Daily Archives: September 24, 2021

Tom Van Denburgh's transformation from believer to skeptic didn't come in a sudden, "a-ha!" moment.

It was more like a slow, steady trek toward a new truth.

Growing up in the northern New Jersey suburbs, Van Denburgh attended a private Christian academy with "an overemphasis on hell and brimstone" and an unhealthy preoccupationwith Satan, he recalls.

Every Easter weekend, his family would attend the church's outdoor Stations of the Cross display where "a live Jesus, covered in fake blood, pretended to agonize on a full-sized cross." Tom and hisolderbrother would weep in horror.

He stopped going to church in seventh grade, but throughout adolescence, he struggledto explain the discomfort gnawing at him when people spoke about religion.

Only in college did he find the words: He was an atheist, a "None."

He's not alone. While still just a sliver of the overall population, the proportion of atheists in the U.S. doubled over the last decade, reaching 4% of all adults in 2019, according to the Pew Research Center. An additional 5% considered themselves agnostic, claiming nothing can be known about the existence or nonexistence of a higher power.

The share describing themselves as Christian, meanwhile, dropped to 65% in 2019, down from 77% in 2009.Protestant and Catholic identification have both ebbed.

The exodus from organized religion that is remaking America hasn't left it agodless nation. Surveys show most of those who've left religious institutions behind say they still believe in a divine power.

Understanding theflight from faith, and what's replacing it, will be critical to understanding American civic life in the future, as the religious "Nones" continue to grow into a major force.

Here's a look at the journeys three men have taken, and their sacrifices and epiphanies along the way:

Growing up in a devout Muslim family in Pakistan, Muhammad Syed never encountered religious skeptics. "There's a story about Muhammad flying to Jerusalem on a horse with wings. If you express any doubt about that, you're branded a heretic," saidSyed, who now lives in Washington, D.C.

Syed moved to the U.S. in his 20s, and attended graduate school for computer science.Like Tom Van Denburgh, he found it hard to square a skeptical, rationalist view of the world with a faith tradition that required belief in the mysterious andmiraculous. Several years after completing his master's coursework,he decided he would no longer practice Islam.

Studies show those raised in a strict religious upbringing are no more likely to become Nones, said Greg Smith, head of Pew's domestic religion polling unit.

But their paths are often more traumatic.

Jessica Koscielniak, USA TODAY

Shocked friends and family tried to convince Syed to return. When it was clear he had left for good, some refused to associate with him; others were so angry, they threatened him physically.

Overall, the Muslim community in the U.S. has been growing in recent years. But almost a quarter or those raised Muslim no longer identified with the faith in a 2017 Pew study.

Today, at age 42, Syed works in software development. He also runs Ex-Muslims of North America, a nonprofit he founded in 2013 to help others facing the same difficult transition.

A survey for the groupbyGeorge Mason University found "leavers"cited a wide range of motivations, but most expressed a discontent with Islam's doctrines and practices. Nearly all of them experiencedblowback for their apostasy, including verbal and emotional manipulationand shattered relationships, Syed said.

Like many Americanswho leaveorganized religion, he remains passionate about his spirituality.

"Spirituality is connectedness with the people around us, with our context in the universe," he said. "Being a part of the universe, seeing where we are as a species, our origins, our understanding of all of that, thats a spiritual experience.

"I personally think serving humanity is important," Syed said.

In high school, Tom Van Denburgh came out to a friend as gay. The news raced around the school. Classmates threatened and shoved him in the hallwayand "Biblical passages were hurled at me," he said.

"I was told I was going to hell."

Van Denburgh also began reading about the horrors of the Inquisition, Salem Witch Trials and other episodes of history in which religion became a "justification for bigotry."

Eventually, the Bible stories he was taught as a child felt "divorced from any sense of reality and nothing more than mythology," said Van Denburgh, 34, who now lives in Plainfield, New Jersey.

