I found this recent interesting article concerning what has been happening
to British religion in recent years. It is from the Guardian and written by
Linda Woodhead, who notices:
Look for the religion section of almost any bookshop in
Britain, and you'll find it's been subsumed under "Mind, body and spirit." The
reason is simple: what we call religion has changed – dramatically – in just the
past 30 years.
Now I had only heard that religion was on a sharp decline there and really
hadn't looked into the matter. Woodhead, if she is correct in her analysis,
explains something that I think might be a helpful trend, one I wouldn't mind
seeing duplicated here in the US
She continues:
What we believe in has changed at the same time. According to
British Religion in Numbers, belief in "a personal God"
roughly halved between 1961 and 2000 – from 57% of the population to 26%. But
over the same period belief in a "spirit or life force" doubled – from 22% to
44%. And 41% of us now believe in angels, 53% in an afterlife and 70% in a soul
– that's much higher, often double, than when the records began. And you can't
just say this is a growth in superstition – because belief in fortune-telling
and astrology has not risen.
The reason I think it helpful to replace belief in a personal God with some
concept of a "spirit or life force" is that I think this will rid religion of
some of it's more odious aspects. I'm speaking of the ideas that a divine despot
dictates what is sin and what is not, stands behind religious wars and crusades,
and separates humans into "chosen" and "not chosen" souls.
I would dearly love to see an end to the culture war between religion and
secularity here in these United States.
10 comments:
This would be a nice change here. I no longer believe in the afterlife, really, but it does no harm to me if someone else does. Unless to obtain it one must be an arrogant, bigoted, hate-monger. I couldn't care less if someone believes in a 'life-force' or 'spirit'. It's only when they decide that they know what that 'life-force' or 'spirit' wants from us all that it becomes a nuisance.
fascinating statistics and certainly mirrors my own personal spiritual journey. Thanks for the food for thought
I would love to see this trend in this country. The idea that there is a "personal" God who follows each individual's every move seems to be the norm among most Christians. They pray to pass tests, to win ball games, catch passes, hit home runs, lose weight, and the list goes on and on.
If there must be belief in things with questionable evidence, then the shift toward less harmful beliefs is a good shift, agreed.
As an aside, I scan and clean my computer daily. Upon visiting the guardian website one day I acquired 7 tracking cookies.
To the cited article: "And you can't just say this is a growth in superstition – because belief in fortune-telling and astrology has not risen." This is fallacious thinking, some forms of superstitious thinking increased while some other forms did not. This inaccuracy does not detract from the idea that less pernicious superstitions are preferable to their more pernicious kin. ( I realize that the meaning of the word superstition may be moot.)
An anonymous quote you may enjoy (or not): Mythology - someone else's religion, different enough from your own for its absurdity to be obvious.
DMa,
I totally agree with you.
@ pinkpackrat,
You are welcome. I think it would beat what we have here in the states now.
@ Georgia Mountain Man,
I'd love to see it, but fear I will not live long enough to.
@ Exrelayman,
Obviously not everyone agrees about what is and isn't superstition.
These are fascinating stats....not really what I would have expected.
@ Don,
I was a bit surprised and pleased. I wish our country would move away from its ardent theism.
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