The Success of Christianity in Modern Culture
Presented by Robert Collins, PhD, President of the Psychological Services Center, University of Michigan ,Kent State, University of Indiana
About the Speaker
Dr. Collins has degrees from the University of Michigan (B.A.-Psychology), Kent State University (M.A.-Psychology), and Indiana University (Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology, an American Psychological Association Approved Program). He was on the faculty of Grand Valley State University from 1969-1981 and in this time period was invited to the University of Western Australia in a suburb of Perth, Australia for one academic year as a Distinguished Visiting Professor. He toured Australia in 1976 giving a variety of talks, including one given to the medical staff at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne, Australia. Dr. Collins retired as President of the Psychological Services Center, LC on April 30, 2002 with offices in Grand Haven, Muskegon, and Holland, MI on “The Lakeshore” (Lake Michigan) of Western Michigan. He is operating Soiling Solutions from his home.
About the Event
Announcements
Our current, corrected and updated, schedule of events and topics is as follows:
JULY 10: “Socialism vs. Capitalism”, to be presented by Frank Girard.
JULY 13: ANNUAL FREETHOUGHT PICNIC. This will be at Hagar Park on 28th Ave. in Jenison; Maplewood Pavilion, starting at 12 noon. Bring a dish to pass, table service and beverage. Don H. will provide maps to the park at the next (July 10) meeting.
JULY 20: Adopt-A-Highway Cleanup. This is a Saturday and we meet at 10AM at the Citgo station on Plainfield between 5 Mile and the E. Beltline.
JULY 24: “The Federal Reserve Bank”, presented by Dennis Murphy. This date was incorrectly shown as the 28th in the bulletin.
AUGUST 14: “The Neurological Basis of Consciousness”, presented by Dr. Herman Sullivan.
AUGUST 28: “Meditation for Heretics”, presented by Steve Anderson.
SEPTEMBER 11: “Einstein’s Humanism”, presented by Geophri Saint.
SEPTEMBER 21: Adopt-A-Highway Cleanup. 10AM, Saturday, at the Citgo (see July 20 information).
SEPTEMBER 25: “An Evolutionary Approach to Critical Thinking”, to be presented by Ron Palmer. This topic is newly added to the schedule.
OCTOBER 9: “The Science of Chiropractic”, to be presented by Dr. Bryan Mikula.
OCTOBER 23: “Nuclear Disarmament & International Law” (tentative title), to be presented by Kary Love, Attorney specializing in civil rights. This is a new addition to our schedule of topics.
Note that all regular meetings start at 7PM and fall on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month. See our website for additional information: http://www.cfimichigan.org.
It was noted that the U.S. Appellate Court in San Francisco, CA determined that the phrase “under God” as appearing in the American “Pledge of Allegiance” is unconstitutional. This is, however, a tentative progressive step forward for State- Church Separationists and unlikely to hold up, even though technically the court’s determination is accurate.
Presentation
Our topic for this meeting was to have been “Skepticism & Wishful Thinking” but its presenter had a last minute conflict so was not able to attend. In his place, Jeff Seaver and Dr. Robert Collins put together, on very short notice, a tandem presentation they titled “The Success of Christianity in Modern Culture.”
At the outset it was noted that, as secularists, we tend to find a great deal of fault with many religious traditions, especially those with an evangelical approach such as Christianity. We are quite good at poking holes in scriptural fallacies, criticizing biblical doctrines and Church dogma and seeing the problems that much of organized religion has wrought upon the societies they are ensconced in. But this meeting’s tack was to look at what Christianity is doing right, how it remains successful, and the positive contributions that this religion has made. It was also mentioned, by way of introduction, that when viewed historically, there is a very dark past that abides in the wake of Christianity, so this topic takes as its general timeframe, the modern era, for investigation and discussion.
Our presenters additionally had us look, conversely, at what secularists may not be doing so well and whether or not we are living up to our ideals to make a positive contribution to society. We made a distinction, early on in this discussion between mainstream Christianity and its Fundamentalist component; the latter being a more visible “Straw Man”, easy to attack out of hand.
