America is Becoming Less Religious

[sun rise]

Informative, but doesn't speak to my post.

True but when I went looking for something directly related to your post I found that which I think of as a "cousin" since it points out that quite a good percentage of those who follow a religion are well educated.

 

[Tiapan]

Interesting article:
America is Becoming Less Religious

The relationship between countries' belief in a god and average Intelligence Quotient,

Religion appears inversely proportional to education, but its still got a long way to go.

Cheers

 

[mystic64]

I'm going to disagree with your statement about the educated mind thinking spirituality is hoo-doo. I'd say most of the creative, spiritual practitioners are well-educated, liberal people. Many of the "church-like-we-did-in-1950" crowd are not.

Well I am glad to hear that Sojourner, educated minds exploring spirituality is a good plan. So what is a "spiritual practitioner?" And how does it apply to religion? When you add the word "practitioner" to spiritual it becomes a who do voo doo type of thing, with the understanding that the who do voo doo stuff is real if one knows what they are doing. Sojourner, why did you add the word practitioner to the word spiritual as a part of your argument that America is not becoming less religious? I probably don't understand your definition of spiritual practitioner. To me those kind of folks would be a part of the reason why America is becomeing less religious.

 

[Desert Snake]

Well I am glad to hear that Sojourner, educated minds exploring spirituality is a good plan. So what is a "spiritual practitioner?" And how does it apply to religion? When you add the word "practitioner" to spiritual it becomes a who do voo doo type of thing, with the understanding that the who do voo doo stuff is real if one knows what they are doing. Sojourner, why did you add the word practitioner to the word spiritual as a part of your argument that America is not becoming less religious? I probably don't understand your definition of spiritual practitioner. To me those kind of folks would be a part of the reason why America is becomeing less religious.

This is backing up another comment I made in another similar tread, namely that although the labels change "religion" is likely to increase, not decrease, it's just that the beliefs change. Burning patchouli incense and chanting for three hours still looks religious to me.

 

[mystic64]

For a long time it's seemed quite structural to me. Of course there are exceptions, but most people first need a full developed personality including completing education, becoming engaged in the world and so forth. Then people can start asking themselves questions about the meaning of life.

What is decreasing, I think, is the "follow the parents" automatic acceptance of religion. Religion used to be a requirement for social acceptance and which church a mark of social standing and so forth. I'm glad this structure is disappearing bit by bit. Good riddance.

Sunrise you raise a good point ! "Structural" in an inflexable way has been the norm in religion for hundreds of years. Young people in today's world have a tendency to explore the question, "How do we all get along?" It is not about good and evil, it is about, "How can the Community of Humankind survive the challenges of the future as one community?" The structural inflexability of religion is contrary to that concept. It creates an us against them reality, for the most part anyway. Good riddance is an interesting idea that has a quite rational quality to it!

 

[mystic64]

This is backing up another comment I made in another similar tread, namely that although the labels change "religion" is likely to increase, not decrease, it's just that the beliefs change. Burning patchouli incense and chanting for three hours still looks religious to me.

! Religion by definition is suppose to be the worshiping of "The Creator". But it has now become anything that has to do with interacting with the spiritual. Voo Doo is a religion and I do not think that in its pure form the worship of the Creator has anything to do with it . Disciple you bring up a very good point! Religion is not dying, it is atheism that is dying . Religion is just in transitional change, but still alive and well!

 

[sojourner]

Well I am glad to hear that Sojourner, educated minds exploring spirituality is a good plan. So what is a "spiritual practitioner?" And how does it apply to religion? When you add the word "practitioner" to spiritual it becomes a who do voo doo type of thing, with the understanding that the who do voo doo stuff is real if one knows what they are doing. Sojourner, why did you add the word practitioner to the word spiritual as a part of your argument that America is not becoming less religious? I probably don't understand your definition of spiritual practitioner. To me those kind of folks would be a part of the reason why America is becomeing less religious.

A spiritual practitioner is simply someone who practices spirituality.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

This is backing up another comment I made in another similar tread, namely that although the labels change "religion" is likely to increase, not decrease, it's just that the beliefs change. Burning patchouli incense and chanting for three hours still looks religious to me.

