The Disappearance Of God....Or At Least, Religion

The story is in USA Today

Apparently, a new survey being released is calling Americans, at least in terms of religions, the "land of the freelancers." Now, I myself, prefer to be called a Self-discoverer.....a Free Thinker.

It seems that the number of people who identify as Christian is down about 11% in the last eighteen years or so; "The Bible Belt is less Baptist. The Rust Belt is less Catholic. And everywhere, more people are exploring spiritual frontiers — or falling off the faith map completely."

Americans who claim no religious affiliation at all is up from 8% to 15% since 1990. The American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) report says '[i]n a nation that has long been mostly Christian, "the challenge to Christianity … does not come from other religions but from a rejection of all forms of organized religion."'

The Catholic strongholds in New England and the Midwest are losing numbers as their flocks relocate to sunnier spots. Parishes all over are closing down or consolidating. And those wacky Baptists, like the ones here in Smallville (side note: why is every Baptist church called the first Baptist church?), are seeing their numbers drop as well. Protestants are losing members; Methodists, too.

However, the numbers those who choose a more generic label to describe their faith, such as Christian, non-denominational, evangelical or "born again," remains unchanged.

The numbers of Jews is down by about a third, while the number of Muslims, albeit a slim number, has doubled. But some say that ARIS has under-counted the Muslim populations; and Jewish surveys include "cultural" Jews — those who connect to Judaism through its traditions, but not necessarily through active religious participation. And some 3 million people identify with new religious movements--Wiccan, pagan or Spiritualist--which the survey does not define.

The ARIS report "was based on 113,000 interviews, updated with 50,000 more in 2001 and now 54,000 in 2008. Because the U.S. Census does not ask about religion, the ARIS survey was the first comprehensive study of how people identify their spiritual expression."

The survey also "led in quantifying and planting a label on the 'Nones';" those people who claim they had no religious affiliation.

Used to be that most of the 'Nones,' not to be confused with Nuns, lived in Oregon, but now the majority of 'Nones' lives in Vermont; they significantly outnumber every other group there. But not all 'Nones' consider themselves atheist or agnostic; they simply choose not to add a specific label to their faith, or spirituality.

Some say the falling numbers of the "faith" full, is a direct result of anger over the Catholic church sexual abuse scandals, although the numbers of Catholics leaving the church is quite minuscule. Still, the number of Catholics in New England is down, because many older Catholics have died, and younger ones have moved from the Northeast, or are choosing , gasp, non-Catholic partners, having civil weddings and not baptizing their children.

And here in the Land of the Baptists, in South Carolina, we have more Catholics than we had in 1990, and three-times as many "Nones"--although I dislike that title, count me in on that group--and Protestant followers are down 15%.

There is also something called the "piety gap," and it has nothing to do with pie, apparently.

It seems that the numbers of people who followed the "Shalts" and "Shalt nots" have declined. People who take God so seriously as to follow every tenet to the letter, are seeing their numbers fall: "If a personal God says, 'Thou shalt not' or 'Thou shalt' see these a certain way, you'd take it very seriously. Meanwhile, three in 10 people aren't listening to that God."

So what does all that mean? All the numbers and the new names?

It means that more people are choosing their own definition of what God is, if they, in fact, believe in such a thing. It means people are becoming less likely to use the Bible as the basis for all their arguments, and perhaps use the "idea" of God; that God is love; that God is accepting; that God made us all, so we all deserve to be treated equally and with respect and love.

That doesn't sound so bad.

Unless you don't believe in God. But even then you can still believe in love and respect and equal treatment.

To end, I saw this video over at Joe.My.God. about the "disappearance of God." It's quite funny really, because, what would really change if God wasn't around?