Featured How to make Christianity relevant today?

[AgnosticBoy]

A buddy of mine is looking into starting a Christian podcast that deals with social issues and life, in general. He wants to tailor it to a young population (late teens up to early 30's). Of course, a challenge of that is being relevant since it seems that more of younger generation seem to have little interest in Christianity.

I figured one way to get Christianity to be relevant is by bringing up the problems of society. And of course, there are lots of societal problems, from mental problems, to marital problems, corruption all over the place, all the cheating going on, school shootings, etc. He can make a show explaining how all of this fits within the Christian worldview and offer a resolution for those problems. That's just one idea.

For Debate
Is Christianity relevant to today's society? If so, why are people losing interest in Christianity?

 

[Scooter]

IMO, yes, absolutely Christianity is relevant to today’s society. The reasons I believe people are loosing interest is a twofold problem that comes from within and without.

The first problem that comes from within is a result from Christians themselves. Unfortunately, Christians can be some of the meanest, nastiest people around. Both of my children worked at a grocery store when they were in high school and they hated working on Sundays because they had to deal with so many mean Christians after church. They both agreed that they were awful to wait on. Then you have Christians who condemn those not like them, they are self-righteous and obnoxious. Add to that the corruption that has emerged from both the Catholic Church and the Southern Baptists. Who would want to be associated with people like this?

Then you have the problem from without. The world has so many things to offer young people today that they don’t have time for religion. They are so busy going and doing and enjoying life, that they don’t see the need for religion.

This is why Christians need to be more like Jesus Christ. We need to love people the way He loved. We need to treat others with love and respect. And we can do this without compromising our core beliefs. It’s not the Christian’s job to change people. It’s our duty to demonstrate God’s love, and let Him do the changes. Love is the only thing that matters. This is just my observation.

 

[AgnosticBoy]

Is Christianity relevant to today's society?

As a non-believer, I believe that some aspects of Christianity that are useful today. That includes any area that is accurate which we can use for our understanding of history. It also includes any of Jesus's teachings that can provide practical benefits to us today.

If so, why are people losing interest in Christianity?

I think the biggest hit that Christianity has taken is from science and on social issues, especially issues involving LGBT. In many cases, science has shown that the Christian beliefs are wrong on the origin of the Universe and on various issues relating to LGBT.

 

[AgnosticBoy]

Then you have the problem from without. The world has so many things to offer young people today that they don’t have time for religion. They are so busy going and doing and enjoying life, that they don’t see the need for religion.

Lots of good stuff to think about in your last post but wanted to respond to this point of yours.

I think that one way show people that Christianity can be applied today would take showing them the problems that are happening in life and how Christianity can help with that. It's just like any business solution. Identify the problems or a need. If you can offer a product (Christianity in this case) that offers a solution, then product will likely become a demand and increase from there. I think Jesus was such a good salesman. He stepped up at a time there were so many problems in the world, and he offered a solution. If you can communicate your solution in a compelling way then that's even better!

Young people are probably more of a challenge because they are more focused on enjoying the moment rather than on thinking where all of their actions can lead. The teen that starts off smoking/drinking at a young age doesn't have a care in the world of the potential negative health effects when he gets in his 40's and 50's. We have to first get these kids thinking long term and not just short term. Just my two cents.

 

[Scooter]

I think the biggest hit that Christianity has taken is from science and on social issues, especially issues involving LGBT. In many cases, science has shown that the Christian beliefs are wrong on the origin of the Universe and on various issues relating to LGBT.

I couldn’t disagree more. Neither science nor any other discipline has shown the Bible wrong on any issue. In fact, creation is the strongest evidence for God. Life cannot come from non-life. For every effect there is a cause. And God is the cause for creation. If the Big Bang is true, something had to cause the bang. Even a stick of dynamite will not explode on its own. Something has to set it off.

As far as the LGBT movement is concerned, homosexuality is a choice people make. Science has never produced a gay gene that would prove people are born gay. Science fails to support homosexuality as anything other than a choice.

So the issue then is young people are being taught these falsehoods instead of the truth. They are being indoctrinated instead of educated. Why trust the Bible when the professor gives “evidence” that the Bible is wrong? The truth is the professor is being deceitful and leading many young people astray. Evidence does not teach nor suggest anything. It is man’s interpretation of the evidence that suggests certain positions.

 

[AgnosticBoy]

Life cannot come from non-life. For every effect there is a cause.

Agreed. Scientists do not claim to know how life came about, but so far they only explain how it evolved.

The conflict with the Bible has to do with young Earth creationism - a 6 day creation.

Science has never produced a gay gene that would prove people are born gay.