He works as communications director forAmerican Atheists, the civil rights group founded by activist Madalyn Murray OHair. "I focus on protecting other minorities like me from the negative aspects of religion," he said in an interview.

In a landmark 1963 case in which the U.S. Supreme Court prohibited mandatory prayer in public schools, O'Hair explained atheists' beliefs to the justices.

"An atheist believes that heaven is something for which we should work now here on Earth," she told the court. "An atheist believes that he can get no help through prayer but that he must find in himself the inner conviction and strength to meet life, to grapple with it, to subdue itand enjoy it."

Van Denburgh spends his spare time on political activities and pushing for progressive legislation, including protections against LGBTQ discrimination. He finds fulfillment, he said, involunteer work, friends and family and acquiring knowledge.

Tom Van Denburgh, raised evangelical, living as atheist: 'I do not miss religion'

Michael Karas, NorthJersey.com

He doesn't believe in any higher powers but instead in "the need to protect and preserve human rights."

Atheists are among the most politically active group in the country, relative to their numbers, said Ryan Burge, a political science professor at Eastern Illinois University who has studied the rise of the Nones.

For many Americans, "politics is the new religion," added Joe Chuman, a professor in Columbia University's Department of Religion. From social justice warriors on the left to MAGA believers on the right, political activists often feel they have found the truth in a way that has a religious fervor, he said.

"People today tend to be more skeptical of all types of institutions," Chuman said. "Fewer people belong to clubs and younger people tend not to join any institution or group. People are turned off by the right-wing churches and tend to look down uponchurches for not being liberalenough."

Jay Brown was born into a conservative Christian home to parents who were globe-trotting missionaries. He followed in their footsteps, traveling from his Iowa hometown to California, Brazil and China to open the eyes of the unenlightened.

His spiritual journey has taken him much further.

Today, the 42-year-old graphicdesigner and father of two lives in Somerville, New Jersey, without any religious affiliation. He feels he doesn't need to believe in divinity to be a good person and lead a meaningful life.

"Before, I had to view the bad things in the world as things that God caused" or allowed, he said. "And I had to try to make sense of that. Now, I just look at them as problems that we can try to solve without having to blame anyone or ask why it happened."

'Life after religion': Once a missionary, Jay Brown is now an atheist

Kevin R. Wexler, NorthJersey.com

Brown was raised in western Iowa, hanging on the words of preachers and Sunday school teachers. His family belonged to a small, fundamentalist evangelical denomination called the Plymouth Brethren.

As a child, he was encouraged to study Scripture daily. Like other atheists, he found somethingjust didn't click.

When he was 10, Brown was disturbedby a passage he read in the first book of Samuel in which God commanded King Saul to kill the children of the Amalekites, an ancient tribe described in the Bible as relentless enemies of Israel.

"I asked my mom about it," Brown recalled. "She gave me several explanations why this was defensiblefor Israel to do against their enemies at that time in history. The answers didn'tsatisfy me at all, but I nodded and figured I'd understand when I got older."

The family moved around the world, settling in new regions to evangelize. Brown was an active participant and along the way met his wife, who also did missionary work. The couple adopted two children while overseas.

But he was never able to dismiss the slaughter of the Amalekite childrenor settle other practical and theological questions that nagged at him:"Do we freely choose to believe in Jesus for salvation or did God alreadychoose who would and wouldn't believe? How did Jesus' body as a physical sacrificepay for aspiritual debt of sin? Andwill over 70% of people throughout history go to hell just because they never heardof Jesus?"

The dissonance finally become too much two years ago. Brown announced that he was an atheist. His wife of 12 years was distraught, his two teenagersconfused, friends in church aghast.

His identity, occupation and worldview, all centered on Christianity, had collapsed. Life suddenly looked very different.

While his marriage wasshaken, Brown said he and his wife have realized their love for one another was greater than their disagreement over religion. He's found Facebook a lifesaver, he said, allowing him to network with other atheists and humanist groups.

