# Do you think Christianity will exist in 100 years?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-christianity-will-exist-in-100-years/123647
**Category:** Great Debates
**Created:** [August 13, 2002, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-christianity-will-exist-in-100-years/123647 "2002-08-13T06:33:12Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Meatros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meatros)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2002, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-christianity-will-exist-in-100-years/123647/21 "2002-08-14T01:07:28Z")
What’s more Apos is that for the most part, people who predict the future are wrong.
Well with the exception of nostradamus… He’s predicted everything in the last few years, and been right. From the WTC to the troubled ballots, the end of the world in the 90’s to just about anything making the news today.
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### Author:  [@Hamish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamish)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2002, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-christianity-will-exist-in-100-years/123647/22 "2002-08-14T02:13:36Z")
It’s impossible to know these for sure, but I’m going to guess “yes.”
Christianity’s popularity in the West has been fluctuating – there has been a general decline in its popularity here over the last fifty years. And fewer people who consider themselves Christians go to Church.
But in the non-Western world, its popularity has been _increasing_ in that time (my cite for this, unfortunately, is a _Harper’s_ article from a few months back that _Harper’s_ has not put online). So Christianity isn’t so much dying as shifting from one civilization to several others.
I doubt Christianity will vanish entirely from the world. Not in 100 years at least. My best guess is that it will eventually become a minority religion in the West, though.
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### Author:  [@Montezuma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Montezuma)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2002, 9:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-christianity-will-exist-in-100-years/123647/23 "2002-08-14T09:47:12Z")
If it becomes a minority religion then what will replace it? Atheism?
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### Author:  [@WV\_Woman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WV_Woman)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2002, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-christianity-will-exist-in-100-years/123647/24 "2002-08-14T11:29:13Z")
I never said that anyone is out to get me, and I have no idea what you’re talking about with this whole CNN thing.
My opinion is based on prophecies in the Bible. (Yes, the rapture, then the tribulation, etc.) Hence why I don’t think we’ll be here in 100 years.
\*\*I also think (and hope) that more Christians will turn away from Creationism \*\*
So we’re supposed to be Christians, but completely disregard what the Bible says about the creation?
**I think Christianity will be around but it will be much, much less socially acceptable than it currently is.**
**And how is being a Christian in any way "less socially acceptable?**
I think the sentence I wrote was pretty clear that Christianity is pretty much socially acceptable right now.
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### Author:  [@Apos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apos)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2002, 11:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-christianity-will-exist-in-100-years/123647/25 "2002-08-14T11:33:51Z")
—Well with the exception of nostradamus… He’s predicted everything in the last few years, and been right. From the WTC to the troubled ballots, the end of the world in the 90’s to just about anything making the news today.—
You’re joking, right?
—If it becomes a minority religion then what will replace it? Atheism?—
Atheism is not a religion, and thus not a “replacement.”
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### Author:  [@RexDart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RexDart)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2002, 11:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-christianity-will-exist-in-100-years/123647/26 "2002-08-14T11:40:35Z")
I think we’re trending towards these garbage new-age generic spiritualism fads. I imagine that could get stronger over 100 years…or, there could be yet another period of religious revival and Christianity might grow stronger. Forces have been secularizing people over the last few centuries, but those forces seem to have gained little ground, which I consider rather odd. I can easily see lots of people going back to Christianity in the future just to avoid being like the new-agers. In other words, if Christianity ever becomes a real minority in this country, people might be attracted to it as a way to stand out.
Of course, if this whole “god module” thing is true (and mind you, I know absolutely nothing about neuroscience), then I guess theistic religion has a chance to live forever in one form or another.
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### Author:  [@BlackKnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlackKnight)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2002, 11:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-christianity-will-exist-in-100-years/123647/27 "2002-08-14T11:59:39Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by WV\_Woman \*
> **So we’re supposed to be Christians, but completely disregard what the Bible says about the creation?**
I hope you would do so. This shouldn’t be a problem unless one is more a Bibliolater than a Christian.
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### Author:  [@Aquarius\_guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aquarius_guy)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2002, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-christianity-will-exist-in-100-years/123647/28 "2002-08-14T12:27:58Z")
I think that creationism is more of an explination to a people who at the time understood nothing of evolution. Of course God created us, but he did it in a way we would understand - by making a bunch of organic soup then setting life to evolve into what it is today. (Humanity is really a big game of Sims for God)
I agree with RexDart, eventually we will have a generation rebelling against the “New Age” religions of their parents and turn to old school Chrisitanity.
But then again, this is my first post.
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### Author:  [@Apos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apos)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2002, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-christianity-will-exist-in-100-years/123647/29 "2002-08-14T12:40:48Z")
—I agree with RexDart, eventually we will have a generation rebelling against the “New Age” religions of their parents and turn to old school Chrisitanity.—
Which, chances are, will actually be nothing like “old school Christianity” but rather an entirely new variant. 🙂
—Of course, if this whole “god module” thing is true (and mind you, I know absolutely nothing about neuroscience), then I guess theistic religion has a chance to live forever in one form or another.—
It’s a little misleading of them to refer to it as a “god module,” since it’s use in the brain appears to be the same whether a person associates the experiences it creates with a god or not (some do, some don’t, usually just applying their beliefs to interpret it). It is better described when reffered to as the “mystical experience” module, because Eastern atheist religions make use of it as well.
