The New Age
The western world is the best place to study the enduring appeal of religion. It is in these societies that people are free to worship or not as they please. It is in these societies that we can see what happens when compulsion is removed from religion.
In western society where Christianity is the dominant religion, something strange has happened as Christianity has lost its grip on power. Church attendance has declined, but the majority of people, when questioned, still have some kind of spiritual belief.
This has resulted in the growth of new age religions. These are often pick and mix religions which use the names of pre-christian gods and re-invented ceremonies. The truly startling thing about these new age religions is that they tend to move from one god under Christianity to many gods. For a committed atheist who sees all religions as equally irrational this may seem insignificant. Most Christians, however, view their religion as a move towards a more rational life compared to paganism and for them the growth of new age religions is seen as a backward step.
The other development in the Christian world is the growth of other more established religions such as Islam and Buddhism. Islam has grown because of immigration to western societies from the Muslim world, as well as people converting. Islam is a religion, like Christianity, which seeks converts.
Buddhism has also experienced growth through conversion in the western world. Buddhism has a particular appeal in that it is a religion that has no god. To the rational mind that finds many of the concepts of Christianity little more than superstition, Buddhism appears to offer a radically different approach to spirituality. It is a religion which allows a rational life with a spiritual content. The reality is that much of the Buddhist world is full of deities including living deities who are, it is claimed, the reincarnations of historic figures.
Other religions, such as Sikhism, Judaism, Druze and Hinduism tend to not have the same impact in terms of conversions because they are not religions which seek converts. The small number of westerners who convert to these religions do so mostly through marriage. Their conversion is the act of joining a society, just as one joins a family through marriage.
One of the great strengths of Christianity has been the ability to adapt and there are numerous interpretations of Christianity. With the decline of traditional Christian churches has come the growth of other forms of Christianity, such as the Church of Latter Day Saints, Jehovah’s Witnesses and a variety of evangelical preachers whose exact interpretation varies from Old Testament literal interpretations to alternative lifestyle ministries which embrace homosexuality.
When people lose their belief in their traditional religion, atheism is only one of the options open to them. For many people there is, what has often been called, a god shaped hole. This is something which they will, sooner or later, seek to fill. How a person fills this hole in their life depends on the individual. For someone who finds the whole notion of a personal god ridiculous they may well choose Buddhism. For someone who finds religious rules oppressive they could choose the pick and mix approach of new age religions. For the person who finds their traditional church too liberal and believes that society is sinking into a moral vacuum they may well choose either Christian Fundamentalism or Islam.
For many people who find it impossible to believe in any organized religion there is the Deist approach of believing in a god as creator of the universe who then has a limited or non existent role in human history. God’s work is seen in the existence of the universe but all human knowledge is man made and there is no divine revelation. Many of America’s founding fathers were Deists, including Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. The separation of church and state was very much in keeping with Deist principles, as was the meaning of the word creator in the declaration of independence.
Despite the decline of traditional Christian churches in western societies, the growth of other faiths and the widespread but unorganized belief in a form of Deism shows that even in a society free from religious compulsion, beliefs of a religious nature will persist.
For religious believers this is not surprising. For non believers it is not enough to simply lament this fact and assume it is all as a result of a lack of education and stupidity. If the non believer wants to promote a more rational world, they must put aside prejudice and attempt to reach a rational understanding of religious belief.
In western society where Christianity is the dominant religion, something strange has happened as Christianity has lost its grip on power. Church attendance has declined, but the majority of people, when questioned, still have some kind of spiritual belief.
This has resulted in the growth of new age religions. These are often pick and mix religions which use the names of pre-christian gods and re-invented ceremonies. The truly startling thing about these new age religions is that they tend to move from one god under Christianity to many gods. For a committed atheist who sees all religions as equally irrational this may seem insignificant. Most Christians, however, view their religion as a move towards a more rational life compared to paganism and for them the growth of new age religions is seen as a backward step.
The other development in the Christian world is the growth of other more established religions such as Islam and Buddhism. Islam has grown because of immigration to western societies from the Muslim world, as well as people converting. Islam is a religion, like Christianity, which seeks converts.
Buddhism has also experienced growth through conversion in the western world. Buddhism has a particular appeal in that it is a religion that has no god. To the rational mind that finds many of the concepts of Christianity little more than superstition, Buddhism appears to offer a radically different approach to spirituality. It is a religion which allows a rational life with a spiritual content. The reality is that much of the Buddhist world is full of deities including living deities who are, it is claimed, the reincarnations of historic figures.
Other religions, such as Sikhism, Judaism, Druze and Hinduism tend to not have the same impact in terms of conversions because they are not religions which seek converts. The small number of westerners who convert to these religions do so mostly through marriage. Their conversion is the act of joining a society, just as one joins a family through marriage.
One of the great strengths of Christianity has been the ability to adapt and there are numerous interpretations of Christianity. With the decline of traditional Christian churches has come the growth of other forms of Christianity, such as the Church of Latter Day Saints, Jehovah’s Witnesses and a variety of evangelical preachers whose exact interpretation varies from Old Testament literal interpretations to alternative lifestyle ministries which embrace homosexuality.
When people lose their belief in their traditional religion, atheism is only one of the options open to them. For many people there is, what has often been called, a god shaped hole. This is something which they will, sooner or later, seek to fill. How a person fills this hole in their life depends on the individual. For someone who finds the whole notion of a personal god ridiculous they may well choose Buddhism. For someone who finds religious rules oppressive they could choose the pick and mix approach of new age religions. For the person who finds their traditional church too liberal and believes that society is sinking into a moral vacuum they may well choose either Christian Fundamentalism or Islam.
For many people who find it impossible to believe in any organized religion there is the Deist approach of believing in a god as creator of the universe who then has a limited or non existent role in human history. God’s work is seen in the existence of the universe but all human knowledge is man made and there is no divine revelation. Many of America’s founding fathers were Deists, including Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. The separation of church and state was very much in keeping with Deist principles, as was the meaning of the word creator in the declaration of independence.
Despite the decline of traditional Christian churches in western societies, the growth of other faiths and the widespread but unorganized belief in a form of Deism shows that even in a society free from religious compulsion, beliefs of a religious nature will persist.
For religious believers this is not surprising. For non believers it is not enough to simply lament this fact and assume it is all as a result of a lack of education and stupidity. If the non believer wants to promote a more rational world, they must put aside prejudice and attempt to reach a rational understanding of religious belief.
posted by craig fotheringham at 9:01 AM
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