"I feel the beautyand joy of this world moredeeply now. I now probablyonly have this one life to experience, which makes itprecious and rare." He's good "for the sakeof being good, not because of a promised reward" or because of "gods who only seem to appear in stories," he said.

"Nothing I do will matter to the cosmos," Brown explained, "but it will matter to the ones I love."

Deena Yellin covers religion for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to her work covering how the spiritual intersects with our daily lives,please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email:yellin@northjersey.com

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They were a missionary, a Muslim and an evangelical but are now atheists. Why? - NorthJersey.com

Im astounded by people who have the intellectual honesty, courage, and fortitude to examine their most deeply held beliefs. Not just examine, but challenge and reject beliefs that shape how their entire world is constructedbeliefs that they have been told were unequivocally true, by their most trusted sources, since they were littlebeliefs that have been deliberately and systematically ingrained.

The reverse of indoctrination, the process of systematically pulling apart those beliefs is sometimes called deconstructing. And deconstructing is having something of a media moment. This gives me hope for our species because it shows that humans are capable of the intellectual courage and honesty that our species needs, but which is far too rare.

Im not religious. I never have been. My mom insisted I question and challenge authority as a guiding principle. I never had to deconstruct. I dont know what that is like. But I admire the hell out of it. I often wonder if I had been raised and systematically told to believe X, whether Idve had the courage to shake off that mind-forged manacle.

Of course I want to say, yes, without doubt, but that undersells the pressures and defense mechanisms some religions, sects, and religious communities have evolved to keep people enthralled, a short list of which I include in The Founding Myth: persecuting outsiders, shunning doubters, punishing interfaith marriages, punishing apostates (sometimes with death), homeschooling or religious schooling, gathering together to shout down the doubts on a regular basis, approving some texts and burning others.

Given these roadblocks, I think that deconstructing and leaving ones faith behindor, at the very least, moving away from a narrow and authoritarian faithis goddamned remarkable, a true intellectual achievement. Consider this my love letter to everyone deconstructing their faith, questioning the beliefs imposed on them as children. This grew out of a conversation I had with two exvangelicals on their delightful podcast, Go Home Bible, Youre Drunk, but Ive known many whove deconstructed their faith.

Dan Barker has written several books on how he lost faith in faith, his journey from itinerant preacher to atheist activisthe also wrote the foreword to my book. Jerry Dewitt was a Pentecostal preacher who deconstructed; an intellectual odyssey that landed him in the New York Times. Barker and Dewitt helped launch The Clergy Project, a support community for clergy who no longer believe. Two and a half years ago the Clergy Project surpassed 1,000 members, both former and active clergy. Thats right, the preacher in your pulpit might very well be an atheist who doesnt know how to escape.

The younger generation is even more open about questioning their faith and leaving Christianity behind. Whether its Rhett and Link, who used their platform to honestly discuss their deconstruction and deconversion; or Abraham Piper, son of influential pastor John Piper, whos publicly deconstructing evangelical Christianity on TikTok; or Chrissy Stroop and Lauren ONeal, who edited an eye-opening series of essays called Empty the Pews: Stories of Leaving the Church.

Not everyone who deconstructs becomes an atheistRhett & Link identify as agnostics and others consider themselves still Christianbut thats what critics of deconstruction seem most worried about. Ive yet to hear a thoughtful objection to deconstruction; instead Ive heard believers giving voice to their own deepest fears. Theyve bought into a system that tells people life without that system is empty and meaningless.

Your journey, my deconstructed friendyour mere existenceis a threat to that system. People stuck in the system can see that youve left and are happyperhaps happier. And that is threatening. Thats why we see so many snide comments from religious leaders chastising deconstructionists (I wont link to them here, in my love letter, but theyre not hard to find. Im not out to court controversy, but to offer support).