I'm pretty sure that in increase in the percentage of the population that identifies as agnostic, atheist, and secular is reflecting an increase in non-religious/non-spiritual people, and is not including those who have spiritual or religious beliefs and practices. Spiritual and unaffiliated has also increased, as has the other religions category. Some of the percentage of various Christians have also decreased, while others have increased.
What the OP is pointing out is the increase in the percentage of the three darker grey categories, and this increasing trend in younger generations is very consistent across many polls/studies/whatever.

 

[Desert Snake]

I'm pretty sure that in increase in the percentage of the population that identifies as agnostic, atheist, and secular is reflecting an increase in non-religious/non-spiritual people, and is not including those who have spiritual or religious beliefs and practices. Spiritual and unaffiliated has also increased, as has the other religions category. Some of the percentage of various Christians have also decreased, while others have increased.
What the OP is pointing out is the increase in the percentage of the three darker grey categories, and this increasing trend in younger generations is very consistent across many polls/studies/whatever.

Right, but at the same time, if I was answering that survey it would really depend on how I understood those terms at the time, I doubt most people are looking these things up, aside from the fact that people change their beliefs.

ok that aside, what can happen when there is a 'blank' area of belief for people is that they begin to adhere to other things, theres a difference between 'not identifying as Xian because you don't want to', and not identifying as Xian because theres no reason to identify as Xian. These lead to different choices later etc.
Anyways, there might be an 'overall trend' but I mainntain its not set in finality as a conclusion.

 

[mystic64]

A spiritual practitioner is simply someone who practices spirituality.

Religion - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A religion is an organized collection of beliefs, cultural systems, and world views that relate humanity to an order of existence.[note 1] Many religions have narratives, symbols, and sacred histories that are intended to explain the meaning of life and/or to explain the origin of life or the Universe. From their beliefs about the cosmos and human nature, people derive morality, ethics, religious laws or a preferred lifestyle. According to some estimates, there are roughly 4,200 religions in the world.[1]
Many religions may have organized behaviors, clergy, a definition of what constitutes adherence or membership, holy places, and scriptures. The practice of a religion may also include rituals, sermons, commemoration or veneration of a deity, gods or goddesses, sacrifices, festivals, feasts, trance, initiations, funerary services, matrimonial services, meditation, prayer, music, art, dance, public service or other aspects of human culture. Religions may also contain mythology.[2]
The word religion is sometimes used interchangeably with faith, belief system or sometimes set of duties;[3] however, in the words of Émile Durkheim, religion differs from private belief in that it is "something eminently social".[4] A global 2012 poll reports that 59% of the world's population is religious, and 36% are not religious, including 13% who are atheists, with a 9% decrease in religious belief from 2005.[5] On average, women are more religious than men.[6] Some people follow multiple religions or multiple religious principles at the same time, regardless of whether or not the religious principles they follow traditionally allow for syncretism.[7][8][9]

OP:
America Is Becoming Less Religious

Wikipedia:
A religion is an organized collection of beliefs, cultural systems, and world views that relate humanity to an order of existence.

Spirituality can be an unorganized reality. Religion by definition has to be organized. Which turns the OP into "America is becoming less organized spiritually."

Sojourner it has to be . Insitutions of higher learning are, for the most part, against organized religion. Young people from the sixties on have been questioning the validity of organized religion. And the number of evangalistic athiests is growing geometrically. Organized religion is headed toward becoming a thing of the past unless the religious fundamentalists, whatever bunch of them, win. With the odds being that they will not win. On top of that organized religion has caused way to much grief in the history of Humankind that absolutely can not be forgiven inspite of the good things it has also done.

I have spent my whole life (60 years of it anyway) as a mystic. There is a profoundly powerful force with a mind that lives in a reality that is at this point in time beyond comprehension and the question is, "How can one establish a one on one relationship with It?" And organized religion is not the answer. The answer has to lie somewhere else. Everybody's statistics are showing this growing understanding in the minds of people . If there ever is a Universal Religion, then it is not going to be an "organized religion." It is going to be as Lord Jesus said, "Go to your closet and pray." And there is nothing organized about that. It is one on one. With the understanding that atheism is a perfectly valid approach should one choose that route, because ultimately it is the survival of the Community of Humankind as a living breathing organism with as much respect for the individual as is possible that matters.