Future of Christianity

Christianity continues to enjoy support in the developing world, where education is minimal. It has a good side as well as bad side. Its advertisement of the good side makes it palatable to the general masses, of the developing countries. Its activities in the church are rather glamorous, to the materialistic mind. Yes though the poor have the right to go to heaven, and Jesus himself has been projected as poor (though I must say that there is a conflicting evidences here), the church and its acts inside it, are generally rich and the powerful priests are far from the servants Jesus asked his followers to become. This has also contributed positively to the un- inquiring mind. Its bad side can only be discerned by further study. While Christianity looks glamorous to begin with, partly because it is taken to be the religion of the glamorous west, it is not so attractive, on further study. Look at the comments of Mark Twain "It ain't the parts of the Bible I can't understand that bothers me; it is the parts I understand". Other great minds have commented similarly. Hinduism is the opposite; it is rather strange to the beginners but very attractive to the people who have studied it deeply.

Pope recently visited India, where he asked the Christians to harvest Asia. This was unexpected even for the local Christians, who were taken aback to the defence. To accept invitation to go to a friends house and then to say, in his face, that the philosophy/beliefs of the host, is wrong and stupid, and should change to his philosophy, needs a lot of guts. While everybody is talking about the challenge and all, can anybody see the pain, which has led the Pope to say what he has? Can anybody see the vanishing Catholic religion in the intellectual centre like Europe? Are the eastern philosophies creating havoc in Europe's intelligentsia? The question is, will Catholic religion vanish from the Europe? With only 50% of Christians believing in God, its future doesn’t seem to be so good. It is well known that the Pope is, very critical of Buddhist philosophy. The offence, which has come out, is because of fear. In the developing countries yes, Christianity is rising because of lack of education and hence conversion.

Talking about India, we have seen that despite the Indians being educated in missionary schools, the only thing the Christians could do was make them less Hindu. However Christianity has influenced the uneducated and the semi-educated group. These groups are the socially deprived. Christianity gives them materialistic gain and shows them the positive side of it, and makes a bargain for their conversion to Christianity. Putting things bluntly, the Christian is effectively making a bargain by saying "I give you the money and the service, you give me the religion" As the economic condition of these countries improves, we can expect less conversion. And of course the opposition from the local religious group is also very important. So long as Christians have money, and there remain underprivileged groups, in the third world, their number will increase. This is true in respect to Hindu and Buddhist areas, but to a very limited extent, in Muslim areas, because in that religion the punishment for conversion is death, in practice, in the modern world, however, it is social exclusion if one is in Islamic country.

I think, specially the Buddhist countries are at risk of Christian conversion, because the religious leaders there might not be aware of the result of conversion like Indians are. Here it has to be clearly mentioned that it is not the battle of philosophies, which decides the fate of religion in the developing countries, like the discussion between Adi Shankaracharya and the Buddhist gurus in the past, It is the economic gain. Christian leaders talk about the love of Jesus while cleverly avoiding the Biblical rules, which govern mankind. If the Christians in Europe can glamorise their religion by songs and dances and the so-called miracles, like in the USA, then yes, it can have a future in Europe. But without that, it is not going to be a smooth sailing for the Christians in Europe. The churches are lacking in the number of choirboys. In America one has to view as to when the Americans will be fed up with the TV rhetoric. Since it is being encroached by other religions, it does not hold a very bright future, especially from the point of view that the white Americans have started thinking that they are loosing.

Important thing is, Christian religion has rules, associated with its dogma. Many Christians do not know what is written in the Bible. As told, they know only about love and Jesus. People in the modern world don't like to stick to rules. They like the freedom of creating their own rules. The development of hundreds of sects is the result of modification and creation of new rules. It is a process of creating a new religion, with the same old Jesus/God, or the one, which is available, which is essential for religion.

In the modern times, because of communication, CHEAP LABOUR, if associated with stable government and proper incentive for business and industry, is the biggest resource. This attracts multinational companies. A country does not essentially need gold mine etc. as resources, to attract foreign investors, as in the past. Because of growth of industry, poor countries will develop. Once countries develop and the level of education rises, the pattern of thinking will be that of Europeans. This is not good for Christianity. Since the Catholic religion does not want to change its rules, it takes with it all the controversy. This is not good for the European Christianity vis a vis the modern world. It may have some extra followers in the developing world for the time being, its future in the developed world in the long run is not good. However, evangelical religion, the American Christianity, will prosper so long as America follows that religion. Since North America is being eaten up by other religions, even the American Christianity may not survive long. Yes Christianity has a good hold in South America and parts of Africa, but this may change, if things change in America. It has to be understood here that USA is the world leader, in almost every branch of knowledge. It is in many ways, the centre of philosophy. If another religion overtakes Christianity, in USA, it will be the gold standard and glamorous. Its philosophy will be the overriding factor in the world philosophy and the other countries including South America will simply follow the glamour. In view of USA, I think it is important to touch briefly, the fastest growing religion in USA today i.e. Islam- Yes Islam is said to be the fastest growing religion in the USA.

It is difficult to say the quality of converts, whether most of the converts are from the intellectual group, like the doctors, lawyers etc or from the not so intellectual group like labourers, convicts etc. However a recent incident in Pakistan does point to the lack of respect by the Muslims, for the Islamic philosophy. A judge decided, according to Islamic religious philosophy (eye for an eye), to give cruel death sentence to the person who killed several children. But the Government and the intellectuals in Pakistan (who are western educated) felt embarrassed about the decision, just before President Clinton's visit. This sort of attitude of Muslim intellectuals, does not allow Islam to ripen as an intellectual philosophy of the world, because, if the people who are supposed to follow the philosophy are not proud of it then, it is unlikely, that philosophy will be respected and adhered to, by others. Truly Islamic countries like Afghanistan and Iran have not been able to gather respect from the intellectuals. Some Muslims do not consider even Iran and Afghanistan, to be truly Islamic, which makes it difficult to study the civilisation, which is purely Islamic, for comparison. The victory of progressive forces in Iran is not good for Islam. There are 5 major enemies of Islam 1. Growing number of writers are coming out of fear and writing books criticising Islam 2. Growing number of western educated Muslim women, especially from Iran and Afghanistan, are criticising the status of woman in Islam. 3. Lack of respect of Islam by western educated Muslims as stated above. 4. Lack of unity amongst Muslim factions and leaders (Shia and Sunni as well as others) and the difficulty in selecting a Khalipha. 5. Internet- there is a fight going on between Christianity and Islam in the Internet -one showing the weaknesses of the other. The humanist sites are particularly critical of Islam. Since modern civilisation and Islamic civilisations are different and because of the fact that most of the Internet users are influenced by the western civilisation and have a western view of things the Islamic world does face difficulty in explaining the people the Islamic rationale. While criticising Islam is prohibited in the Islamic countries, perhaps this is the first time the Muslims have had to face such criticisms openly in the Internet. This is why; Islam may have increase in number of its followers, but may not be a world guiding intellectual religion.

In view of the above factors, I do not see a very favourable future for Christianity; especially the European Christianity, but I do see a bright future for Hinduism. I therefore will not be surprised, to see Indian philosophy, guiding the modern world, in the later part of this century.