Faith over fear is a phrase we hear a lot these days. But how can a faith be strong if its never been questioned? What does it say about their belief that theyre so scared of others questioning it? While an atheist opining on the strength of faith may seem disingenuous, one of the most well-respected Christian theologians of the 20th century, Paul Tillich, agrees. He wrote that doubt isnt the opposite of faith; it is an element of faith.

Blind unquestioned faith is not a universally shared valueeven among Western Christians.

Last summer, I redid my fireplace. The mantle, the hearth, the hood, the wallI took everything out, I ripped it down to the studs. Turns out, there was a leak in the roof that had rotted through several studs. Basically, the drywall had been holding it up. I was able to replace the rot with strong bones. Had I not done a bit of deconstructing, wed have had mold or worse, a collapse.

If someones faith is true, if theyre correct and possess the one absolute eternal truth, no amount of doubt and questioning can hurt it. Truth can withstand questioning and deconstructing; error cannot. So deconstruction is only dangerous if theres a possibility of rot beneath the surface. And in that case, deconstruction is only dangerous to the rot. When you rip it out, you can build back better. Believers who are confident in their faith should encourage everyone to engage in deconstruction. At the very least, the people who have the courage to question their religious beliefs deserve our respect, not mockery.

But all I see from the ostentatiously pious is fear and mockery of those willing to question with boldness. So Id like all those deconstructing and all those whove deconstructed only to find a faith that was but shadowI want you to know that you are loved. Not by a god, but by other people just like you. By the thousands, the millions of people who have left their religion behind. We are in this together. We are not divided by our religion, we are not to be winnowed and separated into wheat and chaff, or lopped off the vine to be burnedwe are united by our shared humanity. And there is a lot of love in the secular world.

And if youve deconstructed to a healthier faith, free of authoritarianism, bigotry, sexism, and abuseand if youve shed the tribalism and the need to impose and convert and separate the religious from the humaneyoure doing your part to better the world, too.

I think deconstructed exvangelicals in particular have a lot to offer. The sect they escaped from is the most toxic politically in the United States; the sourcealong with Traditionalist Catholics and conservative Mormonsof most of the authoritarianism, Christian Nationalism, and threats to our pluralist democracy. We can learn from their experience by listening to their stories.

There are many groups out there working to limit the power of religion in our government, to keep state and church separate, and to fight Christian Nationalism, that can amplify these voices and which exvangelicals could contribute to in other ways: the Secular Student Alliance, the Freedom From Religion Foundation, Black Nonbelievers, the American Humanist Association, Hispanic American Freethinkers, American Atheists, the Center for Inquiry, Ex-Muslims of North America, and many more, including hundreds of amazing local groups that offer a more intimate and familiar community.

Many of these local groups, such as the Atheist Community of Polk County (Fla.), are filling the community and service space that has been, until recently, monopolized by churches. The Polk atheists clean up roads theyve adopted, fight for LGBTQ inclusion, feed and clothe the homeless, and raise money for charity. You can be good without god, have fellowship without faith and community without church, as Polk Atheists puts it. (Often, filling these spaces is quite literal. I spoke to the Atlanta Freethought Society on The Founding Myth book tour in their building, an old church on Church Lane.)

There are options, even if youre not a public speaker or writer who wants to share your personal story and help others leave faith behind. But perhaps the biggest impact you can have is to simply live a visibly happy life free of toxic religion. To show others struggling with the conflict, and contradictions, and bigotry, and authoritarianism, and misogyny, and perversion of love and sex, that there is another way to live this life. Again, this will always be seen as a threat to those still in the faith because they see that a different life is possible.

I recently debated the existence of the biblical god with a Christian apologist. In my closing, I said words that I think are best to close out this love letter:

Certainty is not truth. Comfort is not truth. Faith is not truth. Its scarier to think that the universe doesnt care what happens to you. It doesnt. But I do. And some of your fellow humans do too. We give life meaning. Do good. Love blindly. Practice empathy. Forgive readily. Create beauty. Learn with abandon. Challenge tradition and injustice everywhere. Above all, find something bigger than yourself to fight for. Make a difference in this life and in this world, because theyre the only ones that we get.

