianity to be judgmental, hypocritical and too political. Also, one-third said it was old-fashioned and out of touch with reality.

Link to article.

Do you think in the next few decades more churches will start closing their doors? If there is hardly any young people staying in church who will take over when the older people die in the congregations?

The article mentioned that young people are finding faith outside of Christianity. Do you think Islam will fill this vacuum because they believe God can forgive sins without Jesus. Also the Qur'an already mentions figures what will be familiar to Christians such as Abraham, Joseph, Noah, Lot, Jonah, etc? The familiarity aspect would help people switch.

reply to post by TinFoilHatMan55


I have a feeling the younger people are leaning more towards Atheism, that and some are agnostic... I myself at 22 am into Deism.

I don't think we should worry about people switching to Islam or any other classic religion if they are shying away from Christianity for the reasons mentioned in the article.

Originally posted by TinFoilHatMan55
Do you think Islam will fill this vacuum because they believe God can forgive sins without Jesus.

No. I think they will turn from religion completely, or take up a LESS judgmental 'religion' like Buddhism or Unitarian Universalism. If they want to get away from Christianity because it's judgmental, hypocritical, old-fashioned and politically involved, it would make NO SENSE for them to turn to Islam, as it is more of the same.

This is a common problem with the world and it needs to halted in its tracks. Religions come and go and it really wouldnt supprise me if christianity is on its way out. Religion does nothing for anyone except give hollow promises, hope and comfort to easily pursuaded people. While some might see this as a good thing its fundamentally flawed from the word go. You cant shelter people from the evils of the world by covering it up with another evil.

I find it amusing that all religions in one sense or another claim to "save the soul from damnation". Now correct me if im wrong but havent the vast majority of wars throughout history been religious in nature? Sounds to me like religion kills more people then it saves.

Dont get me wrong, i belive all religions have an element of truth to them, the way they say you should live your lives are for the most part good. Be kind and respect your fellow man. Dont kill etc but its flawed by its dogmatic judgement. Just because someone wants to live thier life as a christian AND be gay does not mean they will burn in hell. Having childeren before marriage does not condem your soul to eternal damnation. Thease are false ideals somebody came up with when reading the original texts and decided thier view was better.

The problem i see with christianity is that its been subject to multipul interpretations over the years and anyone who thinks that the King James version of the bible is the definitive version are sorely mistaken.

Just look at it logically, 1 man called Jeasus did miricaulous wonderfull things, and someone decided to write about it, then someone copied it in thier own version and so on and so forth for the next 2000 years. I dont know if any of you have ever played chinese whispers with 10 or more people but this is exactly then same thing. The result always changes.

When you play chinese whispers with 6.5 billion people of the course of 2000 years then the outcome of the original story/teachings become somewhat distorted. What you read in the bible is not an accurate description by any means of what actuly happend al those years ago.

You are certainly right that christianity is very judgemental, this is to keep people in check and hide them from what the religion is REALLY all about.

My own personal view of why chritianity is loosing its younger audience is that at this point in time almost every story in the bible can be debunked by modern science. If people dont belive in the bibile they wont follow the religion. Its not that people dont have faith, they just dont have faith in false teachings. People arnt stupid and wont be swayed by false information.

Many years ago people followed the holy bible because it produced answers to questions that people had and couldnt explaine. Today Science is much more advanced and the explinations given by the chrurch dont make sense anymore. Thier false ideals and "answers" just wont cut it.

People wants answers to the very nature of reality and exsistence, religion can no longer provide those answers. People are turning away because they wont be lied too anymore.

I am 21 years old and I or none of my friends DO NOT support christianity or any other major religion for that matter. Some of us have found our own spiritual path through contemplation and learning what fits best for us but most claim are atheist simply because they don't want to believe but don't want to to searching on there own for the answers.
To my generation, I don't think Islam is going to pick up anymore than christianity, it's too hateful and with all the propaganda being spread around about, usually false, no one is wanting to go near it. We laugh and make fun of mormons and just about any other religious group.

IT's not about group spirituality, it's about individual and being accepting of that.

P.S.- We also think major religion is contributing to the worlds ignorance and the vatican and popes, priests, rabbis, whatever "leader of the flock" you choose, it completely unnecessary and is only a patriarchal power grab.

P.P.S- And we are all from Idaho which is one of the most christian states our of the 50, and even in Idaho it is failing with my generation.

