| Final-Fan said: Have you ever heard of Falun Gong? At first China didn't care, but when it started getting really popular China started cracking down. People were jailed and even tortured to death. |
Coptics, other Christians in Muslim countrys, Christians in China, and the bulk of people in the Orthodox faith, particularly in Russia, have gone under persecution in throughout history. It seems the way to strengthen a faith is to persecute it and try to stomp it out. If the followers remain constant in what they believe in, and show themselves to be different, they win converts to their faith.
It appears that offering people personal freedom does more to make religion less relevant, particularly if the economy is good, and people don't need to suffer because there are enough goods out there. People then can pick their own drug of choice to medicate their own discontentments, and not worry about religion at all.