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### Author:  [@Mars\_Horizon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mars_Horizon)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2002, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-christianity-will-exist-in-100-years/123647/30 "2002-08-14T13:03:41Z")
Something I thought of while pondering this thread last night.
The baby boomers are in their 40’s and 50’s now. IIRC, they comprise a large percentage of the American population. As they age and begin to seriously consider their own mortality (who was it that said “anyone over the age of 40 is preoccupied with their own death”?) I think they will turn back to religion in greater numbers. I think there will be a resurgence of Christianity in America in the coming years, but since the boomers are used to questioning everything they’re told and _generally_ not responding to Arguments from Authority, how this turns out remains to be seen.
To specifically answer the OP, I am certain some flavor of Christianity will be around for many years to come. What will change is that as we become more and more able to explain the world around us without requiring a god hypothesis, the portions of Christianity which can best be described as “superstitions” will begin to recede into the background. I would expect more emphasis on loving one’s neighbor, being compassionate and promoting justice, and less emphasis on the supposed literal truth of the events described in the Bible. I see modern fundamentalism (in all religions) as the last dying gasp of a failed ideology.
I **hope** that Christianity turns out like that promoted by our own \*\*Polycarp, Mangetout, \*\*and **Libertarian** , etc. [sub]apologies to anyone I missed[/sub]
IMHO. YMMV. IANAC.
**Mars**
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### Author:  [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2002, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-christianity-will-exist-in-100-years/123647/31 "2002-08-14T15:10:30Z")
> [@](#):
>
> Christian: Any time now, they will see that Jesus is Lord, and they will all convert. Only a matter of time now.
I can’tm speak for any Atheists, but I assure you, if we thought it was merely a matter of time, we would not try and teach people about His Holy Word.
In any event, it is not needed to believe in Jesus, but to follow his Truth. After death, 'twill be more of a "Well, there was a God after all,"deal. They you get to go to Heaven.
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### Author:  [@RexDart](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RexDart)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2002, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-christianity-will-exist-in-100-years/123647/32 "2002-08-14T15:37:08Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Aquarius\_guy \*
> \*\*I agree with RexDart, eventually we will have a generation rebelling against the “New Age” religions of their parents and turn to old school Chrisitanity.
>
> But then again, this is my first post. \*\*
Well, I gotta like somebody who uses his first post to agree with yours truly, but that’s just my arrogance shining through 🙂
Following up on **Apos** and **Mars Horizon** ’s ideas, I think the Christianity people return to in the future (if they do so) may indeed be quite different. Most of the people in the flower-child baby boomer generation that I talk with have a more loose-fitting idea of god and Christ than I think has been the norm in Christianity previously. It’s been my experience, and this is purely anecdotal, that they often reject the concept of hell, talk in generalities about Jesus being a “good person” with “important moral lessons”, and speak vaguely about god. Sort of a noncommittal, Lisa Simpson type: “I still believe in a god, but I think there is another path to him…or her.”
Possibly, if the baby boomers return to the Christian religion, they’ll bring their distrust of dogmatism with them and an infusion of new age pseudo-spiritualism. The positive effects might be more tolerance within religion, for those of you who are always expressing your wish the church would change in that way. The negative effect would be that philosophy and theology, the intellectual side of religion, might erode into an emotional mush.
All speculation at this point, but I don’t figure I’ll live more than another 40 years or so and speculate is all I’ll be able to do about a world a century in the future.
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### Author:  [@Apos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apos)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2002, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-christianity-will-exist-in-100-years/123647/33 "2002-08-14T15:47:23Z")
My reason for thinking the theology will change is simply because different things appeal to different people at different times. Especially as our knowledge of the world around us changes, theology will evolve with it, finding new footholds and arguements.
Look, for instance, at the effect the romantic period had on the popular image of god. Or the popularity of Greek reason on theologians like Aquinas and others. If there has been any direction to it, it has been to become more abstract and universalized, and at the same time more personal.
Could anyone have imagined Tillich, or Spong, 100 years ago? Can we imagine what sort of theology we might see 100 years from now?
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### Author:  [@WV\_Woman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WV_Woman)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2002, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-christianity-will-exist-in-100-years/123647/34 "2002-08-14T16:59:49Z")
**In any event, it is not needed to believe in Jesus**
Where do you get this idea? If this is your own idea, fine, but that is not what the book says.
The Bible makes it clear that you have to call upon the name of Jesus to save you. How can you call upon a person for salvation if you don’t even believe they exist?