Enough said.

Oh, I should also add that, while christianity and major religions are seen as negative, perhaps evil, a lot of us think Jesus was a cool dude who lived and spread a wonderful message. Some are down with Jesus.
The only thing I see wrong with my generation is that a lot jump straight to Atheism without thinking about what they are doing and saying which I think is just as stupid as Christianity.

Well Buddhism does offer a spiritual path without the need for believing in God. I myself am looking into Buddhism. Meditation is really difficult though and I still have a long ways to go. The Buddha's teachings are pragmatic. You can see for yourself that they are true and he also encouraged that people make a proper investigation into his teachings before deciding to follow them, which is a huge difference than the 'believe and be saved' mindset of most Abrahamic religions.

reply to post by SlyFox_79


I spent some time in churches for about two years and there is a huge age gap. It's mostly young children and people 40 and up, there might be a few people in their late 30's. I saw this at Catholic, Baptist and Methodist churches.

I spent the last year of the two at a Southern Baptist Church and it ended up bringing back my contempt for Christianity that I had gotten rid of. The pastor would slam other religions all the time and use fear to get people to accept Christ. It was a small church and any visitor that came in wouldn't come back. Can't say that I don't blame them. People are for the most part more tolerant than that because our society is secular and promotes tolerance of all people no matter what their faith, race, or creed is. Christianity seems to go against the grain on that.

I am glad that there are free thinkers who see past the smoke and mirrors and also if they truly wanted to be religious they just need to pick up what ever text was written about the said religion they are wanting to learn. Its not about some one preaching to you it has to be yourself. Which in the end leaves you being a free minded individual.

reply to post by TinFoilHatMan55
TinFoilHatMan55,

You are right, there is a great falling away and I've seen that for years now. It means very much to us Christians as it was predicted and we expected it...I've seen it growing worse and worse up through my years.

Some of you may think it is good and you eventually will see what it is leading to. What it means to me and many others is we are close to the finish line for the reign of sin. That day is the day referred to in the following verse.

2Th 2:3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;

That "man" would be Satan but you may not believe in him any more than you do God. From what I read you may not and the replies indicated the same.

I leave you free as He does.

Truthiron.

Originally posted by Jademonkey2k
Just look at it logically, 1 man called Jeasus did miricaulous wonderfull things, and someone decided to write about it, then someone copied it in thier own version and so on and so forth for the next 2000 years. I dont know if any of you have ever played chinese whispers with 10 or more people but this is exactly then same thing. The result always changes.

One can trace the Bible back to versions that effectively existed within a few hundred years of Christ, so you can chop off the majority of those 2000 years by the historical evidence of these early texts. Going back further, it is clear that the New Testament was written in the period of about 50 years following Christ's death, so now we are down to the oral tradition that kept the story of Jesus from its occurrence until Matthew, Mark, Luke and John were composed.

That is the space where your "chinese whispers" would come into play, but what you don't understand is that, in an age where writing things down was a bit trickier than it is today, the concept of oral tradition was much different, and a key component of that was integrity. A Jewish scholar, for example, would be required to memorize, perfectly, a passage of scripture before he was allowed to even speak on it.

For this reason, even beyond the simple faith that the Bible is the word of God, one can fairly assume that, if Jesus existed, and he said something that is quoted in the New Testament, it is most likely a very accurate representation of what he said.

Originally posted by SlyFox_79
We laugh and make fun of mormons and just about any other religious group.

If you fail to see the cruelty of this, making fun of people and thinking less of them for a belief that brings them comfort and joy, you might wish to consider whether your values are not more skewed than those you belittle.

This was prophesied in the Bible. There will be a generation wherein most lose their faith. The great apostasy. It paves the way for the earth to worship the antichrist. Young people are essential being taught to worship the devil via mind control techniques promulgated by the elite.

It's a shame really. However your perspective is what it going on in the West. Right now western civilization is lit on fire by hell. God will probably judge it most severely. I expect virtually all major cities in the US and europe will be smoking, nuclear ruins within a few years.

However in the third world, christianity is on fire and growing very quickly. It is being fueled as in times of old, by outstanding miracles. The dead are being raised, people are being healed of cancer and HIV. The church in the west is powerless, materialistic and rather pathetic. They are more interested in their programs and tithes rather than really getting in touch with God's will.

