“Without religion, what do we have that holds us together?”
This guy seems to think nothing brings about fellowship except church gatherings. I am baffled as to how an ‘expert’ in social science comes to this conclusion.
Holmssays
John, you doubt that non-religion is increasing at all in USA?
marnersays
Interviewer:
Do you think it would be better if a church had outside, “Come here, you can still smoke weed and drink liquor.”
Interviewee:
Man, listen, church would be packed every day.
Word. If they started to serve liquor and weed it would not affect my atheism, but it might very well affect my church attendance.
John Moralessays
Holms, I said so about as explicitly as one can, so yeah: I do.
(Sure, they’ll often say such things as “I’m spiritual, but not religious”, as a fig leaf)
Deepak Shettysays
@John Morales
You seem to be confusing “non-religious” with a belief in God/Higher power. Ironic given your schtick.
Holmssays
I asked for confirmation because the stance seemed very strange to me. You really believe people are exiting organised religion in some numbers to unaffiliated / “spiritual but not religious”, but then stopping there and not progressing to agnosticism / atheism? This is a very common pathway to non-belief, and I see no reason why it would not also see a surge (with a possible time lag).
John Moralessays
It’s not a stance, it’s a perception, Holms. You can for yourself look up what proportion of ‘nones’ are atheists. And the surge was basically when the New Atheists opened the way for many to come out of the religious closet, and weakened the stigma of non-belief in god[s].
The USA has historically been particularly religious, and I believe it remains so today.
—
BTW, I infer that Deepak’s claim of my “schtick” is that I differentiate between religion and goddism (I know, he wrote the opposite of what he intended), and the claim of irony is that he believes I’ve not done that in this instance. Not worth more of a response than that.
Deepak Shettysays
@John Morales
Deepak’s claim of my “schtick” is that I differentiate between religion and goddism
No -- its your highly literal interpretation of words and phrases.
(haven’t watched the video)
Non-affiliated, sure.
Non-religious? I very, very much doubt it.
“Without religion, what do we have that holds us together?”
This guy seems to think nothing brings about fellowship except church gatherings. I am baffled as to how an ‘expert’ in social science comes to this conclusion.
John, you doubt that non-religion is increasing at all in USA?
Interviewer:
Interviewee:
Word. If they started to serve liquor and weed it would not affect my atheism, but it might very well affect my church attendance.
Holms, I said so about as explicitly as one can, so yeah: I do.
(Sure, they’ll often say such things as “I’m spiritual, but not religious”, as a fig leaf)
@John Morales
You seem to be confusing “non-religious” with a belief in God/Higher power. Ironic given your schtick.
I asked for confirmation because the stance seemed very strange to me. You really believe people are exiting organised religion in some numbers to unaffiliated / “spiritual but not religious”, but then stopping there and not progressing to agnosticism / atheism? This is a very common pathway to non-belief, and I see no reason why it would not also see a surge (with a possible time lag).
It’s not a stance, it’s a perception, Holms. You can for yourself look up what proportion of ‘nones’ are atheists. And the surge was basically when the New Atheists opened the way for many to come out of the religious closet, and weakened the stigma of non-belief in god[s].
The USA has historically been particularly religious, and I believe it remains so today.
—
BTW, I infer that Deepak’s claim of my “schtick” is that I differentiate between religion and goddism (I know, he wrote the opposite of what he intended), and the claim of irony is that he believes I’ve not done that in this instance. Not worth more of a response than that.
@John Morales
No -- its your highly literal interpretation of words and phrases.