The coming evangelical collapse in America

Nietzsche was the first of a long line to point out that literal religious thought was collapsing, the problem being that nihilism was the likely result, already obvious to him in the 1880s.

Jung dealt with this problem extensively, as did Gurdjieff.

When a literal belief dies, it takes a while for the metaphorical truth that actually sustained the belief to filter up.

In the meantime, the newborn rationalist succumbs to "rationalism", resisting any spiritual or even objective interpretation of the meaning of being in the world.

You see this in deconstructionism.

"I'd risk change. Because we've all suffered enough from not only Evangelism, but organised religion as a whole.."

I agree wholeheartedly, Fripouille. There are two risks that I have been through. The first was to abandon the faith and the second was to abandon the abandonment and find out that religious feeling and thought come out of something valid and get "literalized" because that is the level that the people were on, for the most part, at that time and in times after that.

"So religion will never disappear, but probably find it's natural level of power and influence in an increasingly enlightened 21st Century."

Good comment, Zeet. 

The Jung book that deal with this and politics is called The Undiscovered Self. He felt that only about 40% of people were mentally healthy, and that what he called "creeds" had substituted themselves for religion of a deeper nature.

When religions fail, the state takes on religous meaning, and not just temporal meaning. The the president is not just a civl ruler, but something like an ancient high priest.

You're a clever man, Roy.
Yet:
"He felt that only about 40% of people were mentally healthy"

Surely that percentage is too low!
I should know, being totally crazy myself...

:)

Well, I was raised in a working class neighborhood in a middle class family where my father put himself through law school and I have been a student in catholic school and Quaker school.

My thought on getting to the private school was that the level of insanity in highly educated people was actually greater. Working class people said more things that were just plain dumb and when they got crazy, they were crazier, but the intellectual class is actually more out of line, more presumptuous, more anti-"Carla Bruni", the real feminine, in the end as their conscious minds have taken over and lack balance.

Ordinary people know that they cannot understand everything, while I watch the History Channel and see some physicist in full possession by his intellectualism say that they are going to discover a parallel universe and understand where we all came from !! INCREDIBLE AND INSANE!!

I don't know what the percentage is, but he based it on plebiscites reported voting patterns. Too low? Should we postulate 50%? Whatever it is, a sizable percentage of people, at least one third, have major problems which appear more normal than they should because of the frequency of the disorder.

Once I left my sibling off at a party of rich kids and Iwas told afterward that they got high and then sat around and cried for hours.

That and the number of people on anti-depressants should tell you something. Evangelicals and people who think Obama is the savior, also belong on the list of  "not in the 40 %".

See? I knew it. I'm insane...

More like "crazy like a fox".

Thanks for the story.  The number of Children who will embrace the Christian faith  is diminishing rapidly.  Groups like http://battlecry.com/ and others are addressing the spiritual decline in America.  Faith  was encouraged by Americas founding fathers

Great comments here. I learned about what spirituality really is in a 12 step program. . it has elements of esoteric Christianity. T V Evangelism is not what many Christians are about either. I do see the end for I knew that the whole truth of mental health could not be received from legalistic Christians. Woe to them!!! True Christianity is an internal job not external. One in my opinion cannot become one until they enter the second half of life. I agree with Roy on this one and also studied Jung. I personally found Strategies for a loss of Faith a great companion thru my time of disconnection from dogma. We have so much to learn about our selves. Man / woman is not that evolved spiritually. We can do the moon thing but have no idea what is truly inside us...the job of developing our true selves.

Evangelists scare the shit out of me. They're religious extremists. I just started watching Jesus Camp, I couldn't get through the first 10 minutes. I'm going to have nightmares. I do not subscribe to any religion but I have the ability to respect my fellow human beings and their beliefs. However, there's something about Evangelists that prohibit that ability and send me into spell of disbelief and fear that these people actually exist. 

I for one have listened to the lies and fear evangelicals have pumped down our throats long enough.  To be sure, the anti homosexual main theme has turned Gods words into pure hatred and intolerance.  I look foward to the complete collapse of christianity for it is nothing more than a book wrote by men, about a man, for man to follow.  It is fake.  Thank the creator for this evil system to finally die!