Baylor ISR - Rodney Stark- End of Religion? (May 5, 2015) — Transcript
Full transcript
- 0:09so I'm going to introduce the first
- 0:10person who is the co-director of ISR
- 0:13Rodney Stark he and I came to Baylor
- 0:15about the same time almost 11 years ago
- 0:18and uh Rodney really needs no
- 0:21introduction uh but he's become a dear
- 0:23friend and colleague you can see a
- 0:25number of his books outside on display
- 0:27as well as other uh books by is our
- 0:30faculty um so Rod uh come give us the
- 0:34first talk of our
- 0:48conference oh my I've been sitting here
- 0:51with my back to you and I didn't notice
- 0:53how many of you came
- 0:57in you're all aware that at least once a
- 1:00month sometimes more often there'll be a
- 1:03big story in the national press always
- 1:07the same story usually by the same
- 1:11suspects having to do with the fact that
- 1:14religion is
- 1:16doomed last week Daniel Dennett the sage
- 1:21of tuft
- 1:23University was uh quoted at Great length
- 1:26in the Wall Street Journal about the
- 1:28fact that it's all over we finally won
- 1:31according to
- 1:32dennet religion is dead and if it looks
- 1:35like it's still healthy that's because
- 1:38that's a dying
- 1:42spasm well whatever else that may be
- 1:45it's not news people have been
- 1:47predicting the end of religion for more
- 1:50than three
- 1:51centuries and true to form the very
- 1:55first person who did it was an Anglican
- 1:58clergyman writing in
- 2:021710 Thomas Wilston predicted that all
- 2:05traces of religion would be
- 2:08gone by
- 2:111900 voler thought he was pessimistic
- 2:15and in a letter to Frederick the great
- 2:17voler said now it'll all be gone and
- 2:22over by
- 2:271810 subsequently
- 2:30these sorts of people got a little
- 2:33circumspect and now they will only say
- 2:37soon they won't say
- 2:42when that's all
- 2:45right
- 2:47because somehow they still get all the
- 2:50Press
- 2:52um Peter Burger the sage of Boston
- 2:56University and once a visitor to bayor
- 3:01told the New York Times in
- 3:031968 that the 21st cent in the 21st
- 3:08century religious Believers are likely
- 3:10to be found only in small sects huddled
- 3:15together to resist the worldwide secular
- 3:19culture the predicament of the believer
- 3:22is increasingly like that of a Tibetan
- 3:26astrologer on a prolonged visit to an
- 3:29American
- 3:30University now the subsequent
- 3:32lionization of the do llama on American
- 3:36campuses suggests that there's another
- 3:38interpretation possible here but the
- 3:41fact
- 3:44is that it's the 21st
- 3:48century and it still hasn't
- 3:52happened
- 3:55moreover the facts are that the world is
- 3:58probably much more religious than it was
- 4:01a century ago it may in fact be more
- 4:04religious than it ever
- 4:07was never before has organized religion
- 4:12enrolled such a huge proportion of the
- 4:15world's
- 4:17population worldwide
- 4:2081% of the people belong to one of the
- 4:24major organized
- 4:28faiths
- 4:31all of the great world religions are
- 4:34growing with the possible exception of
- 4:38Buddhism and contrary to uninformed
- 4:41accounts Christianity is growing far
- 4:45faster than either Islam or
- 4:49Hinduism and regardless of their
- 4:52religion 74% of the world's people say
- 4:57religion is an important part of their
- 4:58daily lives
- 5:0150% say they have attended a worship
- 5:04service in the past 7
- 5:08Days in very few Nations do more than
- 5:135% claim to be
- 5:15atheists and only in China Vietnam and
- 5:18South Korea do they exceed
- 5:2220% furthermore in every nook and
- 5:26cranny left by organized religions
- 5:30all manner
- 5:32of unchurched
- 5:35spirituality and
- 5:37mysticisms are
- 5:41booming there are more occult
- 5:44practitioners in Russia than there are
- 5:46medical
- 5:47doctors 38% of the French believe in
- 5:51astrology 35% of the Swiss agree some
- 5:56fortune tellers really can foresee the
- 5:59future
- 6:00future and nearly everyone in
- 6:03Japan takes a careful action to have
- 6:07their new car blessed by a Shinto
- 6:12priest probably can't get insurance if
- 6:15you
- 6:16don't
- 6:19true now where do these numbers come
- 6:22from I mean you're sitting out to say
- 6:24how does he know this because of a
