Loss of Faith around the world

[RoadWarrior]

Although the link provided is obviously biased due to its political agenda, many of the facts it presents are accurate. I simply disagree with some of the conclusions drawn by the blog's authors.

The State of Religion: Declining Belief in God Worldwide

The reasons for this decline are many:

What’s happening here? Because results of surveys like these show a great deal of variation based on age and geography, reasons to explain overall trends will be varied. But the results raise some interesting possibilities to consider, including something as simple as bad behavior, hypocrisy, and outlandish assertions on the part of those who claim most publicly and proudly to be religious believers. The areas that those who claim to be religious fail to shine include child abuse scandals, open LGBT discrimination and support for bullying, attacks on women’s rights, support for war, pushing for religion in science classrooms, prayer-led public meetings, denying the separation of church and state, withholding medical care in favor of prayer for children … and the list goes on.

Yes, even though it still remains very strong, there is a significant drop in the numbers of people who adhere to religion. The authors of the link seem to have us believe that people who stop believing in a major religion are becoming humanists, agnostics or atheists. Not once does the article mention the words "spirit", "spiritual" or "spirituality". For obvious reasons they don't seem willing to recognize that a person can believe in God, an Almighty or other Universal force yet not adhere to the precepts of a particular religion as shown in the breakdown

Like the other major groups, people who are unaffiliated with any particular religion (16.1%) also exhibit remarkable internal diversity. Although one-quarter of this group consists of those who describe themselves as either atheist or agnostic (1.6% and 2.4% of the adult population overall, respectively), the majority of the unaffiliated population (12.1% of the adult population overall) is made up of people who simply describe their religion as "nothing in particular."

http://religions.pewforum.org/reports

Three things come to mind:
1) If religions want to attract and retain more members, what do they do about it? IMO, one thing is to learn what turns people off about religion. The list quoted above would be a good starting point.

2) Can we recognize that there are many paths to God? Must we believe there is "only one right religion" or can we recognize that God is unlimited and, therefore, there are many paths to God? Something in between?

3) Is spirituality an important part of our humanity? If so, what can be done to increase it while also recognizing that the advances in society and science, the scope of human knowledge, have, in some ways, outpaced ancient religious customs to the point people are ignoring all of a religion simply because some parts of it are dated?

 

[ProScribe]

Most polls and reviews done by researchers are usually just the latest trend in the study that they report

 

[awitch]

Three things come to mind:
1) If religions want to attract and retain more members, what do they do about it?

I'm being serious when I say: free food. That is guaranteed to get people in the door and if they like what they hear then they will stick around.

IMO, one thing is to learn what turns people off about religion.

That's an easy one. Hypocrisy, corruption, attempts to impose purely faith based laws/regulations/behaviors, disturbing scripture, and the vitriolic condemnation of anyone who doesn't conform.

2) Can we recognize that there are many paths to God? Must we believe there is "only one right religion" or can we recognize that God is unlimited and, therefore, there are many paths to God?

Kind of hard to do when scripture explicitly says that is not the case.

3) Is spirituality an important part of our humanity?

I'd say it's a significant driving force of human behavior.

If so, what can be done to increase it while also recognizing that the advances in society and science, the scope of human knowledge, have, in some ways, outpaced ancient religious customs to the point people are ignoring all of a religion simply because some parts of it are dated?

Well, if you keep a literal interpretation of an ancient book, I'm not sure how. If scripture really is the word of god, or even inspired by it, then it should apply to the time in which it is read.

In ancient days, the predecessors of my religion placed a lot of importance on things like hunting, farming, and war. I live less than five miles away from 3 grocery stores and I'm not in the military, so I reinterpret the myths and customs so they apply and have meaning. Dynamic religion is a good thing.

 

[RoadWarrior]

Kind of hard to do when scripture explicitly says that is not the case.

I guess it depends on whose or what scripture is read.

Many religions were run by men for several centuries. My hypothesis is that some self-serving bias creeped into many of them over time.

I'd say it's a significant driving force of human behavior.

Agreed, but several atheists on this forum would disagree since they don't believe we have a spiritual side.

Dynamic religion is a good thing.

Agreed again. Like our own minds, our spirituality needs to grow and mature.

 

[Daniel25]

Shall the Religious Inherit the Earth? - YouTube

Its grade A trolling by a secular, but interesting nonetheless. Basically, we see a microsm of a larger worldwide trend in Israel in the last few decades. With the advent of widespread birth control, fecundity is now based more on culture rather than prosperity. In Israel, its let to the curious situation of haredi (ultra-orthodox) jews and arabs rapidly out-reproducing their secular neighbors. This creates enormous tensions for the state, as haredi's do not serve in the military, are reliant on government aid, as the women don't work, and the men stay in yeshiva till their 40's. The same idea, that reproduction is governed by culture rather than necessity, is what will have enormous impact on the demographics of the future. Sorry seculars, but you may just abort yourselves out of the discussion.

 

[Arthra]

One PEW study has spirituality actually increasing for college students..

The study finds that while attendance at religious services decreased dramatically for most students between their freshman and junior years, the students' overall level of spirituality, as defined by the researchers, increases.

See:

Pew Forum: UCLA Study: Students Become More Spiritual in College

So while formal religious attendance tends to decline the interest in spirituality has increased in this group.

Another study found that spirituality is increasing in the US while dogmatic views are becoming less popular...

The survey finds U.S. adults believe overwhelmingly (92%) in God, and 58% say they pray at least once a day. But the study's authors say there's a "stunning" lack of alignment between people's beliefs or practices and their professed faiths.