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A Love Letter to #Exvangelicals and Those Deconstructing Their Toxic Faith - Religion Dispatches

Mumbai:A statement by musician Javed Akhtar on the ever-deteriorating situation in Afghanistan has put him on target of Islamic fundamentalists. Javed had written that every Muslim group should condemn the working women who have been asked by the Kabul mayor to "stay at home."After the same tweet, the fundamentalists got agitated and called them infidels, and atheists.

It may be recalled that Javed Akhtar had written in a tweet, "Aljazeera has reported that the mayor of Kabul has ordered all working women should stay at home I expect all-important Muslim bodies to condemn it because it is being done in the name of their religion Where are all those who were till yesterday shouting in defence of triple talaq.''

Ali Hashmi commented on Akhtar's tweet and wrote, 'What do you have to do by religion. You are an atheist, pay attention to it. In Kabul, working women have been banned for a short time and that too in some areas. They are being allowed to study, they are being allowed to do medicine work. I don't support the Taliban, but I just want to clear your misunderstanding.'

Ahmed commented, 'I have never seen any tweet of this infidel on the bombing by the US and now he is restless over the news for which he is planning and looking for the right way.' Adil Khan commented, 'Why don't you just focus on the problems of the women of your country. What do you have to do from other countries? Please, this is not your job.' Saif Alam linked Javed Akhtar with the BJP, he wrote, "Very cleverly, by linking India's triple talaq issue with the Kabul issue, you are trying to point out that what the BJP did in the name of triple talaq is correct and Javed Akhtar is with the BJP. Wow.'

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'You are an atheist...,' fundamentalists anger on Javed Akhtar again, reason is just a 'tweet' - News Track English

Letters to the Editor| South Bend Tribune

With 197,179 people in St. Joseph County registered to vote, only 116,688 actually showed up and voted in the 2020 elections a 59% turnout rate. What causes such a low turnout for these elections? Well, people are just not showing enough interest or are too uneducated in matters to care. People see the brutal misconceptions about politics in the United States and just decide not to vote or care about politics in general.

Incorporating politics in schools could possibly help people better understand the subject and how much impact it has on our small communities. They would have to be taught with unbiased informationso teens can learn to gather information on their own and develop their own opinions. It would also open more opportunities for kids, giving them firsthand knowledge of political sciences, making it another extremely important career option.Teaching high school kids about politics would ensure thatyoung adults, who are able to vote in a few years, would have the knowledge they would need so they could go into the working world as educated and well-versed citizens.

It is rational for the atheist to go apoplectic over the recent Texas law. The law robs the atheists of their control. Those who believe in God recognize that human life has a unique value. The law simply protects a child with a beating heart.

It seems that a state should have the right to not kill its own citizens. For those who believe in God, the child in the womb is a one of a kind, infinitely valuablemasterpiece created by God for a mission. Their life is a consequence of choices that were made by others. Choices have consequences. It serves humanity well to not kill the innocent.

The thoughtful humanperson has grappled with truth from the ancient Greeks to those today who believe that one can more deeply understand the true, the good and the beautiful. May we all be counted among the thoughtful! The thoughtful forge a culture of life!

Rev. Glenn Kohrman

South Bend

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Letters: Teach kids about politics to create well-informed voters - South Bend Tribune

They are ex-missionaries and military pilots, yoga instructors and computer programmers, mothers, fathers, professors and political activists.

Some left religion on a rocky, anguished path, stung by abuse or shunned by family. Others came to the realization slowly, after a lifetime of questions they couldn't shake.

Jay Brown was the missionary. Raised in small-town Iowa, he traveled the world spreading the Lord's Gospel until two years ago, when he realized he was an atheist.

The epiphany almosttore apart his marriage, but the family has persevered. Now, Brown says, he finds meaning in being a good father and husbandand helping others.