- 6:27wonderful thing called the gallop world
- 6:29World
- 6:31polls they started in
- 6:352005 and by now they're doing an annual
- 6:38National survey in every one of 163
- 6:44Nations which add up to 98% of the
- 6:47world's
- 6:48population and by collapsing years you
- 6:52can get huge case bases 10 15,000 in
- 6:57various countries which means that the
- 6:59statistics are extremely stable and
- 7:02probably very
- 7:05accurate now I have a book coming
- 7:09out uh in the fall in which I use these
- 7:14data to cover the world here I'm going
- 7:16to only talk about a few places um I'm
- 7:20certainly not going to talk about Europe
- 7:22because my colleague Philip Jenkins is
- 7:24going to do that I'm going to leave
- 7:25America alone because Byron is going to
- 7:28end the program with the United
- 7:31States but let's begin with Latin
- 7:34America for centuries Latin America was
- 7:38alleged to be a Roman Catholic
- 7:42continent the Catholic Almanac of
- 7:461949 reported that the percent
- 7:50Catholic in Argentina was
- 7:5599.2% that it was 98% in Bolivia
- 8:00that it was
- 8:0299.8% in
- 8:04Chile and it made similar claims for the
- 8:07other Latin Nations the truth is that no
- 8:10more than 20 and usually closer to 10%
- 8:13of the people in any Latin American
- 8:15Nation ever went to
- 8:17church so few men entered the
- 8:21seminaries that all across the
- 8:24continent most of the priests had always
- 8:28been imported
- 8:30from elsewhere in the
- 8:32world then came Protestant
- 8:35competition during the second half of
- 8:38the 20th
- 8:39century it finally became legal for
- 8:42Protestants to exist in Latin America
- 8:45and they started converting tens of
- 8:47millions of
- 8:50people now the Catholic Church of course
- 8:53had to respond and their first
- 8:57response was something call Liberation
- 9:00theology and the Assumption was that
- 9:03people were becoming Protestants because
- 9:05they were poor and deprived and
- 9:07Powerless so let's put some Marxism
- 9:10together with some Catholicism and let's
- 9:12go out and get them all to join base
- 9:14communities and we'll get rid of these
- 9:17Protestants and despite the fact that
- 9:19the current pope seems to think that's
- 9:21the way to go and that's the way he went
- 9:24in Argentina it was a thunderous
- 9:27flop nobody
- 9:32joined but then came some wiser
- 9:37heads something
- 9:41called the Catholic Charismatic renewal
- 9:48mement it meant the P met the
- 9:51Pentecostals head on with the same kind
- 9:54of intense religion because people were
- 9:55not converting because they were poor
- 9:57they were converting for religion the
- 9:59rich were as likely as the poor to
- 10:01become Protestants and you know what the
- 10:04Catholic Charismatic religious movement
- 10:07has greatly
- 10:09slowed the progress of protestantism in
- 10:12Latin
- 10:14America how did it do it it did it by
- 10:16filling the
- 10:18churches it's amazing but in seven of
- 10:21the 18 major Latin American nations
- 10:25weekly Mass attendance today is above
- 10:2960% a
- 10:32week in six others it's above 50% a week
- 10:37keep in mind that it's 31% in Spain and
- 10:4029 in Canada and we're talking about
- 10:43really full
- 10:45churches uh something hadn't been seen
- 10:49before in 1960 there were 4,000 men in
- 10:53Catholic seminaries in Latin America
- 10:55today there are well over
- 10:5820,000 uh religion worked the more the
- 11:02more important point is that what wasn't
- 11:04a Catholic continent is now very much a
- 11:08Christian
- 11:10continent but it's nothing compared to
- 11:12South subsaharan
- 11:14Africa there
- 11:16are more Christians in subsaharan Africa
- 11:21than there are anywhere else in the
- 11:24world a third of the world's more than
- 11:28two billion Christians are there and
- 11:30across my
- 11:32colleague has written about this a great
- 11:35length about Christianity in the global
- 11:37South and it's
- 11:41true church
- 11:43attendance is extraordinary in
- 11:45subsaharan Africa uh the Latin American
- 11:49attendance looks bad if you start
- 11:51looking at subsaharan Africa where
- 11:52people tend to go at levels of 80 and
- 11:5690% a week to to Long church
- 12:05services many of these people belong to
- 12:09African denominations I mean one started
