This Easter Morning's Mass in My City Proved People are Rejecting Atheism. The Catholic Church is Alive and BOOMING!

[Mashmont]

Baby Jesus cries when you lie.

It appears some folks in here are falling for the typical leftwing media ruse of using percentages when it helps their cause and raw numbers at other times when it helps their cause. For example, in America the percentage of Catholics in relation to population as a whole fell from 25% to 22% since 1960, causing some to say "See? Catholics are disappearing"; just what the media wants people to think, when in reality the raw number of Catholics in the US has risen from 45 million to 72 million during that period.

 

[Mashmont]

The difference being you're showing a rise and fall within a few years, and I'm showing a rise and fall over 50-60 years.

Stats like this tend to go up and down, up and down, but the overall trend is very much a downward trend.

No, I'm not. The number of Catholics has steadily risen every decade in the past century. 17% each decade.

 

[rightwinger]

What is Paganism? When the term first began being used, it was a term that defined all who had no formal religious beliefs per se, more like private gatherings that centered on whatever that particular group thought up.

Julian was considered the last pagan emperor. As the Christians in his family had murdered other family members over power squabbles and imprisoned him, Julian, quite naturally, hated Christianity. When he became emperor, he wanted to establish his own form of paganism. He admired classical Greek philosophy. He tried to remove immoral behavior from paganism so that pagans and pagan teachings would become moral like Jews and Christians. He wanted pagans to become more charitable like the Christians.

He thought one way to destroy Christianity was to rebuild the Temple, thus proving Jesus wrong about the total destruction of that Temple. He tried to unite Jews and pagans against Christians.

Reading over Julian's life, I cannot help but wonder if he might not have had better results had he tried to reform what was then wrong with Christianity rather than to try and convince pagans they could become as moral and as charitable as Christians. He also had the power to improve relations between Jews and Christians, but instead made things worse between these two faiths.

What say you?

Pagan is a term devised by Christians to demean anyone who did not believe as they do.

What makes Christian beliefs any more accurate than those they called Pagans?

 

[Mashmont]

Or, you can do what is normally expected from someone who makes a claim: BACK IT UP.

Expecting someone else to do the work for you only serves the argument that the point your making is invalid.

And also that you're lazy...

Huh? These people claimed the church has lost members, and I provided the link that said otherwise. It was your atheist pal, SunsetTommy, that couldn't seem to locate the quote in the link until I held his and and showed him how.

Pay attention so you don't look like an ass.

 

[Meriweather]

A good time to think about what is for dinner, notice the kids need haircuts, think about buying a new car

Anything to get through the Mass

Not at all. Mass it the best place to escape from all of that. In the Catholic Mass the readings, the hymns, even some of the prayers follow a theme. It starts with a reading from the Old Testament and then the Psalms; it is followed by a reading from the Epistles; the capstone is the Gospel reading.

The readings, followed by a good homily, calls for the participant of the Mass (as opposed to someone thinking about eating, family, and possessions ) to tweak or even change how they intend to live their life and interact with others during the next week.

 

[rightwinger]

Said by a non-Catholic who has no idea.

Catholic Church is DULL
Intentionally so

Of all the major Christian religions, they engage the parishioners the least. The Mass is something to be endured and punch your ticket for the week

Why so many are leaving the Church

 

[Meriweather]

Pagan is a term devised by Christians to demean anyone who did not believe as they do.

No, in the beginning it was simply a description of the general population who did not follow a specific or better known religion. Later it might have been used in a more derogatory way, but at the beginning it was simply another way of saying "non-Christian but someone with a not well-known religious belief".

 

[Meriweather]

What makes Christian beliefs any more accurate than those they called Pagans?

Which belief(s) are you pondering? Is there a specific pagan belief that you think may hold greater truth than a Christian belief?

 

[C_Clayton_Jones]

There’s the claim from the atheist Left that the Catholic Church is dying. I was at Mass this morning at the beautiful church in my city, which is not even in a big Catholic area, and it was packed with over 600 people. Standing room only for a glorious high mass. Lots of young people. Lots of babies.

Young people are thirsty for the truth, for consistency, for morality. We are not an atheist wasteland like the Marxists wishfully portray. It’s a myth that people want abortion pervasive in the land, that they want promiscuity, that they want the trans-weirdism, that they want perversion.

This morning proved it. It’s time to continue the wonderful Christian renewal in the world. We see atheist Russia committing horrid crimes against humanity in Ukraine. War, violence, and wanton torture is the rotten fruit of atheism. Killing little babies in the womb is the rotten fruit of atheism. America is reversing that horrible crime. Its people are grateful.

