Reply to Belief in God in U.S. Dips to 81%, a New Low

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]While I don’t care whether or not anyone believes in God, I think a belief in the sacred and the divine leads to more openness, humility, and gentle curiosity in the world than not.  A wholehearted belief in science is not better, it’s just more valued in a society that lionizes masculine qualities and characteristics and maligns feminine qualities and characteristics. [/quote]

I’ve long thought the same, pp. Religious belief often leads to humility about our place in the world and our relationships with others. It can also lead to a lifetime of study and openness to challenging ideas. [/quote]

Wow, I have such an opposite view of this that I actually did laugh out loud to myself when reading your comment.  The more religious someone in my wider family circle is, the less open and the more arrogant they seem to be.  Truly, some of them think they are one of God's chosen ones who can do no wrong and don't have to listen to anyone else.  They are completely closed off to any ideas other than their own.  But these people are all Christians.  Perhaps people from other religions might not be so afflicted.[/quote]

I think American Christianity in its current popular iteration is nothing more than thinly veiled white supremacist zealotry.  I do not consider it to be even remotely representative of true faith (I am pp of the first post of this subthread). I can only speak for myself, but I am a lifelong seeker: starting in around 6th grade I studied the world religions (Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism) as well as “new age” belief systems.  I was agnostic and an atheist for most of my teens and twenties.  Now, at 36, I have adopted a belief system that’s little practiced and is very private to me - no one would know I am religious at all.  I am intensely curious about and intrigued by our universe and am deeply humbled to have been given the opportunity to live as a human in the western world in 2022.  It is a miracle for life to exist at all.  I am in awe.  I am touched by beauty.  I am devastated by violence.  All of this springs from a faith in the unseen, in the unseeable.  To have faith or not is personal and different for everyone.  But I find my life and my journey to be immeasurably enriched by my faith and I wish this richness for others.

It saddens me deeply that, in liberal circles generally, any demonstration of faith is seen almost as an embarrassment.  I know.  I grew up in DC where religion is very perfunctory or performative, and any emotion or passion regarding as much is out of the question.  Most of my friends are atheists or too apathetic to have any opinion at all.  I think this is a loss for my friends individually and for society as a whole (I would never say these things out loud, by the way - I know I’ll be judged!).  I understand why people don’t have faith and I also understand many of our mainstream religious institutions are unforgivably hypocritical and dishonest).  I would love to see a truly inter-faith society, in which those of all belief systems (including those that make no mention of god/the divine) are encouraged to participate in the public discourse on what it means to be alive on earth. Because that’s what everyone is trying to figure out, one way or another. [/quote]

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