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Is doubt the biggest enemy of religious belief today?
I find many claims religions offer up as proofs for various phenomena, real and theoretical, to be dubious.
Are organizations such as the Catholic church having increasing difficulty attracting members due to the greater availability of information, thus sowing the seeds of doubt in the minds of potential parish participants?
13 Answers
- Anonymous1 decade agoFavorite Answer
yes..and satan does not help...the potential parish participants was in doubt in the first place to find themselves there..listening,and trying something...then satan comes in and you know the rest..Doubt..
- SldgmanLv 71 decade ago
The Catholic Church owns and oeprates many universities that are very active in scientific research. The Vatican owns and operates an observatory in the United States. The fathers of astonomy (Copernicus) and genetics (Mendel) were Catholic clergymen. The theory known as the Big Bang Theory was first postulated by a Catholic priest.
The biggest enemy of religion is apathy.
- skepsisLv 71 decade ago
Doubt is actually the greatest ally of faith. A faith that is constantly questioning itself in the light of experience, and has to constantly renew and refine its commitment, is a stronger faith.
The "faith" of certitude, the faith of "I know", the faith that never questions, never thinks, is a faith of denial and fear, ready to crumble all at once. It is a faith in icons, in superficiality, a belief THAT certain things happened long ago, not a belief IN ideas that can better the world here and now.
There will always be people who shrink away from life and cling to stories and legends for their own sake, and many churches are made of such people. These churches are stable because they are effectively dead, irrelevant to living. The harder churches to build are the ones that engage the world and figure out how to adapt the old stories and make them relevant to contemporary life. Such churches are alive and life is about change. For a zombie church, change is scary.
- Anonymous1 decade ago
It is the biggest ally...It is sloth that is the enemy. Doubt always goes somewhere. Sloth goes nowhere.
And the Catholic Church has had a positive increase in converts in the past few years. My parish is doing fabulously.
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- MistyLv 71 decade ago
Actually no. The Catholic Church has been growing and continues to grow today.
It's a smug and prideful idea that those who reject God and faith, are the progressive, evolved and informed while those who believe in God are ignorant and naive. Funny thing is, it is the other way around. Those who reject God and his Church aren't any more "progressed or informed" than those who rejected God and his Church 2000 years ago. They have the same excuses and reasons...not a lot has changed.
According to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University, the worldwide population of Catholics is as large as it ever has been and is still growing:
1970 = 653,600,000
1975 = 709,600,000
1980 = 783,700,000
1985 = 852,000,000
1990 = 928,500,000
1995 = 989,400,000
2000 = 1,045,000,000
2005 = 1,115,000,000
And in the U.S.:
1965 = 45,600,000
1975 = 48,700,000
1985 = 52,300,000
1995 = 57,400,000
2000 = 59,900,000
2005 = 64,800,000
- imacatholic2Lv 71 decade ago
I don't think so.
There seems to be just as much faith now as in the past.
According to the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate at Georgetown University, the worldwide population of Catholics is as large as it ever has been and is still growing:
1970 = 653,600,000
1975 = 709,600,000
1980 = 783,700,000
1985 = 852,000,000
1990 = 928,500,000
1995 = 989,400,000
2000 = 1,045,000,000
2005 = 1,115,000,000
And in the U.S.:
1965 = 45,600,000
1975 = 48,700,000
1985 = 52,300,000
1995 = 57,400,000
2000 = 59,900,000
2005 = 64,800,000
http://cara.georgetown.edu/bulletin/index.htm
=====
That said, I think the biggest enemy of religious faith today is ignorance. I continually find people who believe INCORRECTLY that the Catholic Church denies the theory of Evolution (she does not) or the Catholic Church hates homosexuals (she loves everyone).
With love in Christ.
- Zephyr~~~Lv 61 decade ago
Doubt forever lurks in the heart of the faithful believer...
This doubt is a healthy doubt as it forces one to question before blindly following!
Source(s): Each in their own individual capacity! - Anonymous1 decade ago
No.
Don't think so.
Look in the real world.
Decode this lyrics " Knowing me knowing you"
Self lack of knowledge and total loss of IQ .
With unruly behaviour, self prides, self rudeness, self discrimination as people of different races of self racism in running themselves out of town in time.
Luke 6.39-40,41-45,46-49
The church is only to help out the little ones in time.
Luke 10.21-22
Decode this lyrics " Heart of gold"
The grown up will have to continue and keep on learning from where they get off from the church to be a "Better man" in time.
Luke 21.30-33
What do you think?
Source(s): decoded from the missing x-files. - ?Lv 61 decade ago
Doubt, fueled by healthy skepticism and the growth of secular knowledge. And that's a GOOD thing.
- The PaulLv 51 decade ago
Information and education are the big enemies of faith.
And the people profiting from faith know that, and so they seek to suppress education and information.
