The fall of Christianity?

There have been a few comments on Christianity in relation to Muslim fundamentalism recently. How Christians need to be proud, speak up and not be intimidated. David Cameron, Tony Blair and now Dominic Grieve is chipping in. They see the threat from the Middle East and it spreading out around the world with an anti-Christian mantra.

What has put Christianity on the backfoot?

In one word the answer is, education!

While the elite of the world have received an education, for many centuries, (mainly in the classics; reading, writing, basic mathematics, history, Latin, military stratergy) formal education for the masses didn't arrive until the industrial revolution, when the populations of predominantly Christian nations needed to be educated to operate, build and maintain machines. This education became more science based. It wanted questioning, so that new hypothesis could be created. It wanted cause and effect evidenced proof of these hypotheses, to ensure they were real, repeatable and could improve industry's output with better products and better machines.

The trouble for Christianity and most religions in industrialised countries is the questioning/proof based education gives rise to knowledge and understanding which erodes belief in an all powerful being, which most religions are based on. This has been a slow process over 100+ years. It has resulted in an increasing number of agnostics and atheists in these societies. Even those that may say they are Christians, are at some other level. They were baptised or they. live by the morel code, rather than believe in the existence of Christ.

Industry has been driven by competition and business rules and goals that have become their own religion, with business gurus the new spiritual guids. Everyone for themselves and survival of the fittest have become the dominant faces of businesses. 

Science and research has become another religion, with maybe some morel code for benefitting humanity, but often with profit, or at least prestige and status, as the driver. 

These business and science drivers and goals have made education valuable as an output of industrial societies independent of the products they produce. Education leads to innovation, new products, new discoveries and can be summed up in the phrase "competitive advantage". This advantage is so great that manufacturing is done outside the original industrial societies, but education (especially higher education) and knowledge based industries  (research, banking) have been guarded.

The result, at this moment in time, is religion has lost its dominance in Developed countries, but is still dominant (and threatened) in Developing countries. Developed countries have rejected leadership by heritage and have becoming republics and/or democratic. Developing countries are still dominated by leaders that are there for life and often dynasties. 

During the recent wars in the Middle East there have been claims that The West wants to bring democracy to these countries. However, without education it is relatively easy for some charismatic leader, religious, political or military, to dominate democratically or otherwise. Today you could look at India and Pakistan with propaganda and corruption used to influence voters, educationally ill-equipped to challenge what they are told. Historically you could look at the French Revolution which gave way to several dictatorships, including Napoleon, before it became an educated democracy. Those deprived or repressed may revolt, but like the Arab Spring, wanting something else without ability to know what that something else is, leaves a vacuum that is quickly filled by those able and willing to exploit it. Maybe like the French Revolution this is their first step.

So if this is the end of Christianity then education is the cause. If Muslim fundamentalism is a threat to the West then, at least part of the cause, is a lack of education. With education people can make their own mind up, whether they want to be Christian, Muslim or Jew, or something else.