Christianity – Harmful to Our Future
Chrisitianiy is the most popular religion in the world. In the U.S., over 80% of the population is Christian. The majority of Christians think the world is going to end soon. This poses a large hurdle when trying to make preparations for the future.
We are starting to run into potentially devastating problems, whose solutions require long term planning. Global warming, limited resources, foreign policy, and many if not all of our other needed improvements are adversely affected if you aren’t thinking ahead farther than 50 years.
We are struggling to have a serious discussion about our current problems. How are we going to plan for future dilemmas? One example is the effect of genetic engineering and cloning on our gene pool. Topics like these aren’t discussed enough, and when they are discussed, they usually aren’t taken seriously. This is despite the fact these are near future problems whose solutions will shape society.
Christianity isn’t just harmful in terms of not thinking long term, it is harmful in shaping our present way of thinking. Many sects of Christianity are actively anti-science. It amazes me that we are still debating evolution. I worked in a lab for about a year, inserting genes into S. Aureus bacteria to figure out which of its proteins aid in uptaking heme. Heme uptake is vital for the survival of many types of bacteria, so stopping heme uptake could be an effective way of fighting infections. I’ve used the primers, ran the gels, and grown the petri dishes. I know that the building blocks of life can be manipulated. I also know that these blocks are inherited and change over time.
There is overwhelming evidence of evolution. Scientists have seen bacteria evolve significant mutations in the lab, and genetic drift is a commonly observed and indisputable phenomena. In fact the more we learn about genetics, the more we see how perfectly it backs up evolution. You would be hard pressed to find a geneticist, biologist, or even a reputable scientist who doesn’t believe in evolution. Our understanding that has stemmed from the theory of evolution is responsible for new medicines and genetic diseases being engineered away. Heck, most of the food we buy at the grocery store has been modified using our understanding of genetics. Yet, a large percent of the population happily reap the benefits of the science, while telling the scientists they are wrong.
The anti-evolution debate is reminiscent of the belief that earth is the center of the universe. In both situations, not accepting the truth is based on ego instead of logic. It makes the earth less special if it is not the center of the universe, even if it makes more sense mathematically. It also makes humans seem less special if we evolved from single-cell life, instead of being the supreme organism, instantaneously created to look the same as god.
I realize many christians believe in evolution, and some do not believe the world will end soon. But it is the “faith” based thinking which christianity perpetuates that is keeping these beliefs alive. Lots of people are insulted by anti-christian talk. But, it’s time to leave the dark ages. I think tolerance towards christianity is part of the problem. Christian ideas should be weighed on the same scale as all other ideas. The evidence isn’t their, and the group-thinking and anti-science ideals are harmful. The world needs scientists coming up with solutions, not zealots waiting for the end of the world.
Kelly says:
June 19th, 2008 at 9:27 am
Your point is valid. I believe christians and others also find security in old superstitions rather than concentrating on solutions to critical problems.
J. Alden says:
July 2nd, 2008 at 5:38 pm
Absolutely. And it’s true that it is not just a christian problem.
Janet Greene says:
June 29th, 2009 at 2:01 am
I agree with this article. As a former evangelical christian, now atheist, I had a front-row seat to the destructiveness of christianity. It has harmful effects on moral and ethical development, on self-esteem, and on the ability to think critically as well as the very survival of our planet. It is clear to me that if religion is not abolished, we may not survive. And the scary thing is that the fundies would be just fine with that.
Charlie Buqqit says:
December 15th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
Thank you for writing this. We need to promote progress rather then technology. Christianity is not to blame for the lack of structure in some christian’s thinking. It is true that it has been used as a crutch for many, but the truths written in the Bible are timeless.
Believing in ‘us’ is necessary. Trusting in God is helpful for the spiritual development of the individual. Eliminating religion would be like cutting off your dick because someone else is a molester.
Again, thank you for the killer site. You’re doing a great job.
Tim says:
November 14th, 2010 at 10:08 am
It is intellectually dishonest to state that the majority of Christians (80% of Americans?) believe that the world will end soon. While there is always a radical element in any system of belief, the first mistake is to assume that ALL of that 80 percentile are fundamentalist Bible believing Christians. If you remove from that 80 percentile figure, the nominal Christians who simply believe in the historicity of a man called Jesus of Nazareth, but don’t believe in biblical inerrancy, you’ve probably shaved that 80% down to 20% or less. Take that 20% and ask them if the end is near, and probably 20% of the 20% might live according to that belief…but we’re talking 9.5 million out of over 300 million. That’s less than 3%. Personally, I’m more concerned about the roughly 1% of practicing Muslims that believe Sharia law should be inculcated via terror and force.
J. Alden Page says:
November 14th, 2010 at 5:45 pm
About 41% of people in the U.S. think the second coming will happen within the next 40 years. And only 46% think it will probably or definitely not happen within 40 years. Also, 63% of people in the U.S. (not just of christians) think the bible should be taken literally. This is much higher than 20% of christians. The percentage of protestants who think the second coming will happen within 40 years was 54%, and the percentage for catholics was 32%. The next 500 years would still be right around the corner, and these percentages would become even higher if you increased the time frame. You posted an awful lot of numbers without citing anything! Reading your comment did make me realize I failed to cite that post. Hopefully you will find the links below interesting.
http://people-press.org/report/?pageid=1740
http://www.gallup.com/poll/114544/darwin-birthday-believe-evolution.aspx
http://www.wnd.com/?pageId=30001
Andrew says:
July 4th, 2011 at 10:13 am
I can assure the you alternative to Chritianity is already being implemented by the United Nations and you will cry out for the return of Christianity when you the humanist agenda 21 and the new age Marxist Luciferian NWO hits you.
Research Lucis trust connections to UN.
Cant you see that the United Nations is promoting the new age religion to replace christianity.
http://seeker401.wordpress.com/2009/11/02/lucis-trust-and-the-theosophical-united-nations-esoteric-spiritual-agenda-for-the-new-age-and-arrival-of-the-the-teacher/
J. Alden Page says:
July 4th, 2011 at 7:51 pm
I looked a little bit into the Lucis Trust, and they are very weird. It’s essentially a religious group that has an “arcane school” instead of a seminary. It does seem strange to me that the U.N. recognizes them as an NGO that gets consultation status. However, there are also lots of christian NGOs that have been given consultation status.
So.. on one hand I agree that the Lucis Trust is weird. But on the other hand, there is a much longer list of Christian groups that have been given consultation status by the U.N.
J. Alden Page says:
July 7th, 2011 at 3:01 pm
Apparently I’m a slow learner, because I didn’t provide a link. The first link is the most recent list that I can find of NGOs within the economic and social council of the U.N. that have been given consultation status. The Lucis Trust is on that list. According to wikipedia there are currently 3382 economic/social NGOs with consultation status. If you do a ‘ctrl+f’ for the word Christian, you will find that quite a few of the NGOs on that list are Christian. There are probably a lot more Christian NGOs that do not have the word Christian in their organizations title. It would be interesting to see an analysis of how many organizations represent each major religion. But I can’t find it
.
http://www.un.org/esa/coordination/ngo/pdf/INF_List.pdf.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consultative_Status