Both the American Religious Identification Survey and Gallup have noticed the growth of the Nones in American society. These are the people that are no longer affiliated with or have no interest in religion. The Nones include the non-affiliated, the atheists and the agnostics. Many are deist and believe in a god, but aren't interested in organized religion. Some hold religious beleifs that fall outside of mainstream religions.
The majority of Nones were once Catholic and no longer attend because of homosexual and financial scandals that plagued this church. The Catholic Church also has become a single issue anti-abortion church and many Catholics got tired of hearing about this before election day.
The Catholic Church was also on the wrong side of the Terri Schaivo Court Case that convinced many Americans that the GOP needed to get out of family affairs. Republicans interference in the court case hurt the family values shtick of the GOP.
Rightardia is a secular publication that believes religion has become irrelevant. Most religions arouse before science existed and many hold beliefs that are unscientific and easily disproven. The superstars of the ancient world were the Greeks who gave the world science, logic and democracy. The Hebrews wrote some fantastic prose and poetry that spurred the creation of two other major religions.
Rightardia would also point that there was a lot of discussion about whether Christ was a man or a God by early Christians. In the Council of Nicea, a Roman Emperor declared Christ to be a god. However, the Greek Orthodox church still believes Christ was born a man who became divine because of his good deeds.
The early Founders were also skeptical of religion. The Jefferson Bible, or The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth as it is formally titled, was Thomas Jefferson's effort to get to the basics of Jesus by removing sections of the New Testament containing supernatural aspects. According to Wikipedia Jefferson also wanted to eliminate the perceived misinterpretations that had been added by the Four Evangelists: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
Benjamin Franklin said that lighthouses were more useful than churches. Thomas Jefferson stated, "The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus by the Supreme Being in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter." Thomas Paine said, "My country is the world, and my religion is to do good." Skepticism about religion is not something that appeared in the 20th and 21st centuries. Many of the Founders were skeptics.
What are the features of a good religion? Buddhism comes the closest to the Rightardia ideal. First, there should be no proselytization . Churches should stop functioning like sales organizations. Some of the televangelists like Benny Hinn are the worst examples of the this and are fueled by the god, Mammon.
Second, there should be no supernatural beings such as Gods, angels or demigods. This has led to irrational beleifs in evangelicals and fundamentalists who beleive the world is being monitored and controlled by the heavens. There is no proof that prayer to these supreme beings works. In fact , scientific studies have proven that intercessory (third person) prayer doesn't work at all.
Evangelicals actively await for the arrival the anti-Christ and the tribulations that follow because they want to experience The Rapture before the end of the world. What a twisted view of scripture! Evangelicals now know that Obama is not the anti-Christ or the Messiah. Otherwise, the US would have been awarded the Olympics in Chicago.
It would be nice if people had souls and they get to see dead bothers sisters and spouses who passed away when they go to heaven. This is certainly a beautiful fairy tale. Not even all of the tribes of Israel believed this and many were skeptical about heaven when Jesus talked about it. Even today many Jews believe you make your own heaven on Earth.
Scientists have even monitored people when the pass away for energy changes or bursts and have not found any. Scientists have also quized people who had 'out of body' experiences and have discovered they could not remember any of the numbers strategically placed around rooms that a floating soul would be able to see.
If you need some more spirituality, try reading a good philosophy book. Immanuel Kant wrote a lot about morality and his Categorical Imperative that is not based on scripture. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immanuel_Kant
Also, check out the Church of Reality. See http://www.churchofreality.org/wisdom/welcome_home/
The Sacred Missions of the Church of Reality are:
- We Believe in Reality - the Way It Really Is
- We Spread the Sacred Message - Reality
- We Choose the Sacred Direction - Forward
- We Honor the Tree of Knowledge
- We Ask the Sacred Moral Question - What Is Good
- We Issue the Sacred Challenge
- We Are Activists - We Make It Happen
- We Unite Religion and Reality
If you want to be part of an organization that does some serious church work, try Americans United for the Separation of church and State. Since 1992, the Rev. Barry W. Lynn has served as executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a Washington, D.C.-based organization dedicated to the preservation of the Constitution’s religious liberty provisions.See http://www.au.org/about/inside-au/barry-lynn.html
Welcome to the brave new world of the Nones. Enjoy you Sundays by relaxing with your family or sleeping in. You will quickly find there are more interesting things to do than sit through a boring and hot church service.
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