It may surprise you, but China is a far more christian country than any country in europe or the US. According to the Barna poll, only 4% of Americans actually have a Biblical worldview (though over 80% claim to be Christian.) Most people have a pretend christianity that doesn't effect how they live their lives So fornication, divorce, homosexuality, pornography, drug use, witchcraft (occultism, ouija, horoscope, drugs) etc. are just fine by them, since they don't believe God is real, but is rather something like the tooth fairy or santa claus. Close to 10% of Chinese are born again believers, who have been willing to suffer, be tortured and even die for their faith.

It's convenient in the West to have a pretend God to make you feel good, but who doesn't interfere with your sexual appetites or your program of material acquisition. The Bible precisely prophesied these times. It says that in the last days there will be terrible times, when people have a form of godliness but deny its power. When men will be lovers of pleasure, rather than lovers of God. Those days are at hand.

reply to post by TinFoilHatMan55
The original article is titled: Study: Christianity No Longer Looks Like Jesus to quote further from the article:

Among other common impressions, 23 percent of young non-Christians said "Christianity is changed from what it used to be" and "Christianity in today's society no longer looks like Jesus." Young born-again Christians were just as likely to say the same (22 percent).

"That’s where the term 'unChristian' came from," said David Kinnaman, president of The Barna Group who presents the findings in his new book unChristian. "Young people are very candid. In our interviews, we kept encountering young people – both those inside the church and outside of it - who said that something was broken in the present-day expression of Christianity. Their perceptions about Christianity were not always accurate, but what surprised me was not only the severity of their frustration with Christians, but also how frequently young born again Christians expressed some of the very same comments as young non-Christians."
Something Broken

This would go along with the observations of some who fit the age group under discussion who have responded to this thread. Jesus isn't the problem as far as many are concerned, it's the Christian expressions of the day that are off-putting.

I'm rather older than the study group under discussion and an apostate to boot, and I have no problem working with Christian pastors doing things like Jesus taught: care for homeless and hungry people. I recently met a local pastor whose ministry is all about that. I seriously doubt that I will pray with or sing hymns with his church though because I'm usually left feeling like a great hypocrite afterwards.

reply to post by pthena


We've talked before about my past church experience lol. Not sure if you remember. I left the Baptist church were the pastor would slam other religions every week. It got old fast. I've taken a break from Christianity and after looking into Islam and Buddhism I've decided to practice Buddhism. It's more intellectual and doesn't condemn anyone, it's very tolerant.

reply to post by TinFoilHatMan55
That was almost a year ago! I thought God might require you to become a Baptist because you were going on about them so much. karma and all, LOL

Though Buddhism encompasses a large spectrum including atheism, I agree with a previous poster that Atheism isn't to be casually jumped into; more appropriate as a conclusion reached after much contemplation. Even then, where Theism and Atheism meet, I can't tell the difference.

reply to post by TinFoilHatMan55

Do you think Islam will fill this vacuum because they believe God can forgive sins without Jesus.

I doubt it. Islam is plagued by the same problems Christianity is, a holy book will with vile content and violence, rituals, and plenty of politics. Plus Islam has the added stigma here in the West and there's an awful lot of bowing involved.

I would hope that rational thought, reason and critical thinking would replace superstitious thinking but I have my doubts that will be the case. If any belief will hold sway with kids of that age group it will be a sort of new age pantheism, where the Universe is god and god is in each of us and its all connected sort of thing.

I think this rejecting one's Christian roots is a social fad like we did in the 60's and 70's. When people grow up, they begin to look for meaning beyond atheism's amorality and materialism and want healing, love, truth and ethics again so they return to their roots. This atheist fling will last for about ten years tops. It will be followed by a Christian re-awakening.

I find the age group mentioned very telling....teenagers, and those fresh out of their teens.

I know it may be close-minded, but I can't take such opinions very seriously...they most likely fell away from religion because they were in a "rebelling phase" and such, rather than an objective conclusion of the faith. Obviously not all are like this, but I can't really expect that someone of that age (not 18 to 22, but perhaps 13 to 18), would have had thought it through, and has probably got loads of supplementary reasons for doing what they did. I've seen this myself, in discussions with such people who try to bring in science on their side, with statements like "I DON'T BELIEVE IN GOD BECAUSE WE ALL CAME FROM MONKEYS!".


Not to say, of course, that a general trend away from Christianity is not happening.

I give religion 500 more years before ut exspires.