- 12:12by Africans but many also are Roman
- 12:15Catholics and the Gallup WHL pole
- 12:17statistics on the number of Catholics in
- 12:19the various African nations is way way
- 12:22above what the Catholic Almanac
- 12:25claims so I got a hold of some people in
- 12:28the Vatican and then asked them about it
- 12:30they were delighted to hear the news but
- 12:32they didn't know why and they finally
- 12:34concluded that the priests are so busy
- 12:37with baptisms and confessions that they
- 12:39don't bother to count and therefore the
- 12:42numbers are 20 years old and I guess
- 12:44that's probably what's going
- 12:47on we could of
- 12:51course me it's it's just it's just
- 12:55amazing what's going on
- 12:58there
- 13:07the fact now I'd like to switch
- 13:11slightly and talk
- 13:14about the great Muslim
- 13:18rival as recently as the
- 13:221960s Western experts including the
- 13:26CIA assumed Muslims were rapidly
- 13:29becoming secularized and they began
- 13:31teaching and Reporting all of this at a
- 13:34very time in which a great renewal was
- 13:36going on in Islam that they didn't
- 13:39bother to look
- 13:42at during the 1950s about 100,000
- 13:45pilgrims a year went to
- 13:48Mecca by the mid 1970s that number had
- 13:52risen to a million a year in
- 13:552012 it topped 3 million it could
- 13:59probably be as high as 10 or 15 million
- 14:02but the Saudis won't give them more
- 14:03visas than that because it's so
- 14:06difficult to provide food and water and
- 14:08shelter in the middle of the desert so 3
- 14:11million is all they're letting come
- 14:14in even
- 14:21so there are very few longitudinal data
- 14:25available on belief in Islam but there
- 14:27are for turkey
- 14:29but only for the last 20 years even so
- 14:33you find enormous increases in things
- 14:35like mosque
- 14:37attendants um the proportion who believe
- 14:40in Hell went from 83 to
- 14:4499 83 is awfully high but 99 means
- 14:47everybody 99 means something else it
- 14:50means that this isn't all about a bunch
- 14:52of impoverished folks running around in
- 14:55the Arab streets
- 14:57socalled the educated ated are in fact
- 15:00slightly more religious in the Muslim
- 15:03nations than the least educated it turns
- 15:06out that by the way we'll find that's
- 15:08true in many other parts of the world
- 15:10contrary to most
- 15:14sociologists the CIA of course has now
- 15:17been recently was I it was yesterday the
- 15:21former deputy director of the CIA
- 15:23confessed that made a terrible mistake
- 15:25about the Arab
- 15:27Spring that they when the governments of
- 15:30Egypt and Libya and Yen and what not
- 15:32were overthrown they thought that this
- 15:34was going to be a great move towards
- 15:40secularization they didn't look at any
- 15:42of the
- 15:43polls I don't know why but they don't
- 15:46seem to look at polls but polls would
- 15:48have showed them that the people in
- 15:52Egypt were vastly vastly more
- 15:55Orthodox or extreme or whatever you want
- 15:58to call it than was the
- 16:00government and that in fact if you had
- 16:03an elect free election which they did
- 16:05have they'd elect a Muslim brother which
- 16:08they
- 16:09did it's it's it's amazing but uh um the
- 16:15one poll item that the government US
- 16:18Government made a lot of is after 911
- 16:21that the mass majority of people in the
- 16:23Muslim nations did not support
- 16:26it but what they failed to report report
- 16:30is the only people who supported it were
- 16:32those who thought Arabs had done it the
- 16:34rest of the people thought George Bush
- 16:36did it and of course they didn't support
- 16:38it so I mean you've got to be careful
- 16:41with what you're looking at in any event
- 16:45one thing I think before I move on I'd
- 16:47like to remind you is that whatever
- 16:50terrorism is involved it's mostly
- 16:52brother killing brother I have a book in
- 16:56which we we did a lot of calculations
- 16:58look about 70% of everyone who's killed
- 17:02by a Muslim terrorist is another Muslim
- 17:05perhaps a terrorist as well but uh it's
- 17:08at least somebody of a different form of
- 17:11Muslim faith now let's move to
- 17:16India when India became an independent
- 17:19country
- 17:221947 all of its political leaders have
