Can We Please Get God Out of Religion?

[cbayer]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/05/24/can-we-please-get-god-out-of-religion.html

HEAVEN CAN WAIT

05.24.1512:01 AM ET
Barrett Holmes Pitner

We all need a spiritual side. But not because of some make-believe afterlife. Because it makes us better in this life.

Millennials —soon to be the largest generation of Americans, surpassing the baby boomers—are fleeing organized religion in droves. As a result, a generation of Americans is creating a national existential crisis. How can a country that regularly proclaims “God Bless America,” emblazons its currency with “In God We Trust,” and mentions God so frequently that it could make a secularist nauseous survive if the largest demographic is indifferent towards the Almighty?

According to a recent study by the Pew Research Center, about 35 percent of millennials have no religious affiliation and thus are categorized as the “nones.” Approximately 56 million Americans are religiously unaffiliated, and the horde of “nones” grows steadily by the year.

As a millennial myself, I am part of the generation that has conspired to spread this heresy nationwide, from coast to coast, as a kind of modern day version of Manifest Destiny.

I still remember when I graduated from children’s church when I was a tween and could now attend the sanctuary with the adults. But instead of being fixated on learning more about Christianity, I just wanted to take a nap. I loved it when I had soccer matches on Sunday and could skip church. By the time I was a junior in high school, church no longer interested me at all, and when I left home for college, the idea of waking up early on a Sunday to attend church had become laughable. I am most certainly part of America’s cumulative religious decline. I have helped bring the “nones” to the fore.

more at link

[Smarmie Doofus]

1. Thomas Paine did that a long time ago.

>>>The World is my country, all mankind are my brethren, and to do good is my religion.

Thomas Paine


Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/t/thomaspain132189.html#DQj1iwBsqJBYcyrM.99>>>



'Course he was far from the first.

[cbayer]

3. What do you think of this author's focus on spirituality?

Thomas Paine seemed to imbue nature with spirituality, but it's not clear what he means by that.

[Smarmie Doofus]

7. Frankly, it's not clear to me what ANYONE means by spirituality.

It's probably one of our most murky linguistic... and hence philosophical.... issues ongoing.

David Brooks wrote a column during the week... also inspired by the Miller book. I normally like Brooks' style... and sometimes his NON-political insights. But not this time.

The imprecision about "spirituality" , and what it actually IS , induces instant grogginess in some quarters. Including this one.

I'm happy w. Paine's sum-up, as quoted. ( Re. "country" and "brethren" as well.)

One could legitimately follow up w. , "Well, what does "do good" mean?

That question doesn't interest me much, though. It's like defining pornography: I know it when I see it.

[cbayer]

8. I know what you mean. It's seems very vague.

She seems to be talking about a belief in a higher power without the religious trappings. Maybe a better title would have been, Can't we please get religion out of god (as another member in another thread suggests).

It's difficult to know how to categorize people when it comes to religion these days, which is why it may be very important to let people simply categorize themselves.

[trotsky]

2. Lost me at this: "We all need a spiritual side."

Says who?

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. "to believe in something greater and more powerful than themselves" - a country?

As always, we need the definition of 'spirituality' before discussing it; this article does provide its definition, so that's good:

"Miller proposes that spirituality—which she describes as religion minus the belief in dogma, the veneration of prophets and deities, and the fixation on the afterlife—is an innate human trait that needs to be encouraged and developed. Through extensive research, Miller asserts that spirituality encourages children to believe in something greater and more powerful than themselves, and as a result they develop more resilience and less anxiety throughout life."

So if they believe in a state in which people act together, achieving things they can't on their own, and which will remain even as individuals are born and die, we're there. You might call it 'anti-Objectivism'. It seems very like humanism.

[cbayer]

6. I'm pretty sure she is referring to something other than a human

construct. So a country would not fall under her definition of spirituality.

But I agree that she doesn't define it other than the belief in something greater and more powerful.

[Yorktown]

5. What a pile of empty rhetoric

God out of religion?
Why not the ball out of tennis?
And what is spirituality post God?
I'm pretty sure there are lots of different words more closely related to reality to replace 'god'.

[AtheistCrusader]

9. Jumps the shark in the first sentence.

I do not have, need, or recognize a "spiritual side".

So that was a good use of my time.

[cbayer]

10. Jumping the shark would imply that it made no sense for anyone.

It might be more accurate to just say that the first sentence is wrong because it doesn't apply to you.

[AtheistCrusader]

11. I do not think it means what you think it means.

Lots of things jump the shark. Like season 2/ end of Battlestar Galactica. Yet, not everyone hated it.

[cbayer]

12. I always thought that it was the point at which something took

an irrecoverable turn for the worse. To me that meant it was going doing pretty well for a while (like Happy Days).

Perhaps what you meant is that it jumped the shark for you with the first sentence.

To be honest, the first time I ever saw it was on DU and it was used very, very frequently during the 2008 primaries. It came to mean that someone had crossed the line into absurdity.

I do believe her initial statement is incorrect and could stop people from getting further than that.