Making Sense of Current Trends in Religion


We've all read about the current decline in numbers of self identified Christians and about falling numbers experienced by Christian denominations. We know, too, about the rise in "nones," those who say they do not identify with any religious tradition. Along with those trends are polls which find the majority of these "nones" believe in something "spiritual." The author of new book has a logical explanation of all this.

She interviewed a large number of nones to find out what they are thinking and how they think. The views go far and wide. She noted the belief some hold who when asked, "Are you a Christian," said yes. But they are not affiliated with any church and believe in such things as reincarnation. There is a lot of mixing and matching--taking something from many religions. Many report being "spiritual but not religious." These are people who sound like agnostics. They think there might be something out there we cannot and will never see but don't know what it is.

I have gone to a gathering of pagans and read about paganism. There is no central body of beliefs in paganism and there was none back when it was the biggest religion in the world. It was, and is, people finding in their minds a god that seems to them to be somewhere else. The god is not somewhere else but remains a creation of the mind.

If you are able to see a god figure and attribute powers and influences to it you may be called both a none and a pagan. If also you write about your god figure on line you may well find others who see the same or a similar god figure. That reinforces the idea the god figure is not merely in you mind but elsewhere. When enough people find each other a group of like minded worshippers gathers and away they go.

Christianity has so many branches it is hard to say it is different than the many gods of other beliefs. Even those branches which refer to the God/Jesus of the faith are all over the place when it comes to what if God/Jesus is. This is inevitable because each mind makes up the God/Jesus that most approves of the person and stands for the same things he/she stands for. 

The God/Jesus of Christianity is up against competitive forces it has never seen before. Instead of using the old God/Jesus each person can start a new god that suits him/her to a "T". 

Why remodel when it's cheaper to buy new?

Comments

  1. little helperSeptember 24, 2020 at 6:48 AM

    You used to be able to determine what church affiliation just by it's architecture.

    Now many are afraid even to admit their affiliation. (if any). Case in point; "Whispering creek Church, Mountain side church, Community Church, Sonrise Church, Sunset Church, etc.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jon LindgrenSeptember 24, 2020 at 10:25 AM

    helper --re church affiliation, "Whispering Creek.."

    Why do so many have "water" in their names? It seems like half of them use water, creek, river etc.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. little helperSeptember 24, 2020 at 11:26 AM

      Would you prefer -Whiskey Creek? (a real creek). There was a church of your youth that couldn't say "whiskey", so they said "WC" if they wanted to mention the place. There is a dance band by the same name. Oh ya, your youth couldn't dance either. How about Shitts Creek" ?

      Delete

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