Zalman Newfield, a sociology professorfrom Hoboken, New Jersey, left his ultra-Orthodox Jewish upbringing years ago but still holds tight to the traditions of his childhood. Each week, he gathers his two young daughters to study the Torah, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible.

They are two travelers among many in one ofthe fastest-growing movements in America: the"Nones"people whose relationship with institutionalized religion can best be described as"none" or "nothing."

In a country founded on tales of devout worshippers willing to risk everythingfor religious freedom, from Puritans toQuakers to Mormons, surveys say the Nones (pronounced, ironically, "nuns") now accountfor about one in every four Americans. It'sa sea change set to transformthe country's religion, culture and politics.

Just as interesting as the exodus is what's replacing organized religion in people's lives: a more personal, often hard-to-define spirituality and search for meaning. That can manifest as a devotion to nature, meditation, yoga or political activism, among other things.

While atheism is growing in America, many of the Nones tell pollsters they still believe in a higher power, or even the Biblical God but on their own terms, not those of a preacher, rabbi or imam.

Ryan Burge, aSouthern Baptist minister, began pastoring a small church in Mount Vernon, Illinois, in 2006 while he was completing his graduate studiesin political science. Within adecade, he said, "my church went from having about 50 people in the pews to just over 20. What was happening in American religion was also happeningrightin front of me."

Within 10 years, the number of people in the U.S.whoaffiliate with no particular faithwill be larger than any individual religious denomination, predicts Burge, nowapolitical science professor at Eastern Illinois University. His book,"The Nones: Where They Came From, Who They Are, and Where They Are Going," was published in March.

As many as 70million American adults now identify as Nones, he said.Their numbers rose steadily from the 1970s onward and then accelerated in the new century, leaping from 17% of the populationin 2009 to26% in 2019, according to a Pew Research Center survey.

In recentyears, one study after anotherhas sought to decipher their motivations and movements.

In late March, aGallup poll found that 47% of U.S. adults belonged to a houseof worship,the first time that group accounted for less thanhalf of thepopulation since the pollster began asking the questionnearly a century ago.

The Nones are largely a youth movement. A landmark survey of a half-million Americans released in Julyfound just over a third of adultsunder 30 were unaffiliated. In 1986, it was just 10%,according to the nonprofit Public Religion Research Institute.

Raised in a culture where they were urged to think creatively and "outside the box," today's youth are reinventing religious practices to accommodatetheir own lifestyles. Many optto be spiritually connected in a way that feels authentic to them but would likelyseem strange or heretical to their Bible-toting ancestors.

Nonesoften striveto find spirituality from within, be it through meditation, yoga or gatherings with communities of friends. They insist on forging their own journeys in a way that feels genuine to their souls.

"What we find are young people who are trying to figure out how to put the pieces together to create a flourishingspiritual life from a variety of sources," said Josh Packard, a sociologist and author of "The Emerging Church: Religion at the Margins."

"Many are turning to nature, online communities, meditationand other spiritual practices," said Packard, who is also executive director of the Springtide Research Institute inMinnesota, which studies the faith of young people.

"However we still see relatively high rates of prayer."

Some find their way to places likeOne Yoga & Wellness Centerin Hightstown, New Jersey,where Tracey Ulshafer, a master yoga teacher and interfaith minister, helps students find "a connection through body, mind and spirit."

Interest has been on the rise, said Ulshafer.Those who come for physical benefitsoften find a deeper transformation, she added.

Finding spirituality through yoga

"Yoga is a science of self-realization," Ulshafer said."When you are performing the poses, you are meditating. I bring a lot of spirituality to my classes. Spirituality is a calling in everyone, whether it's conscious or not. We are all divine beings, and we need to seek that out. You have to feel it for yourself."