People don’t want godless trash. They want the God of Abraham. They want the way of Jesus Christ. The truth will always survive. Jesus' Church will always survive as it has for the past 2000 years. Imagine. An unbroken line of popes for 2000 years despite the extreme turmoil in the world during that period. Proof that the Catholic Church will always be strong and always be with us. And this morning's Mass was a reminder of Jesus' promise:

"My Church will be with you through the end of time"

What’s alive and booming is a hasty generalization fallacy.

 

[rightwinger]

No, in the beginning it was simply a description of the general population who did not follow a specific or better known religion. Later it might have been used in a more derogatory way, but at the beginning it was simply another way of saying "non-Christian but someone with a not well-known religious belief".

What makes Christian beliefs more legitimate than those of a Pagan?

 

[Meriweather]

Of all the major Christian religions, they engage the parishioners the least.

Who is the "they" you feel should be engaging us during Mass? Catholics are of the mind that each one of us has our own engagement with God. How do you think Catholics should be 'engaged'?

 

[rightwinger]

Which belief(s) are you pondering? Is there a specific pagan belief that you think may hold greater truth than a Christian belief?

Who are you to condemn those who do not believe as you do?

They have just as much evidence as you do……Faith

 

[Meriweather]

What makes Christian beliefs more legitimate than those of a Pagan?

Why do you think pagan beliefs are not legitimate?

 

[Meriweather]

Who are you to condemn those who do not believe as you do?

Why are you accusing me of condemning pagans? Could you note the post number where I condemned anyone?

 

[Mashmont]

Which belief(s) are you pondering? Is there a specific pagan belief that you think may hold greater truth than a Christian belief?

He's trolling to up his response count. He doesn't care. In fact, I deleted my last response to him after remembering his MO. In another thread a couple of months ago, he pretended to be a Catholic in order to antagonize and anti-Catholic, in order to get responses.

 

[C_Clayton_Jones]

People are Rejecting Atheism

Wrong.

TRENDS SINCE 2005: Religiosity drops by 9%, while atheism rises by

3%.

“There is a notable decline across the globe in self-description of

being religious. WIN-Gallup International had carried out exactly

the same poll seven years ago in 2005. The global average of the

39 countries polled in both waves shows Religiosity Index dropped

by 9% during these seven years. Most of the shift is not drifting from

their faith, but claiming to be ‘not religious’ while remaining within

the faith. There is however a rise of 3% in atheism as well…”

https://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/~stevel/251/Global_INDEX_of_Religiosity_and_Atheism_PR__6.pdf#:~:text=The%20WIN-Gallup%20International%20%E2%80%98Religiosity%20and%20Atheism%20Index%E2%80%99%20which,trend%20data%20for%20shifts%20in%20attitudes%20since%202005.

 

[Mashmont]

Wrong.

TRENDS SINCE 2005: Religiosity drops by 9%, while atheism rises by

3%.

“There is a notable decline across the globe in self-description of

being religious. WIN-Gallup International had carried out exactly

the same poll seven years ago in 2005. The global average of the

39 countries polled in both waves shows Religiosity Index dropped

by 9% during these seven years. Most of the shift is not drifting from

their faith, but claiming to be ‘not religious’ while remaining within

the faith. There is however a rise of 3% in atheism as well…”

https://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/~stevel/251/Global_INDEX_of_Religiosity_and_Atheism_PR__6.pdf#:~:text=The%20WIN-Gallup%20International%20%E2%80%98Religiosity%20and%20Atheism%20Index%E2%80%99%20which,trend%20data%20for%20shifts%20in%20attitudes%20since%202005.

Atheists have been saying this stuff for 1000 years. It may ebb and flow a little, but atheists always average around 4% of the population. But they are overrepresented in the media, so they want us to believe they are something other than the tiny fringe.

 

[rightwinger]

Atheists have been saying this stuff for 1000 years. It may ebb and flow a little, but atheists always average around 4% of the population. But they are overrepresented in the media, so they want us to believe they are something other than the tiny fringe.

Don’t blame atheists for declining church attendance

Atheists do not recruit people away from the church
They make that decision on their own

 

[frigidweirdo]

No, I'm not. The number of Catholics has steadily risen every decade in the past century. 17% each decade.

The numbers have been rising because the POPULATION of the US has been rising. The percentage of the population that is Catholic has been dropping. The number of people going to church has been dropping, the number of people wanting to work for the church has been falling like a lead balloon.

The number of Christians in the US is far, far higher than it was in 1776. Doesn't mean much, the population was really small in 1776

 

[cnm]

For some of us, an extroverted church service is something to be endured, can't wait to get away from the noise. A Catholic Mass is for those who are most comfortable in a quiet place to think and mull over themes and issues.

I prefer a library...