Religion
Related: About this forumA blow to the New Atheism? Britain is losing its religion - and becoming "spiritual" instead
A study by Theos shows the apparently limited appeal of scientific materialism. But is it evidence that hardline atheism of the Richard Dawkins variety has little popular appeal?
By Nelson Jones Published 19 October 2013 9:33
Modern Britain is "spiritual" but not religious. That's the headline finding of an opinion poll, and accompanying report, released this week by the Christian think-tank Theos. The ComRes poll - which confirms a trend identified in several previous surveys - found that well over half those questioned (59%) said that they believed in some kind of spiritual being or essence. There were substantial, though minority, levels of belief in specific concepts such as spirts, angels and "a universal life force", whatever that is. One for the Jedis, perhaps.
Even a third of people who described themselves as non-religious were prepared to own up to having some such ideas, while a mere 13% - and only a quarter of the non-religious - agreed with the statement that "humans are purely material beings with no spiritual element". And more than three-quarters of the survey agreed that "there are things that we cannot simply explain through science or any other means".
Theos seems to be impressed by the apparently limited appeal of scientific materialism, seeing in it evidence that hardline atheism of the Richard Dawkins variety has little popular appeal, despite the high media profile it has garnered in recent years. Its director, Elizabeth Oldfield, writes that it is "notable is that those same voices have not managed to convince us that humans are purely material beings, with no spiritual element". The implication is that there's a huge untapped reservoir of spiritual longing and that it would be wrong to attribute the decline in religiosity in this country, stretching back decades, to a spread in actual unbelief.
Yet it's hard to see much comfort in these figures for the future of religion. To return to the headline figure, the 77% who believed that some things couldn't be explained "through science or any other means." Any other means, presumably, includes religion itself. And even many scientists doubt that science is close to explaining some natural phenomena. Consciousness, for example, is often called the "hard problem" because even in the age of MRI scanners it remains profoundly elusive. A sense that life has mysteries, that there are things - love, for example - that will always remain beyond a reductive scientific explanation, doesn't necessarily make someone religious. The poll found quite low levels of belief in more specifically religious concepts: a mere 13% believed in Hell (Heaven was twice as popular, implying a national spirituality skewed towards the feelgood), while a quarter believed in angels and around a third in life after death.
http://www.newstatesman.com/religion/2013/10/blow-new-atheism-britain-becoming-spiritual-rather-religious
The survey:
http://www.theosthinktank.co.uk/publications/2013/10/17/the-spirit-of-things-unseen-belief-in-post-religious-britain
MrModerate
(9,753 posts)and 'secular' awe at an amazing universe is much narrower than the gap between 'religious' and 'spiritual.' Not to mention the 'no dogma' aspect of spirituality.
This is a clear sign of an evolving human race.
At least in the UK. I'm less optimistic about the US.
rug
(82,333 posts)dimbear
(6,271 posts)judging by the interest shown by the NT authors, if only one survives it's likely to be hell. Another authority, Niccolo Machiavelli, explains: (Prince Chap 17)
"Upon this a question arises: whether it be better to be loved than feared or feared than loved? It may be answered that one should wish to be both, but, because it is difficult to unite them in one person, is much safer to be feared than loved, when, of the two, either must be dispensed with."
Gore1FL
(21,132 posts)Moving to rationale thought is hard for a lot of people who were brought up in a religious environment. Even if they are baby-steps, I applaud the movement towards reason.
AtheistCrusader
(33,982 posts)That's distilled stuff only?
Must be a good year for Scotch in the UK then.
mr blur
(7,753 posts)in the same way that people here traditionally ticked the "CofE" box on survey forms. People feel that they have to be seen to belong to to something.
"I'm not religious but I'm 'spiritual'" is meaningless new-age crap. What they mean is "I don't believe in your Christian/Islam/Buddhist bullshit but I'd hate you to think that I don't have another 'deep' side".