We began by talking about educational institutions that were founded by Christian groups, medical missionaries and universities that had a good compatibility with science and secular involvements. Going back further, we looked at how religions are the general repositories of a culture’s knowledge and talked about the “natural theologians” and others who saw the signature and glory of God in what His handiwork: Nature, could tell us by naturalistic investigation. It was impossible to examine these issues, however, and not make the point that the Crusades, and other religiously- motivated acts, great and small, had destroyed much of accumulated knowledge over and again—Islam, once the envy of the world in some aspects of science; the Library of Alexandria, and the progress retarding approach of Christianity in trying to reconcile natural and scientific findings with biblical myths such as the Noachian Flood, a literal Adam and Eve, humanity as a “special creation” and so on, as just a few examples. It was also noted that even now, universities with a Christian backing have to toe a certain line and those academicians who fall outside the accepted boundaries, face firing.
We discussed how sources of funding for institutions of higher learning have gone, over time, from churches to businesses and that the resulting secularizing of these institutions is more a result of drifting toward the business funding rather than an actual pulling away from religion.
In discussing medicine, it was mentioned that religious ideals butt up against practical realities; medicine works on the bodies it is administered to, no matter if they be infidel, Muslim, Christian, or Hindu whereas beseeching one particular religious group’s deity or savior has little demonstrated efficacy. One member said that Christianity has mostly hindered healthcare.
We talked about the voucher system, and a recent win for proponents of this entangling of State and Church as well as private and public monies, in Ohio. In this light we looked at the ongoing thrust of Christianity to control public education and shape it to its ends. This led us to noting that religiously funded institutions and charities never operate without “strings attached.” Whether it is seeking conversion or participation into a religious practice before offering a meal or making certain that the philosophy of an educational system follows the doctrines and stays within the boundaries of the funding religious institution, controlling reins are placed upon the offerings.
As to its success, it was mentioned that Christianity and religions in general are a good fit for followers and most people are followers, like easy answers, comforting stories, and will readily offer up their independence of mind and action upon the altar of dogma and doctrine. Religious people are statistically greater financial givers to charities, but, as was noted, religion has entire institutions established for a more ritualized tithing and offering of money. Then there is the guilt factor. The non-religious have no carrot and stick of reward and punishment to grease the wheels of giving. Secular institutions that get more non-theist dollars are not, oftentimes as well promoted. It was further noted that freethinkers are by nature not the types to gather, en masse, behind any particular institution (charitable or otherwise) in a lockstep, reliable fashion. Jeff mentioned how trying to do so was “like herding cats.” This idea was also given as to why there can be dozens of Christian groups on a college campus and at most one fledgling freethought one. Christianity lends social, cultural and community- building aspects to the adherent and an established place to meet and ritualized reasons to gather. And it was noted, the non-religious are not prone to proselytizing and recruitment. Gone are the thumbscrews and stake as tools for conversion, but other strong tactics abide. No one comes to your door during dinner to tell you the “Good News” of atheism.
We got into the negative connotations for many regarding non-belief and the inevitable misconceptions freely bandied about. This makes it difficult for many people to know there even exists a viable, vibrant and positive alternative to the brand of religion they inherited, unquestioningly, from their family. Again, there was mention of the desire for certainty, a simpler black & white worldview and having others participate in one’s “rightness” as driving forces behind the success of organized religion.
We talked about how religiously- funded institutions in other countries differ from the US. An interesting side note to this was provided when one person said that in places where Church and State are more intermingled, the promotion and quality of the religion there is weaker, since they know they will still get state funding whereas here the clergy have to work harder for the dollars. Church attendance is far lower in most other countries, but when asked, most people in these countries will identify themselves with the dominant religion.
We ended up with talk going to politics and the similarities between big religion and big business and potentially same interests between government control and church authority. As this was edging quite close to themes to be discussed in our next meeting, we let it go before getting too far into these issues.
Secretary: Charles LaRue