Survey: More have dropped dogma for spirituality in U.S. - USATODAY.com

 

[bling]

True Christianity seems to be growing very rapidly in China, India and Africa, under severe persecution.
Trying to dilute the Christian message might have the opposite impact.

 

[Eudaimonist]

Yes, even though it still remains very strong, there is a significant drop in the numbers of people who adhere to religion. The authors of the link seem to have us believe that people who stop believing in a major religion are becoming humanists, agnostics or atheists.

My impression is that a great many in the West are attracted to either Buddhism or "New Age" ideas, but don't feel that they adhere to a religion. And many more may believe that there is "something out there" that could be a deity, but their beliefs on that are not well defined.

1) If religions want to attract and retain more members, what do they do about it? IMO, one thing is to learn what turns people off about religion. The list quoted above would be a good starting point.

Yes, but I'm not certain that there is anything you can do about it. I realize that you know that I'm an atheist, and you might take that as a sufficient explanation for my pessmism, but I think that the cultural conditions in the West have changed in a dramatic way against religious affiliation. This isn't just a temporary setback for religion, but a sea change. People just aren't as interested in joining religions as they once were, and I don't think that the explanation is as simple as bad press that religious organizations have had lately.

2) Can we recognize that there are many paths to God? Must we believe there is "only one right religion" or can we recognize that God is unlimited and, therefore, there are many paths to God?

Good luck trying to convince your fellow Christians of that. They will go down with the ship first.

3) Is spirituality an important part of our humanity?

Yes, people do have a need for some sort of spirituality, even if it is a nontheistic one.

If so, what can be done to increase it while also recognizing that the advances in society and science, the scope of human knowledge, have, in some ways, outpaced ancient religious customs to the point people are ignoring all of a religion simply because some parts of it are dated?

I suspect that new spiritualities will fill that niche.


eudaimonia,

Mark

 

[Montalban]

I'm being serious when I say: free food. That is guaranteed to get people in the door and if they like what they hear then they will stick around.

They did that in China. The 'converts' were known as 'rice Christians'.

Rice Christian - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[RickardoHolmes]

Three things come to mind:
1) If religions want to attract and retain more members, what do they do about it? IMO, one thing is to learn what turns people off about religion. The list quoted above would be a good starting point.
I know many people who believe in God and do not believe in religion. Nothing at all wrong with that, in fact, most of us are better off without it.
The biggest turnoff? Pretending to have answers (and questions) that they really do not have.


2) Can we recognize that there are many paths to God? Must we believe there is "only one right religion" or can we recognize that God is unlimited and, therefore, there are many paths to God? Something in between?

God is universal, and we as humans cannot even begin to truly understand that which is "God" because we are limited by our human faculties.
Religions are all creations of man, and are all more or less futile attempts to understand and explain that which we as humans do not understand.
There is no "right religion" For everyone because we all each have different experiences and understandings of life and of the world. For this reason, one religion will not, and cannot, and should not try to fit all.

3) Is spirituality an important part of our humanity? If so, what can be done to increase it while also recognizing that the advances in society and science, the scope of human knowledge, have, in some ways, outpaced ancient religious customs to the point people are ignoring all of a religion simply because some parts of it are dated?

There is an interesting book called Why we believe what we believe by Newberg and Waldman. The authors address how we as humans are "wired" and in a way designed to have a "need"" to believe something.
I am all for spirituality. Religon, on the other hand, I can do without. Spirituality is having a relationship with God, Religion is having a relationship with someone else's God.

 

[Daniel25]

Spirituality without religion is just superstition.

 

[awitch]

Spirituality without religion is just superstition.

Because adding trivial dogma makes it suddenly become real?

 

[fschmidt]

1) If religions want to attract and retain more members, what do they do about it? IMO, one thing is to learn what turns people off about religion. The list quoted above would be a good starting point.

The religions that are growing are those that actually stand for something. I am particularly talking about Islam and Orthodox Judaism. If a religion is just Liberalism with a little Christian doctrine, what's the point? Christianity used to actually stand for certain moral values, but these days it seems to have little resistance to Liberalism.

How to fix this? Focus on educating children to have strong religious values. This is how Hasidic Judaism was revived in America. Watch this excellent movie for details:

A Life Apart: Hasidism in America - Part 1 of 9 - YouTube

Christianity would benefit enormously from taking this approach to create a Christian "life apart".

2) Can we recognize that there are many paths to God? Must we believe there is "only one right religion" or can we recognize that God is unlimited and, therefore, there are many paths to God? Something in between?

I wish. That would require raising both the tolerance and the intelligence of humanity. This isn't going to happen.

3) Is spirituality an important part of our humanity? If so, what can be done to increase it while also recognizing that the advances in society and science, the scope of human knowledge, have, in some ways, outpaced ancient religious customs to the point people are ignoring all of a religion simply because some parts of it are dated?

I am not worried about this because a culture with little spirituality or wrong spirituality will simply collapse and be replaced. This will happen with Liberalism. The question is whether it will be replaced by some form of Christianity or Islam. I would prefer Christianity but Islam seems more likely.

 

[smaneck]

Spirituality without religion is just superstition.

"Superstition" is one of those words who meaning has been lost over time. “Superstition” or deisidaimonia, refers to an inordinate fear of the divine leading to exaggerated care to follow all the niceties of religious observance. That' is not generally characteristic of those who claim to be 'spiritual' but not religious.

 

[Eudaimonist]

Spirituality without religion is just superstition.

Why is that? What are you considering spirituality here? And religion?


eudaimonia,

Mark