"Spiritual but not Religious" is a step towards atheism
- Details
- Published on Wednesday, 05 January 2011 06:24
- Written by John Draper
- Hits: 3085
Many recent surveys of religion discover that there are actually 3 categories - "Religious", "No religion" and "Spiritual but not religious". Atheists tend to focus on the fact that in most countries, the "no religion" or agnostic/atheist group is steadily increasing but the "spiritual but not religious" group is also increasing. Some Christians have taken this as a positive sign of an interest in God and therefore a trend towards religion. One such report was published by the United Church Observer; they say that although the number of people who call themselves religious is steadily falling, the number who are Spiritual is increasing rapidly. A study reported by USA Today prompted Christian Cathy Lynn Grossman to be surprised at the trend to large numbers of Americans in the "spiritual but not religious" group.
Although the report on the study did not show raw numbers - just graphics - and it was done in 2009, it does show a clear move away from religion - especially in the U.S. Northeast.
Here is one graph - for more go here.
So what does this mean? Unlike the concern shown by Cathy Lynn Grossman, according to the United Church, it is one step towards eventually adopting a Religion since spirituality seems to be part of most religions. But the way I see it, yes, this is a step - not towards religion but away from it. People who follow this form of spirituality are wanting to be moral and ethical plus they like all the emotional good feelings of spiritualism. So they are saying, you don't need a god to be a good person and to do the right thing! Sounds like atheism to me. And their next step will likely be "why god?" and not "OK, let's accept someone else's idea of a god".
When you think about it, major changes in society would be expected to be in small steps. People do not usually change their views 180 degrees overnight. So let's applaud and encourage this step forward.
This article originally published earlier on this site but now updated with new material.