Zombies More Popular Than God?: The Evolution of Unbelief. Dieser Artikel ist nicht verfügbar.Zombies More Popular Than God?: The Evolution of Unbelief

There is an enormous popular cultural fascination with zombies. Zombies are the subject of the world's second most popular TV show that has been running for 9 seasons. There are "zombie walks" in the world's major cities where mostly youth make themselves up as zombies and parade through the streets. There is a booming market for zombie makeup. There are other similar movies, programs, games, and activities that are quite popular. There are zombie video games, reality games, and phone apps. At the same time, according to Pew Research, nearly half of U.S. adults under 30 do not believe in Christianity’s God and the degree of even a remote affiliation with any Christian religion varies by age group. A Barna Research study released in January 2018, “Atheism Doubles Among Generation Z” (born in/after 1995) reported that they are the first truly ‘post-Christian’ generation. More than any other generation before them, Gen Z does not assert a religious identity. … The percentage of Gen Z that identifies as atheist is double that of the U.S. adult population. …Three out of four Boomers are Protestant or Catholic Christians (75%), while just three in five 13- to 18-year-olds say they are some kind of Christian (59%).” Based on G.K. Chesterton's observation that “When men cease to believe in God, they do not then believe in nothing, they believe in anything," the question arises with respect to Millennials and Generation Z: Are zombies more popular than God?The author examines that question from a Catholic perspective. Youths are leaving Catholicism in droves. He marshals secular social research that shows a major reason youth leave Christianity is because what they see as a "disconnect between science and religion." Based on the authoritative writings of popes, and in particular Cardinal Ratzinger who became Benedict XVI, the author asserts that Catholic educators are ill-prepared to teach Catholic doctrines that conflict with the claims of the secular science consensus. To illustrate the point, he reviews what a top-tier professor priest teaches and shows that it is not scientific, not biblical, and not anything the Catholic Church has ever held to be true. The problem is traced back to seminary educators teaching seminarians the same mixture of "zombie science" and bad theology. The author concludes that only Catholic lay intellectuals can rescue Catholic apologetics from the rut into which it has fallen. Because the social research shows that the children of Evangelicals are far superior to Catholic teens in their ability to articulate their faith and less likely to abandon it, the author suggests that "ecumenical dialog" between Catholic lay intellectuals and Evangelical scientist-apologists would be very useful to "kick-starting" a Catholic revival.