Did we change, or did the world change around us?

From: Chris Taylor (chris.taylor@ebi.ac.uk)
Date: Tue 17 Jan 2006 - 10:45:45 GMT

  • Next message: Tonie Putter: "Re: Did we change, or did the world change around us?"

    Okay so we have an interesting question arising imho:

    Once upon a long ago, each generation quite happily played host to the god/faith/belief memes of their parents/clerics/peers. Then, (around the 70s?) in the UK a new cohort appear with whom the general level of unquestioning acceptance drops more rapidly than previously (I tried to back this up with a graph or something but it is tricky without paying or spending more time than I have). Church attendance drops quicker than 'belief'
    (which is itself subdivisible) but undeniable God is on the ropes...

    So if the memes got less potent, is that the fault of the memes, or their environment? Did the world make tenets less tenable, or did the word somehow change?

    I'm sure this has been debated to death in evangelical circles but I wonder why it is that I was less prone, and what distinguishes me from those who still subscribe. I was treated to the full 'smells and bells' thing; no chunky jumpers and guitars. Same old wordings, blah blah. Retribution, fire etc. Point is almost as soon as I had critical faculties, I chopped it; and not just for a lie-in on a Sunday.

    I'd argue that however presented, the core material was inappropriate for me. Both itself degraded, and outcompeted (a double whammy, and I think that the latter would have been enough even without the former, although perhaps not vice versa). Loss of fitness per se, and niche competition...

    Prolly not the same for all. Do malls have an effect (too late to affect me -- everything was still shut on a Sunday when I was a lad, but maybe others)? Worshipping at Homebase, yet not struck down?

    Parallels with the gradual extinction of the dinosaurs (ignoring birds and misleading meteorites), or more like the diplacement of antipodean fauna by mammals?

    Cheers, Chris.

    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
      chris.taylor@ebi.ac.uk
      http://psidev.sf.net/
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