- 17:25been educated in Great Britain and
- 17:27everybody thought consequently the
- 17:29secularization was coming with
- 17:31modernization and Neu the first
- 17:33president expected Hinduism to disappear
- 17:36within 40 or 50 years and of course
- 17:39that's not what happened U as India has
- 17:44modernized there's been a huge Muslim
- 17:48Revival uh India is much more religious
- 17:51now than it was 100 years ago you can
- 17:54measure it in all kinds of ways in terms
- 17:57of of pilgrims was going to the
- 17:59religious sites uh in 1986 1.3 people
- 18:05visited million people visited the Davi
- 18:09Shrine above cashmir last year a top 10
- 18:13million uh a
- 18:15cliche among Indian
- 18:18journalists is the gods are
- 18:21back a national survey in 2007 found
- 18:25that a third of Indians said they were
- 18:27more religious than they had been 5
- 18:28years years ago and only 3% said they
- 18:30were less
- 18:32religious 67% of Indians say they've
- 18:36attended a religious service in the past
- 18:38week 85% say religion is important in
- 18:41their daily lives and these numbers go
- 18:44up if you limit it only to Hindus in
- 18:48India and of course the more educated
- 18:52the more
- 18:55religious and then there's
- 18:57China
- 19:01uh odd little
- 19:04Story American and Western
- 19:08intellectuals Long believed that China
- 19:11was immune to religion 1934 Edgar snow
- 19:15equipped that in China opium is the
- 19:18religion of the people well American
- 19:22academics and all throughout Europe
- 19:26giggled
- 19:27agreed
- 19:29and decided that the several million
- 19:31Chinese who were attending Mission
- 19:33churches were rice Christians that they
- 19:36went there for the benefits and if the
- 19:38benefits stopped they'd go away and of
- 19:40course then came the Chinese Communist
- 19:44taking power in
- 19:461949 um
- 19:491966 came the cultural revolution and
- 19:53religion was declared
- 19:55illegal and the red guards
- 19:59burned or tore down or converted into
- 20:01warehouses all of the churches all of
- 20:04the pagodas all of the shrines anything
- 20:07religious that they could
- 20:14find and again the intellectuals looked
- 20:17around and said there there is the
- 20:19post-religious world we can see it and
- 20:22that turned out to be the Opium of
- 20:24Western intellectuals because the second
- 20:26the heat came off religion came
- 20:29bringing back tens of thousands of
- 20:32temples have been
- 20:34rebuilt and as for the rice
- 20:37Christians they went underground and
- 20:40when the heat came off they not only
- 20:42were still
- 20:44Christians there were three times as
- 20:46many of them as there had been before in
- 20:49other words back in the days when
- 20:52Christians were being shot people were
- 20:54joining the church in large
- 20:57numbers and now with the ha off of
- 21:00course they've been joining in even
- 21:02larger
- 21:04numbers nobody has been really sure as
- 21:08to what those numbers are some people
- 21:10say 20 million some people say 200
- 21:14million both numbers are
- 21:18silly unfortunately Gallup doesn't
- 21:20provide any data on religion in China
- 21:22because no foreign firms can ask
- 21:26questions about politics or religion
- 21:29in China but a big Chinese firm did so
- 21:33in 2007 huge survey 7,000
- 21:37respondents and by hooker crook we
- 21:41managed to get our hands on it uh we've
- 21:44got it in English um the
- 21:47calculations uh have been corrected for
- 21:50the fact that people under I mean it's
- 21:53still a little bit tricky to be a
- 21:55Christian in China and uh and so some
- 21:58people who are Christians wouldn't tell
- 22:00a strange uh survey administrator that
- 22:04that they were Christians but we found
- 22:05ways to correct for that and it looks
- 22:09like that
- 22:13about one
- 22:17about 70 million there's a strange thing
- 22:21here twice as many Chinese say they
- 22:25believe in Jesus as say that they're
- 22:27Christians and that's because the
- 22:29Chinese are all confused about what it
- 22:31means to belong to organizations and all
- 22:34sorts of other things but the best the
- 22:37the best conclusion is that there about
- 22:3970 or about were about 73 million
- 22:41Christians in China in
- 22:462007 in various ways I managed to