Agreed. There is no gay gene. The problem Christianity has with homosexuality is that it seems to have no effective way of dealing with it. Gay conversion therapies are ineffective, and even dangerous in some cases. It seems that homosexuality persists despite Christian intervention.

So the issue then is young people are being taught these falsehoods instead of the truth. They are being indoctrinated instead of educated. Why trust the Bible when the professor gives “evidence” that the Bible is wrong?

Agreed. Too much indoctrination. And I actually believe the Bible can be taught, at least a brief history, and anything more should be optional, or as part of an elective class.

I covered this elsewhere, as well ...

Indoctrination vs. Educating

Lately, there has been a big deal made about what schoolchildren are being taught when it comes to social issues in the classroom. Teaching critical race theory in schools was a point of contention, but an even more recent issue has involved teaching gender identity. I think most would agree...

theagnosticforum.com

 

[Scooter]

Agreed. Scientists do not claim to know how life came about, but so far they only explain how it evolved.

The conflict with the Bible has to do with young Earth creationism - a 6 day creation.

There is no such thing as evolution. Evolution has become the greatest hoax played on mankind. Animals do not evolve, plants do not evolve, people do not evolve. Evolution has never been observed.

As far as the 6 days of creation goes, how old was Adam the day after he was created by God? He was one day old, but he was an adult. If God could create a one day old adult, why couldn’t He create a ten million year old universe in a day? There’s also another possibility. It’s called the Gap Theory. The Gap Theory proposes that there is a gap of undetermined time between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2. It is during this gap of time Satan rebelled against God and caused Him to destroy the world. If you look at verse 1 it says In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Then verse 2 says the earth was without form and void. Some theologians doubt that God would create the earth without form.

 

[AgnosticBoy]

There is no such thing as evolution. Evolution has become the greatest hoax played on mankind. Animals do not evolve, plants do not evolve, people do not evolve. Evolution has never been observed.

As far as the 6 days of creation goes, how old was Adam the day after he was created by God? He was one day old, but he was an adult. If God could create a one day old adult, why couldn’t He create a ten million year old universe in a day? There’s also another possibility. It’s called the Gap Theory. The Gap Theory proposes that there is a gap of undetermined time between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2. It is during this gap of time Satan rebelled against God and caused Him to destroy the world. If you look at verse 1 it says In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Then verse 2 says the earth was without form and void. Some theologians doubt that God would create the earth without form.

In my view, your perspective would not be a good way of reaching non-believers that are scientifically-minded or even those that rely on good evidence. I'm mostly referring to your points about evolution and any support for a 6 day creation period. Many debates on these topics tend to boil down to the quality of evidence, and scientific evidence is the best we have.

Historically speaking, the Museum of Natural History hosted a debate in the 19th century that was on evolution via natural selection. It was known as the Great Debate, and it was between Thomas Huxley (accepted evolution) and a the Christian bishop named Samuel Wilberforce. Many believe that Huxley's performance helped propel evolution into the spotlight of science, and now we know end result... evolution is now widely accepted by scientists as a scientifically valid theory.

Huxley was a brilliant young scientist who had studied invertebrate fossils, apes and humans. As one of Darwin's closest associates – he was later nicknamed 'Darwin's bulldog' – Huxley was among the few people to know about the ideas presented in On the Origin of Species ahead of its publication.

As Bishop of Oxford, Samuel Wilberforce had reached the pinnacle of a highly successful career in the Church of England. Renowned as an eloquent and influential speaker, Wilberforce also had a first-class degree in mathematics and was a Fellow of the Royal Society. In the debate, he threw the full force of his theological training into upholding the idea of biblical creation, refuting Darwin's picture of evolution through natural selection.

This 'Great Debate' was a dramatic event occurring right at the beginning of the Museum's history, and one that marked a key moment in the development of modern evolutionary science.

Source: https://oumnh.ox.ac.uk/great-debate

 

[Scooter]

While there is ample evidence for Biblical authority, Christianity is faith based and not evidence based. Believers walk by faith and not by sight. No where are believers instructed to prove Christianity through evidence. We are simply to present the gospel and let people decide for themselves. If they demand specific evidence to satisfy their curiosity they will never believe. However once a person does believe they will see all the evidence as plain as day.

Just because someone is a good debater or orator does not mean they are correct. So regardless of who “won” the debate of evolution vs. creation, evolution takes more faith to believe than creation. There is simply no evidence to support evolution.

 

[AgnosticBoy]

For any Christian members... how would you explain to someone that they should stop committing adultery because the Bible says so? If you can think of the difficulties involved with that given the standards of today, then you will get the point of this thread. I would imagine that trying to explain that to a non-believer would first get a response of why should I follow what the Bible says (it's outdated, etc...).