On Mon, 12 Apr 2010, SA wrote:
>> Atheists have funny views about pantheism (or, as they prefer to call
>> it, using another archaic term, deism). They seem to think it is
>> inherently unstable, rather than that it's the stable norm of liberal
>> religion that has been spreading in the west ever since Spinoza and
>> which is now widespread and dominant.
>
> But it hasn't been spreading.
It certainly has on the long time span I was taking since Spinoza.
The most interesting thing is how unitarianism -- or Socinianism, as it was then called -- was considered the most dangerous doctrine in the world 300 years ago, and now is the most blase thing imaginable, without really having changed at all itself. It's the world that's changed.
> Your friend's Baptist church belongs to one of the many mainline
> Protestant denominations that have been in long-term decline since the
> 30's. The majority of growth in church membership - the large majority,
> I think - has been in theologically conservative denominations. And this
> seems to happen everywhere: Wherever the Volvo-driving pantheist
> ministers take over, the congregation shrinks and membership shifts to
> the praise churches.
A large number of pantheists feel no need to go to churches. Perhaps the majority. So I don't think church membership stats trends are a good proxy, even for trends.
It's quite easy to imagine the tendency growing as church membership shrinks.
Michael