What can Christians do to stem Atheism or keep people in their congregations?

[??????????]

He does mean it in a negative way though. He has a very hostile attitude towards religion and religious individuals. I'm sorry but I didn't do a damn thing wrong by calling him out.

If this were my post :

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..you'd all be, rightfully, calling me out on it all day long.

Religion is TAUGHT through the Bible and other spiritual guides. No one holds a gun to someones head and forces them to stay a Christian once they grow into adulthood.

[Earth]

To be honest, I didn't mean my post as a rebuttal, or something because you responded to Fezzy. I mean that like all socialization, indoctrination is a key part. It was negative in Fezzy's reply, but I don't mean like that.

Religion is TAUGHT through the Bible and other spiritual guides. No one holds a gun to someones head and forces them to stay a Christian once they grow into adulthood.

My point is, what occurs isn't just teaching, it's indoctrination into to a particular ideology. Not only do you learn about Christianity, and it's tenets, but it's philosophical, and ethical outlook becomes a shared view. The same way a child is raised in a culture, and attends school. Indoctrination occurs everywhere.

[??????????]

I understand your point completely and agree certainly. The thing is though that word as become so stigmatized to mean something negative that many folks see it as nothing but a negative word.

[Joe Republic]

It's highly amusing that atheist = liberal in StatesRights' mind.

No, try again. I said HE is a liberal. Which of course, on social matters, is true.

In your opinion, of course.  But anyway, being a social liberal has little to do with believing religion is a massive con or not.

[??????????]

It's highly amusing that atheist = liberal in StatesRights' mind.

No, try again. I said HE is a liberal. Which of course, on social matters, is true.

In your opinion, of course. 

Duh. That's what pretty much 90+% of this forum is.

[Joe Biden 2020]

We can be more true to our God and strive to live our lives closer to how Christ lived His.  The problems with America and the world at large is as much the fault of the church, and arguable moreso, than the secular world.  I'll explain.

The book of Revelation talks about forgetting your first love.  The church's first love is God and we have largely seem to have forgotten him.  We've allowed a lot of secularism behind our pulpits.  We have become too worldly and it is no wonder that non-believers call us 'hypocrites'.  Some of our preachers don't preach the true Word of God.  They preach it as it fits in with their agenda.  Some preachers use the pulpit as a political campaign platform (which is punishable by the loss of tax-exemption).  The true men of God preach the true Word of God even if it offends their congregation or even themselves.  I am of the opinion that when the Word of God is watered down, it is no longer the Word of God, rather it becomes the Word of [insert preacher name].  We have become way too 'comfortable' with our current position.

There's a whole lot more I could say, but for respect of people's attention spans, I'll stop here.

[??????????]

I fail to see how that definition defines the word as NOT being negative.

[??????????]

But regardless, that's not a "bash" of religion, it's an objective observation of how organized religion works. 

That's nothing more then an opinion of course. No shock though coming from an atheistic liberal such as you.

You should teach a class on this stuff, that's one of the best instance of poisoning the well I've ever seen.  Though I guess that would go against your anti-education positions.  Which is ironically something that could have come in handy in a lot of these discussions.

I get it, you're better then me. I guess we can end this now.

[Lunar]

I find that free cake generally helps keep people in your group.

Indeed, free food does wonders.  I almost went into a church the other day that was offering free dinner

[Ebowed]

What could Christians do to grow their numbers?

Spread rumors that condoms carry HIV, perhaps.

Also I hear anti-gay therapy works wonders.

[°Leprechaun]

There's nothing wrong with being an atheist. Voltaire back in the 18th century said that he preferred the atheist to the religious fanatic.
This thread is nothing but flamebait.

[cindywho2212]

We can be more true to our God and strive to live our lives closer to how Christ lived His.  The problems with America and the world at large is as much the fault of the church, and arguable moreso, than the secular world.  I'll explain.

The book of Revelation talks about forgetting your first love.  The church's first love is God and we have largely seem to have forgotten him.  We've allowed a lot of secularism behind our pulpits.  We have become too worldly and it is no wonder that non-believers call us 'hypocrites'.  Some of our preachers don't preach the true Word of God.  They preach it as it fits in with their agenda.  Some preachers use the pulpit as a political campaign platform (which is punishable by the loss of tax-exemption).  The true men of God preach the true Word of God even if it offends their congregation or even themselves.  I am of the opinion that when the Word of God is watered down, it is no longer the Word of God, rather it becomes the Word of [insert preacher name].  We have become way too 'comfortable' with our current position.

There's a whole lot more I could say, but for respect of people's attention spans, I'll stop here.

I'm new here, I agree with your post.  True christianity is a way of life, its not a building, its the person who has gave their life to God.
If you don't believe in God, why the worry?

[justfollowingtheelections]

This is a funny discussion, but yesterday I met this Mormon kid that tried to convert me to his religion.  We had this very long discussion and in the end I convinced him that we should all be agnostic because no one really knows if god exists.