Religion
Related: About this forumEmpty Pews: Everyone is Misreading the New Numbers of Religiously “Unaffiliated”
Yes, there are more people who don't belong to any particular church, and yet many still believe in God
By Tim Padgett
October 12, 2012
Earlier this week, while men in miters hunkered down in Rome for the start of a bishops synod on how to make the Roman Catholic Church more relevant to the 21st Centurywhich coincides with the 50th anniversary of Vatican II, the council charged with making the Church more relevant in the 20th Centurythe Pew Research Centers Forum on Religion & Public Life in Washington, D.C., released a survey indicating just how futile their task might be. It reports that one-fifth of the U.S. public, and a third of adults under 30, arent affiliated with any religion todaya 15% increase in just the past five years. While religious leaders bemoaned the data and, like the Vatican synod, vowed to defy it, groups like the New Jersey-based American Atheists cheered the Pew study as evidence that the number of godless continues to rise and that the stranglehold of religion is fading away.
But both responsesthe alarmed resistance from many corners of organized religion and the smug celebration among many atheistsare a misreading of the Pew findings. The survey reveals neither a tsunami of secularism, which Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington, D.C., spokesman for the bishops synod, fears is bearing down on organized religion, nor a triumphant upsurge of godless atheists who revere Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens. Despite the rise in the religiously unaffiliated, for example, Pew also found that more than two-thirds of those people believe in God. Whats out there instead is a nation of people who, like most people in most nations in the developed West, acknowledge faith as a positive human urge but are increasingly, and not too surprisingly, turned off by the often archaic institutions that claim to represent faith.
According to Pew, the spiritually engaged but religiously unaffiliated do think that churches and other religious institutions benefit society by strengthening community bonds and aiding the poor. But overwhelmingly, it adds, they think that religious organizations are too concerned with money and power, too focused on rules and too involved in politics.
The Catholic Churchs sexual abuse scandal is a depressing example of that hierarchical preoccupation with power. Cardinal Wuerl, who cracked down on pedophile priests when so many bishops were shielding them, is an encouraging exception. But even he betrayed a certain denial about his churchs real problems in his opening address to this weeks synod, when he urged Catholics to overcome the syndrome of embarrassment about faithfor which he blamed the pressures of secularism and not, incredibly, the arrogance of clericalism. Im a Catholic, and I dont know any Catholics, practicing or lapsed, who are ashamed of a faith that showcases values like compassion and redemption. Its not the faith thats the source of embarrassment; more likely its the actions of the church.
http://ideas.time.com/2012/10/12/empty-pews-everyone-is-misreading-the-new-numbers-of-religiously-unaffiliated/
LAGC
(5,330 posts)That's what they should really be asking in these polls.
I don't think you can count all those who think "God" is simply synonymous with Nature or Everything (like Einstein) versus those who really believe in a thinking God that intervenes and answers prayers, etc.
rug
(82,333 posts)It might make an interesting, but limited, poll.
The poll here is an attempt to assess the phenomenon of declining church attendance, not flavors of particular belief.
muriel_volestrangler
(101,336 posts)It was:
http://www.pewforum.org/uploadedFiles/Topics/Religious_Affiliation/Unaffiliated/NonesOnTheRise-full.pdf
though I would say they didn't delve deeply into theological views - questions such as LAGC suggests, such as "do you believe in an entity that intervenes in the present", should have been part of that. Or "do you believe in an afterlife/reincarnation?".
rug
(82,333 posts)I daresay the impact of that is far more social and political than theological, particularly since the decline in attendance does not seem to be based primarily on nonbelef in a deity.
muriel_volestrangler
(101,336 posts)In any case, the title of the report, and its stated purpose is clear; that's why I quoted it. It is not about declining church attendance. It's an investigation of those with no affiliation.
rug
(82,333 posts)muriel_volestrangler
(101,336 posts)Or someone who doesn't like the pastor of their church, but hopes they'll leave soon.
rug
(82,333 posts)But I take your point.
unc70
(6,115 posts)My belief is that the nature of God, the will of God us unknowable, but try to follow the teachings of Jesus in my daily life and actively participate in my local congregation. So where would you count me ?
BTW I am a member of the United Methodist Church.
cbayer
(146,218 posts)why try to classify them?
HereSince1628
(36,063 posts)Whether it's buying elaborate sanctuaries, providing salaries and perquisites, or providing assistance to the unfortunate, money is as important to organized religious activity as theistic belief.
cbayer
(146,218 posts)But there appears to be growth in two areas, if I have read the data correctly - megachurches and intra-faith institutions like the UU.
kwassa
(23,340 posts)as I was brought up UU ..... I doubt it.
cbayer
(146,218 posts)cbayer
(146,218 posts)by both sides as some kind of prize.
HereSince1628
(36,063 posts)about which side to be on.
But they don't, and they don't.
cbayer
(146,218 posts)I think the "nones" could care less.
dimbear
(6,271 posts)Need I say more?
Warren Stupidity
(48,181 posts)
Pew also found that more than two-thirds of those people believe in God.
First the question was "believe in god or a Universal spirit", for which the pollster should be taken out and whipped as that is a classic fudge question, blurring the issue in order to push people into the desired bucket.
The question should have been "believe in god" period.
Then the categories provided for an answer were
Yes absolutely
Yes but less certain
No
Other don't know.
Again this is push polling. The categories should be balanced, as for example:
Yes, absolutely
Yes but less certain
No but less certain
No, absolutely
Other don't know
Or more simply:
Yes
Not sure
No
Claiming the 68% who selected yes absolutely or yes but not certain as believers in god is a stretch.
If it gives you some comfort as the smoke and mirrors of religiousity dissipate to cling to some hope that the growing rejection of religion is not what it obviously is, fine.