Reply #34: Fortunately, it isn't the whole of Christianity

[Dogmudgeon]

Popular belief in God and Jesus does not trouble me, and most mythologies are benign. That may be heretical of me to say in a forum of my fellow unbelievers, but I don't think those believers do much more than to go along with the program. It's that "program" that causes the trouble. There's a core of pathological, authoritarian Christianity that likes to set itself apart from its sane brethren, and it's got the whip hand.

A concentrated "assault" on those churches -- Fundamentalists, neo-Calvinists, Catholic traditionalists, LDS, and Branch Davidian clones -- could break the grip in a big hurry.

De-chuching society and restoring an authentic sense of spirituality will happen naturally, but not before the grip of fear is broken.

--d!