Losing Our Religion

AMERICAN CULTURE has always been diverse. Socially, ethnically, racially, you name it, we Americans diversify it. This is especially true in the realm of religion. An estimated fifteen hundred organized religions flourish in freedom's land, about half of which are various Christian denominations, the rest a spectrum of the world's religions, of which there are an estimated four thousand or so. Goethe's comment "When I realized that everyone invents his own religion, I decided to invent mine" is not far if at all removed from the truth in the great American "melting pot". Religions, however, do not tend to melt together, but rather, to remain apart. Communities are built within the faith, but often are limited to the faith. Since American society features such a fascinating array of religious variety, surveys and studies are constantly being undertaken to measure in precise terms the American religious landscape. The prevailing trend is that religion in general, and the Christian religion in particular, is declining rapidly in the United States. A little more than a generation ago fully eighty five percent of Americans self identified as religious, with religion playing an important art in their lives. Over the years that percentage has steadily declined; within the past decade it has declined to around sixty percent, and the most recent survey, released this week, indicates that an important milestone in the decline of religion in America has been reached and passed; less than half the American people, forty nine percent to be exact, consider religion to be an important part of their lives as of mid November, twenty twenty five. The United States is now, at least statistically, if not formally, a majority non religious, secular humanist country. How much further will the trend continue? Will the percentage of religious Americans eventually become a shrinking, vanishing minority, dwindling to nothing as religions of all kinds disappear from American cuture? Research conducted in countries around the word indicate that indeed the trend in the United States of declining religion is manifest throughout the western hemisphere, and generally throughout the world. Europe, for instance, has become essentially a non religious, secular society, with only a smal lminority of religious people,as can be readily discerned by anybody to visits and travels widely in Europe. Religion still has a stronger hold in third world, undeveloped countries, while the decline in church membership proceeds rapidly in countries with a developed indistrial economy and high tech industries. Where science and technology make their largest imprints, religion tends to recede most rapidly. Religious faith and devotion serve emotional as well as spiritual needs for humans, and, quite possibly, for intelligent species of life in every nook and cranny of the universe. Presicely how those needs can and will be met in a post religion world has not been clearly articulated or delineated. But we can rest assured that the deep rooted human needs which have for thousands of years been satisfied by religion and religiosity are not going to simply vanish as our species moves beyond religion, to a higher intellectual level based on knowledge through science. For our emotional and spiritual sustenance we will have to learn to derive spiritual, religious meaning meaning from nature, from the universe itself, as we cast off our religious superstition and mythology. Fortunately for us, we live in an utterly amazing universe, worthy of our love and admiration.