Religious Feelings

Living near San Francisco means I am privy to lots of emerging trends; the area is a blender for innumerable cultures and ideas; the proliferation of academic institutions means new research is produced here daily. You become used to it, ambivalent to even big changes in the culture. Often that’s a great thing, as it avoids panic caused by change and encourages further innovation, but occassionally I notice a disturbing social trend treated with such a casual attitude that it sends shivers down my spine.

One such trend was picked up on by the SF Chronicle last week and is dubbed by them “Living the religious life of a none“. Their article explains:

Kellee Hom was raised in the Roman Catholic Church but never imagined she’d become a religious none.

No, not “nun.” That’s “none,” as in “none of the above.”

Hom is among a growing number of Americans who simply answer “none” or “no religion” when pollsters ask them their religious affiliation. Some “nones” identify themselves as atheists or agnostics, but the vast majority believe in God, pray and often describe themselves as “spiritual but not religious.”

What?

I found four definitions for “religious”:

re-li-gious:

1. Having or showing belief in and reverence for God or a deity.

2. Of, concerned with, or teaching religion: a religious text.

3. Extremely scrupulous or conscientious: religious devotion to duty.

4. A member of a monastic order, especially a nun or monk

And five for “spiritual”:

spir-i-tu-al:

1. Of, relating to, consisting of, or having the nature of spirit; not tangible or material. See Synonyms atimmaterial.

2. Of, concerned with, or affecting the soul.

3. Of, from, or relating to God; deific.

4. Of or belonging to a church or religion; sacred.

5. Relating to or having the nature of spirits or a spirit; supernatural.

“Religous” seems to connote the active pursuit of God or another; “Spiritual” seems to be a quality, a possession. I suppose it’s not surprising that Americans are more concerned with having the right thing than doing the right thing–I personally would rather accumulate more things than actually use them. But what is more disturbing to me is the idea that “having” IS “doing”.

I’ve been feeling this way lately. Yesterday I returned some items to Fry’s Electronics and wandered the store aimlessly afterward. As I passed the aisles of equipment, I felt a strange desire to simply “possess”, that by owning these items I would be doing what was right. Of course this was justified by the idea that I would eventually use them to do good; but the feeling itself was a desire to possess.

The article points out that the American West has the most “religous nones”, but that the trend is extending nationwide:

People on the West Coast tend to be from somewhere else. They tear up roots when they move out West, including their religious roots. But this is not just a West Coast fluke.

What has gotten the attention of many scholars is the sharp increase in the number of Americans nationwide who now claim no loyalty to a single faith…[a study] estimated that the number of “no religion” Americans had jumped from 14 million in 1990 to 29 million in 2001.

Out of that 29 million, only 900,000 would call themselves atheists. Those 29 million nones are outnumbered only by the 51 million Americans who call themselves Catholic and 34 million who say they are Baptist.

The excuse is that “all religions are basically the same”; “I believe in beauty and truth, but not laws and rules”–but I see little beauty and truth in lukewarm statements like these:

“I believe, but I don’t know what — just in the universe as an entity…I don’t know if I believe in heaven or hell. It’s all so ambiguous.

“I pray once in a while. I kind of believe in a supreme being, but if you start trying to pin me down …”

“We are all part of the same thing…We are all part of each other and the animals and the Earth — all part of one big thing.”

I’m not saying I’m much better, but I want to be…scratch that, I want to do.