I was looking at the New York Times Web site, which is something I frequently do. I try to keep up with the news, since I am a journalist. (Interesting statistic by the way, more editors turn to the New York Times for their news than any other news source.)
Anyway, the point is, on the front page was the headline 'Americans Change Faiths at Rising Rates, Reports Say'.
This really caught my attention, because, I have in fact changed my faith. I am at the age where, technically, I am defined as an adult (although, if you'd really like to get me going talk to me about why I'm not allowed to be considered so on financial aid forms when I do for the most part support myself financially) and have fallen out of the strong evangelical Christianity that I grew up in. It's really weird too, because I was hard-core when I was younger. I was highly involved with my youth group, I even became a Sunday School teacher right out of high school.
I don't know if it was too much too soon, or what. I try to explain it all way to often, but in the end, I think there are entirely too many factors to explain exactly how I ended up where I am today religion-wise.
But, the point is, it caught my eye. And, it appears I'm not alone. The major religions, Christianity in particular, are losing adult members at an almost alarming rate.
Really though, what alarmed me the most was the fact the 'religious group' that is gaining the most members is not some foreign religion. No, it is in fact, apathy.
It is people having no religious affiliation. And, by this, the article made it clear that they did not mean athiests or agnostics (the latter of which could very possibly be where I stand, but I'm not quick to affiiliate) but instead people who just say, well I'm not really anything in particular.
I mean, usually, when people are attempting to not associate with a religion it means they're trying to be more of a free thinker, but the thing is I'm sort of prone to think that this is more of an apathy situation.
And, that scares me a little. Even though I'm a part of it, it scares me a little.
There are a lot of people who believe that religion is a crutch and similar things, but I'm sort of wondering, if we become so spiritually apathetic, what's going to happen to the world?
This is always what gets me. People have their own religion and switch sometimes like you have. I classify myself as what you call free religion. It is not because I don't care it is the fact that religion to me is corrupt in a lot of ways. If you think back along time ago there was just one religion. People decided they didn't like the religion so they decided to modify it. I believe in god and jesus, pray and everything and do well but why do we need to classify religions. Yes they are all different. but classifying them and fighting over them is dumb. I don't believe that just because some one is a free thinker or whatever means they don't care about religion. some people maybe but not me. I just don't want to follow a certain religion because it may not be true. As for the world we fight over religion now so much and it is dumb. So we will always fight over religion even if people become spiritually apathedic.
It's about time people started showing apathy towards religion. People have been way too passionate about religion for millenia. Perhaps the world will become a bit more peaceful now.
Both of these previous comments remind me of something I heard about Jesus predicting a prosecution of those who believe. It may be a ways off yet but I see the starts.
That elicited very different responses than I expected, wow! But, people think so differently don't they? I didn't even consider people fighting over religion when I was talking about this. But, you guys are right, the first couple. Maybe there is some good to come of an apathy towards religion.
But, at the same time, we'll probably all find something to fight over whether it's religion or not.
This doesn't scare me at all. England is less than 50% religious, and I happen to think they're dong a lot better than America is. I personally find religion a bit backwards, especially in the face of modern science, but I don't care what other people believe.
You also seem to think apathy towards religion is equivalent to apathy to the world at large. This is completely erroneous. Just because I'm an atheist doesn't mean I don't give a crap about the world I live in. Hell, I'm even in the NHS and SNHS, meaning I do a lot of community service. I also know plenty of atheists and agnostics that are active in their community and politics. Actually, I find a lot of them care more about the world than the religious folks.
-----
"What's God?"
"You know when you ask for something really hard? God's the guy who ignores you."
--- From The Island.