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### Author:  [@Hamish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamish)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2002, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-christianity-will-exist-in-100-years/123647/35 "2002-08-14T18:17:33Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Apos \*
> \*\*—If it becomes a minority religion then what will replace it? Atheism?—
>
> Atheism is not a religion, and thus not a “replacement.” \*\*
That’s another debate. For my part, I think it’s just cumbersome to talk of “religions, agnosticism, and atheism.” Refering to all these worldviews as “religions” is useful shorthand.
To answer **Montezuma** ’s question, there is some indication that atheism and agnosticism are becoming more popular in the United States. [This month’s “Harper’s Index”](http://www.harpers.org/harpers-index/listing.php3) notes that the number of Americans professing “no religion” were the fifth largest “religious grouping” in the US in 1990. They are the third largest now. The index does not indicate which “religious groupings” were in the first and second places.
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### Author:  [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2002, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-christianity-will-exist-in-100-years/123647/36 "2002-08-14T18:24:48Z")
Some people have called my Christianity “renegade” despite that my views are actually founded on fairly literal (if innovative) interpretations of the gospel and epistles of John. What some of you are saying, it seems to me, is that you see Christianity becoming more “Johnish” in the coming years.
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### Author:  [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2002, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-christianity-will-exist-in-100-years/123647/37 "2002-08-14T18:53:17Z")
Hamish
> [@](#):
>
> To answer Montezuma’s question, there is some indication that atheism and agnosticism are becoming more popular in the United States. This month’s “Harper’s Index” notes that the number of Americans professing “no religion” were the fifth largest “religious grouping” in the US in 1990. They are the third largest now. The index does not indicate which “religious groupings” were in the first and second places.
Gah. That’s so obviously bogus that I had to check your link for myself since I couldn’t believe my eyes. Sure enough, Harper’s says:
> [@](#):
>
> Number of Americans who professed no religion in 1990 as ranked among the largest U.S. religious groupings that year : 5
>
> Rank today : 3
And that’s just about the sloppiest, most egregious, and most irresponsible reporting about The Graduate School and University Center’s [American Religious Identification Survey](http://www.gc.cuny.edu/studies/key_findings.htm) that I believe I have seen to date. If you look at the notes for Exhibit 1 of that survey, it says of the 27+ million under the heading “No Religion”:
> [@](#):
>
> the greatest increase in absolute as well as in percentage terms has been among those adults who do not subscribe to any religious **identification** ; their number has more than doubled from 14.3 million in 1990 to 29.4 million in 2001; their proportion has grown from just eight percent of the total in 1990 to over fourteen percent in 2001
(Emphasis mine.) That group would include me. It’s not people who don’t believe in God, but people who don’t like being tagged. It’s about _groups_. Note that the atheists, agnostics, humanists, and secularists put together don’t total one percent. There are about as many atheists in the U.S. as there are Hindus.
There is in fact no evidence that atheism is becoming more popular, and agnosticism fell from 1,186,000 to 991,000.
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### Author:  [@Mars\_Horizon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mars_Horizon)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2002, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-christianity-will-exist-in-100-years/123647/38 "2002-08-14T18:57:44Z")
Lib,
Can you explain “Johnish” in more detail please? What does a “Johnish Christianity” look like?
Thanks,
Mars
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### Author:  [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2002, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-christianity-will-exist-in-100-years/123647/39 "2002-08-14T20:05:00Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Lord Ashtar \*
> \*\*Atheist: Any time now, they will all see that religion is a mass brainwashing tactic, and they will all renounce their faith. Only a matter of time now. \*\*
I’m an atheist, and I firmly believe that Christianity – and religious belief in general – is here to stay for a long, long time. It’s just too convenient and useful in terms of how it provides answers to Big Scary Questions that otherwise defy proof and/or analysis. “What happens after we die?” Nobody really knows, not absolutely for certain, and trying to imagine a reality without one’s consciousness – that is, to project forward to think about a world that lacks one’s ability to think about it – is basically impossible. So why not replace one apparent impossibility with another?
In my experience, people would much rather have an answer, any answer, than no explanation at all, even if the answer doesn’t really make any rational sense. It’s this quality of human thought that allows con artists like John Edward to prey on the emotionally weak. I don’t mean to suggest that religious people are fools; it’s too common an aspect of human existence to be dismissed so glibly. Rather, it seems clear that religion addresses a major source of fear and insecurity, and thus, being so useful to maintaining order and sanity, its survival is assured.
Oh, and **WV\_Woman** ’s assertion that future Christians will be forced to set up shop two caves away from the Morlocks is so ludicrous as to be unworthy of serious debate.
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### Author:  [@pldennison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pldennison)
#### Post date: [August 14, 2002, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-think-christianity-will-exist-in-100-years/123647/40 "2002-08-14T20:50:34Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by WV\_Woman \*
> \*\*My opinion is based on prophecies in the Bible. (Yes, the rapture, then the tribulation, etc.) Hence why I don’t think we’ll be here in 100 years. \*\*
Based on the outcome of prior predictions regarding an imminent Second Coming/Rapture/Tribulation, I’m prepared to wager a substantial amount of money on this, if you’re interested.
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