- 22:48calculate that there were
- 22:51probably about uh 10 million Christians
- 22:54in China in
- 22:561980 and you do the calculation that's a
- 22:59rate of growth of about 7% a
- 23:04year if that rate were to hold for
- 23:07another 15
- 23:08years you'd have 295 million Chinese
- 23:13Christians making China the largest the
- 23:16nation with the largest Christian
- 23:17population by the way even in 2007 there
- 23:21were more Chinese Christians and they
- 23:22were members of the Communist
- 23:25Party not only that but while it's
- 23:27illegal for members of the Communist
- 23:30Party to have a religion there are
- 23:33plenty of Christians in the Communist
- 23:35Party how do we know well out in the
- 23:38Villages you can't keep secrets and the
- 23:41local communist leader in the village
- 23:44the people you know people know he's a
- 23:46Christian so consequently they don't
- 23:48make any secret of it and there are
- 23:49communist leaders in The Villages that
- 23:51have crosses on the wall of the living
- 23:53room and we take that as pretty firm
- 23:56evidence that they've converted
- 24:01um I think that that's
- 24:05enough but the idea is that the world is
- 24:09really a very very religious place um I
- 24:14think this might be a good time to take
- 24:15a few questions and we don't have quite
- 24:19as much time but uh five minutes is all
- 24:23we'll
- 24:24do
- 24:26anybody that's all right
- 24:29about the latest Pew report the latest
- 24:32Pew report that says that you know the
- 24:34next Whatever It Is 40 50 years Islam
- 24:37will outpace Christianity and its growth
- 24:39around the
- 24:41world I'm sorry I really couldn't I I
- 24:44couldn't hear it right I said the the
- 24:46latest Pew report the pew pew
- 24:51um no I won't say that I won't say Pew
- 24:56but Pew is very
- 24:58money they uh they've got a lot of money
- 25:01they do some very good
- 25:03research they don't seem to know what it
- 25:07means to
- 25:09say I have no
- 25:12religion in the United States when
- 25:15people say that it means that they've
- 25:17got no denominational pres preference
- 25:21because almost all the people who say
- 25:22they I mean there about 4% of the
- 25:24American public who says they're they're
- 25:27atheist the rest these people who say
- 25:29they have no religion
- 25:32pray believe in angels all sorts of
- 25:35things like this and you say well these
- 25:37aren't irreligious people what are they
- 25:38telling us and what it appears to be is
- 25:41that their parents would have said if
- 25:44you asked them the denomination they'd
- 25:46have said I'm a
- 25:48Lutheran but I don't
- 25:50go and what these people are saying well
- 25:53we're not really lutherans or we don't
- 25:55really have a preference if you ask them
- 25:57if they were Christians most of them
- 25:59would say yes so it's a very confused
- 26:01thing in China when people say they have
- 26:04no
- 26:05religion um it's hard to know what they
- 26:08mean because most of the people who have
- 26:09been a Buddhist temple in the last week
- 26:12say they have no religion uh 76% of the
- 26:16Chinese say they have no religion and of
- 26:19them 80% of that
- 26:2276% have been uh in a folk temple in the
- 26:25last two
- 26:26weeks uh but they don't regard that they
- 26:29have a very special definition of the
- 26:32word
- 26:33religion uh that most things don't I
- 26:35mean most Buddhists in China will say
- 26:38they have no religion they'll tell you
- 26:39they're a Buddhist but they have no
- 26:40religion uh it's very complicated stuff
- 26:43and I seen none of that subtly in the
- 26:46Pew
- 26:51report Islam
- 26:54will oh no I'm sorry
- 27:00no they're making the Assumption you
- 27:03know that people in the non-western
- 27:04world have got high fertility rates
- 27:06without going and looking at their
- 27:08fertility rates uh Iran's fertility rate
- 27:12is way below replacement level for
- 27:14example uh many many Arab countries
- 27:18their fertility is falling like very
- 27:21rapidly um I I I could name I think I
- 27:25recently saw a list of five that were
- 27:27below replacement and the rest streaking
- 27:30there no I don't see that at all um as a
- 27:34matter of fact
- 27:36fertility uh is so tricky that it may in
