For many, ‘Losing My Religion’ isn’t a song: It’s life

[cleanhippie]

When Ben Helton signed up for an online dating service, under “religion” he called himself “spiritually apathetic.” On Sunday mornings, when Bill Dohm turns his eyes toward heaven, he’s just checking the weather so he can fly his 1946 Aeronca Champ two-seater plane. Helton, 28, and Dohm, 54, aren’t atheists. They simply shrug off God, religion, heaven or the ever-trendy search-for-meaning and/or purpose. Their attitude could be summed up as “So what?”

“The real dirty little secret of religiosity in America is that there are so many people for whom spiritual interest, thinking about ultimate questions, is minimal,” said Mark Silk, professor of religion and public life at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn. Clergy and religion experts are dismayed, fearing for souls’ salvation and for the common threads of faith snapping in society. Others see no such dire consequences to a more openly secular America as people not only fess up to being faithless but admit they’re skipping out on spirituality altogether.

Only now, however, are they turning up in the statistical stream. Researchers have begun asking the kind of nuanced questions that reveal just how big the “So What” set might be:

— 44 percent told the 2011 Baylor University Religion Survey they spend no time seeking “eternal wisdom,” and 19 percent said “it’s useless to search for meaning.”

— 46 percent told a 2011 survey by Nashville, Tenn.-based LifeWay Research that they never wonder whether they will go to heaven.

— 28 percent told LifeWay “it’s not a major priority in my life to find my deeper purpose.” And 18 percent scoffed at the idea that God has a purpose or plan for everyone.

— 6.3 percent of Americans turned up on Pew Forum’s 2007 Religious Landscape Survey as totally secular — unconnected to God or a higher power or any religious identity and willing to say religion is not important in their lives.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-faith/for-many-losing-my-religion-isnt-a-song-its-life/2012/01/05/gIQA8V6OdP_story.html

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Interesting. Full story at the link.

[sivansanabliss]

1. They're as bad as the narrow-minded dogmatists!

[cleanhippie]

2. Who is as bad?

Can you elaborate?

[sivansanabliss]

3. Atheists.

They (yes, I am generalizing to make my point) don't know any more than the holy rollers but they act like everything they believe is fact. They also remind me of fundies because they are literalists but in a scientific mode. They cannot wrap their brains around anything that's not in front of their eyes! And very intolerant, as many who follow organized religion.

[cleanhippie]

4. That is an interesting generalization.

May I respond?

You say:"They (yes, I am generalizing to make my point) don't know any more than the holy rollers but they act like everything they believe is fact."

What do you mean that "they don't know any more than the holy rollers"? Know more about what?

You say:"They also remind me of fundies because they are literalists but in a scientific mode."

Literalists about what?

You say:"They cannot wrap their brains around anything that's not in front of their eyes!"

Can you give an example of what "they" cannot wrap their brains around? I am not following you here.

You say:"And very intolerant, as many who follow organized religion."

Can you give examples of this?


I would like to discuss this further with you, but you have used some very ambiguous language here that would force me to make certain assumptions, and that just is not going to work. Can you expand and be more specific, please?

[cbayer]

5. She's been banned, ch. This is the same person who came in and attacked atheists

previously.

[cleanhippie]

6. Damn. How did you like my new approach?

Trying a new tactic here. Your thoughts?

[cbayer]

7. I am really liking your new approach. Too bad it was wasted on this one...

[cleanhippie]

8. I hope we can continue our conversation in the other thread.

The ball is in your court on that one.

[cbayer]

9. I agree. I have guests right now, so will have to get back to you in the

other thread later. Not ignoring you.

I am very interested in some rapprochement.

[onager]

10. And "Losing My Religion" wasn't even about religion.

R.E.M. hailed from Athens, GA. "Losing my religion" is an old Southern expression that means "losing my temper."

R.E.M. lead singer Michael Stipe has repeatedly said it's just a (secular) love song.

e.g., from Wiki: Stipe told The New York Times the song was about romantic expression. He told Q that "Losing My Religion" is about "someone who pines for someone else. It's unrequited love, what have you."

Stipe compared the song's theme to "Every Breath You Take" by The Police, saying, "It's just a classic obsession pop song. I've always felt the best kinds of songs are the ones where anybody can listen to it, put themselves in it and say, 'Yeah, that's me.'"

[Silent3]

11. When I try to square the "apatheism" I see all around me...

...with statistics that show how unpopular atheism is, and with how American politicians often bend over backward to make sure everyone knows that they're believers, my best guess is that many apatheists, regardless of their own religious and spiritual apathy, give religion and religious people special credit for goodness and morality, even more credit than they give themselves.

I imagine many apatheists as being somewhat like overweight people who have no enthusiasm for making the effort to lose weight and get in shape themselves, but who (perhaps grudgingly) still respect the efforts of those who scrupulously diet and vigorously exercise. If they see faith and religion as basically good things (which they nevertheless don't bother with), they may view their mere apathy as superior to an atheist's outright rejection of the supposed goodness of religion.

[cleanhippie]

12. Wow, thats insightful.

Your analogy is spot on. Well done.