The cover article in Newsweek last week was entitled The End of Christian America, by Jon Meacham. The article discusses the most recent American Religious Identification Survey as well as some other recent survey data. There are three major trends in American society, all of which track those already further along in Europe: 1) the number of people who identify themselves as “Christians” has fallen; 2) the percentage of people who do not identify with any faith has increased, and at the same time there is a general decline in those who think “religion” is the answer to social problems; and 3) the number of people who describe themselves as “atheist” or “agnostic” has quadrupled since 1990 to 3.6 million.
Are any of these trends cause for concern? From the point of view of organized religion, they certainly are. At one level, it means fewer members, shrinking donations, and less-than-full churches each Sunday. On a more basic level, it means that those who are deeply committed to their faiths and who find that it is fundamental to their lives, regret that others are unable to find this same meaning in theirs.
It would be a great cause for concern if we became a nation of individuals who care only about conventional success and pleasure. It’s not that belief in God is necessary for one to be moral. Voltaire took that position but he was wrong. It is possible to follow a highly ethical code for living without relying on any conception of God or higher purpose. In general, however, a central, unifying idea that represents the most fundamental and important purpose in life makes possible a personal commitment to this higher purpose. Moreover, it serves as a way for us as a larger community to communicate that idea to each other and reinforce it. That is why we should keep the idea of God alive, even if we give up on the traditional conception of God described in the Bible.
Although organized religion is worried, the good news for American society as a whole is that people are not giving up on their search for something more fundamental than physical pleasure and material wealth. Although an increasing percentage of people (15%, including atheists, agnostics and those with no preference) do not identify with any religion, “faith” and “religion” in the context of the survey mean organized religion, not a personal search for meaning or belief in a conception of God that is different from the one in the Bible. One striking trend is that only 69.5% of people believe in a personal God, but 12.1% believe in an impersonal higher power. I suspect many of the people who describe themselves as agnostics, or even atheists, are also looking for some way to identify meaning in life that transcends what we see around us every day.
How should we label people who do not want to give up on the idea of God but do not accept the conception of God portrayed in the Old and New Testaments? I use the phrase “Uncertain Believer” in the title of my book because we can never be absolutely certain about the nature of God. Other terms work just as well. Whatever term we use, it describes a growing number of Americans.
Monday, April 13, 2009
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1 comments:
"It would be a great cause for concern if we became a nation of individuals who care only about conventional success and pleasure."
But America is a nation concerned with little more than the success and pleasure of each individual. Point to any of the current social economic or social problems and look for a root cause. At the root of any of these problems are a large group of individuals who only cared about themselves. Take the failing auto industry... if that business model had been set up with any sort of moral principal it would have had a maximum as well as a minimum wage in place and not just a cut throat every man for himself type of model. In so capping both ends there would not be such an enormous disparity in the range of wages and the excess (an believe me 30Mil in bonuses is EXCESSIVE) could go into stuff like R&D (to sustain the business and grow the tech) and infrastructure support (have you seen the road in MI and looked at the medical system).
The country that has pioneered a nation built under "one god" has also lead the way for humankind to be the most selfish narcissistic pandered and irresponsible it has ever been or ever will be in it's history. You cannot turn the new on without seeing someone bitching about some problem and saying "Someone has to do something about this!" Yes they do.. if you see it happening you have a moral responsibility to try and help. But the US lacks those morals that a religion should have offered and instead you quietly walk away saying "it's not my problem."
Since the practice of using religion has OBVIOUSLY failed, what then? Stop using it as a crutch. The Constitution does allow for complete separation and it should actually enforce it. But, that said, good citizens should be rewarded. There needs to be a paradigm shift. If everyone started right now and stopped saying it's someone else's fault and bore part of the blame for the problem the country faces then perhaps in a generation the children growing up right now may have kids of their own who give a damn about something other than their own personal money and would revel in seeing the group succeed.
Labeling people does nothing for society. It just removes them one step and allows you to point a finger at them and say "they are to blame, not me."
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