- 27:38fact rech christianize Europe because
- 27:42the Philip will probably bring this up
- 27:44but the Christians in Europe are the
- 27:46ones who are having the kids um you know
- 27:49there's
- 27:51a same American Judaism is is turning
- 27:55outra Orthodox because one kid per
- 27:59family doesn't equal 10 kids per family
- 28:02um it's all very
- 28:04tricky yes so actually somewhat related
- 28:07to that question uh when you start
- 28:09talking about statistics or quoting
- 28:11statistics it's to me any way it can get
- 28:13pretty confusing to understand so the
- 28:16question is how much of the growth is
- 28:19really seen as or can be accounted for
- 28:22just a growth in population so if the if
- 28:24the percentage stays the same and the
- 28:26population grows then the number grow
- 28:29sure sure sure the I've made tried to be
- 28:33very careful not to talk uh in terms of
- 28:37numbers except in the case of china
- 28:39because that's such shortterm kind of
- 28:41growth so going from say 60 million to
- 28:44290 million in 20 years uh you don't
- 28:47have to worry about uh about that but no
- 28:50that's the reason I've stuck with
- 28:52percentages increases because of course
- 28:55uh there's been population growth
- 28:57particularly in uh in subsaharan Africa
- 29:00uh but you know
- 29:03if population growth doesn't have any
- 29:06impact on the proportion of Christians
- 29:08if they're sitting there in excess of
- 29:1290% which they are and by the way of
- 29:14course the
- 29:16boundaries subsaharan Africa butts into
- 29:19North Africa you've got these terrible
- 29:22battles going on with bah Haram and
- 29:24Nigeria for example because uh uh of
- 29:28that
- 29:31conflict
- 29:35yes will result in a greater do you
- 29:40think those type of battles are having
- 29:41in nor Northern Africa will result in a
- 29:43a greater um depth of religion or more
- 29:48of a secularization of religion in that
- 29:50area to to get rid of the
- 29:54conflict I don't see anybody leaving
- 29:57either Islam or Christianity as a result
- 30:00of these
- 30:02fights
- 30:04um my impulse would say it might
- 30:06intensify the commitment on both sides
- 30:09uh it's it's it's hard to say but uh uh
- 30:14in general you know I mean you look
- 30:16around the United States and everybody
- 30:18says that religion is
- 30:22declining and as Byron will point out
- 30:26they've got everything on their side
- 30:27except the numbers you know you go to
- 30:30church on Sunday morning you don't find
- 30:32all those empty pews they're talking
- 30:34about or if you do you're going to the
- 30:36wrong
- 30:41Church you mentioned the brother the you
- 30:45mentioned the the increase of
- 30:49Islam assuming that there is a
- 30:51distinction between Islam and radical
- 30:54Islam is do any of the studies show an
- 30:57increase in in the rad radicalization of
- 31:00Islam that you see
- 31:05well that's a
- 31:07very difficult
- 31:10question if you look at pole data it's
- 31:15amazing
- 31:21how I don't know I'm grasping for a word
- 31:25extreme or whatever let's put it this
- 31:28way the
- 31:29overwhelming majorities in Nations like
- 31:33Egypt and
- 31:36Pakistan um
- 31:38Yemen overwhelmingly
- 31:41believe that
- 31:43anybody who Decon converts from Islam
- 31:46should be
- 31:48executed overwhelmingly they believe
- 31:51that anyone who blasphemes should be
- 31:55executed they overwhelmingly support
- 31:58killing your daughter if she winked at
- 32:00somebody so you know I don't know what
- 32:02you mean by extreme uh will they do
- 32:06anything he chances no uh and Leadership
- 32:09is is is a real issue as you notice uh
- 32:13when when when when the Arab Spring
- 32:16happened in Egypt we found out what muic
- 32:18had been sitting on successfully for 30
- 32:23years and now the Army took back and
- 32:26those guys are are Muslims too but
- 32:28they're they're they're not radical
- 32:29Muslims they're they're very uh uh
- 32:33peaceloving if you will I mean they
- 32:35really don't want attacks on Israel they
- 32:38really don't want
- 32:42uh to execute blasphemers and they don't
- 32:46but it's very this is very tricky stuff
- 32:49uh but we're not helped by people going
- 32:51around pretending that none of this has
- 32:53to do with Islam it be a little bit like
- 32:57pretending that that the people who who
- 32:59shot abortionists weren't Christians of
- 33:01course they were um you know it's it's
- 33:04it's
- 33:06it's it's very complicated and it's not
- 33:09helpful by being in
- 33:14denial thank you Professor for this
- 33:16wonderful talk this morning I'd like to
- 33:18ask the question though in the signs of
- 33:21religious revival are you equating
- 33:23religion then with superstitious re
- 33:26Revival as well and what would be your
- 33:30definition of the two
- 33:40terms I would say
- 33:44that
- 33:48mysticism or involves belief in the
- 33:52existence of Supernatural
- 33:55forces I think religion Takes One Step
- 33:58Beyond that and posits the existence of
- 34:02a conscious
- 34:04God that
- 34:06uh on the other hand if I'm sitting out
- 34:09here being being an aggressive atheist
- 34:14the fact that people have quit the
- 34:16Lutheran Church and are now
- 34:18spiritualists should not give me any
- 34:21comfort in the sense that it's still a
- 34:24supernatural world for these people uh
- 34:27the the very beliefs that they're
- 34:29against are still thriving in in
- 34:32spiritualism uh now that doesn't meet my
- 34:35religious taste and I'm very leery about
- 34:38the edge of of of what I would call
- 34:43supernaturalism that isn't religion but
- 34:45it is still supernaturalism and that's
- 34:48that's all no to me religion has to have
- 34:50a God and uh um I would even go so far
- 34:56as to say a conscious God because I
- 34:58don't know what you do with an
- 35:00unconscious God except it's it's a
- 35:03word
- 35:06um yes on that note uh maybe you could
- 35:10say something about the proportionate uh
- 35:13growth of minority religions or new
- 35:16religious movements in comparison to the
- 35:18mainstream world religions you've mostly
- 35:20been talking about or maybe also the uh
- 35:23growth in numbers of minority religions
- 35:26and new religious movements
- 35:28also well there are new religious
- 35:30movements constantly uh some of many of
- 35:34them
- 35:36u in subsaharan Africa it's it's
- 35:40estimated that there are
- 35:4310,000 christianities independent
- 35:46Christian movements that are uh locally
- 35:50uh
- 35:51formed
- 35:53um we certainly have all you know I mean
- 35:57we we got 1500 kinds of Protestants in
- 36:00the United States uh and then of course
- 36:03there are you know spiritualism is is is
- 36:06is a religion and and and it has a few
- 36:13churches the world is full of religious
- 36:16movements that's certainly
- 36:18true um Islam by the way we have a
- 36:22tendency to make Islam monolithic less
- 36:25so most recently but they have a
- 36:27tendency to make Christianity monolithic
- 36:30and in fact uh it's it's not so I years
- 36:33ago a a Muslim friend of
- 36:35mine educated me by saying I could take
- 36:39you to any Muslim village with four
- 36:42mosques and I could point out the
- 36:45Episcopalian mosque the Baptist mosque
- 36:48the Nazarene mosque and the Unitarian
- 36:52mosque uh and he said there's that much
- 36:55variety but you'd walk in there and say
- 36:58bunch of Muslims um and and he was quite
- 37:04right um on the reporting and statistics
- 37:08of Islam um on the reporting of
- 37:11statistics about Islam around the world
- 37:13do you think that's just oversight or do
- 37:15you think there's political motives um
- 37:18underlying racist motives anything like
- 37:20that to
- 37:22the what You' pointed out is false
- 37:24statistics coming out of various
- 37:31channels I don't hear as well as I did
- 37:35when I was your age and a bit of trouble
- 37:38yeah um so regarding the false stories
- 37:42about various sectors in Islam or the
- 37:46rise of Islam or things like that do you
- 37:48think that those are just oversights in
- 37:50media and statistics or do you think
- 37:53that there's some kind of motivation for
- 37:55that well there's obviously a lot of
- 37:58politics going on I mean the fact that
- 38:01what happened here at Fort Hood the
- 38:05government continues to call an instance
- 38:08of workplace
- 38:10violence having nothing to do with
- 38:13religion that's that's not
- 38:17ignorance it may be idiotic but it's not
- 38:21ignorance
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