Spirituality a "connection to a power greater than yourself"hasbecome the substitute for religion, said Linda Mercadante, an emeritus researchprofessor at the Methodist Theological School in Ohio and author of "Belief without Borders: Inside the Minds of the Spiritual but not Religious."

"Americahasa longreligious heritage, so it won't be thrown out soon. Instead, it will be replaced by a more vague spirituality," she said. "A lot of people won't say the word 'God' because that'snot popular. But they will say 'universe.' "

There's no one explanation for why people are fleeing organized faith. The Nones themselves offera myriad of reasons, including abusive experiences with religiouscommunities, doubts aboutdoctrine, disagreements with church leadersor the rigorous demands ofa devout lifestyle.

It's more socially acceptable today to identify as a None, sociologists note. Thegrowth of social media has made people less community-focused but more likely to find compatriots with shared interests. Others say a trend toward delaying marriage and having children has decreaseddevotion to organized religion.

While many people want to believe in something greater than themselves, they don't want to be tied down to an institutional approach, said Charles Zech, professor emeritusof churchmanagement at Villanova University, outside Philadelphia.

"They want to relate to God in the way that they want, not by followinga church's rules," he said.

What's striking is not the lack of belief in organized religion, but that so manycontinue to yearn for a connection outside of traditional methods of worship. While many have left churches, temples and mosques, they haven't abandoned spiritual life altogether.

"Many people in my classessayto me, `This is my temple, or my spiritual home,' " said Charlotte Chandler Stone, a yoga therapist and director at Stone Yoga in Teaneck, New Jersey. "They say they get more from yoga than sitting in a church pew saying prayers that theydon't believe in. It helps them to get in touch with themselves and understand their purpose on Earth."

Muhammad Syed of Washington, D.C., says he's found that purpose in helping others. The 42-year-old leftIslam in his 20s and became an atheist, shortly after emigrating to the U.S. from Pakistan. In 2013, he formed Ex-Muslims of North America,a nonprofit dedicated to helping othersleave thefaith.

"I don't believe one needs to have faith to be spiritual," he said. "I love nature. I love staring at the night sky. I find looking at the Milky Waya very spiritual experience. We can find meaning outsideof faith."

The coronavirus pandemic may have accelerated thetrend, experts say, although there'snohard data yet to back up thattheory.

"People haven't been able to show up to church in person for much of the pandemic,"said Mercadante."While many have attended virtually, for othersthe habit of church has been broken."

Although a 2020 Pew study found that28% of Americans reported thattheir faith was strengthened bythe health crisis, most of the subjectsinterviewed were already religiously connected.

Although the number of Republican Nones has also been rising, those shifting away from organized faithtend to be liberal and more heavily Democratic, say experts.

Their increase, along with growth in some right-wing religious groups, islikely to result in a further polarization of a country already divided along political and cultural fault lines, some scientists predict.

"You will have people who are either very religious or not religious at all," said Roberta Rosenthal Kwall, a professor specializing in Jewish law andculture at DePaul Universityin Chicagoand author of "Remix Judaism: Preserving Tradition in a Diverse World."

"It follows into social issues as well:Nones tend to support gay rights and abortion rights."

America has become less religious, and "the Nones are the best indicator of that," said John C. Green, a political scientist who has studied the impact of religion on politics. That may portend a decline in civic and political engagement by individual Americans, continuing a trend of withdrawing from public life.

A lack of religious affiliation "also seems to be an indicator on their involvement in civic activities," said Green, who teachesat the University of Akron in Ohio. "While religious people are champions at being involved in clubs and organizations, non-religious people don't volunteer or belong to organizations, even things like the PTA."

As older, more religious generations are replaced by younger ones, the U.S.could eventually look as secularized as Europe, with Nones dwarfing any singlereligious group, he said.

Yet the rise of the Nones could have positive impacts, ensuring that religion is "neither regulated nor prohibited by government," said Mercadante. "They are implementing better boundaries between church and state. They are also inserting spirituality into everyday life."

The Nones represent "an entirely new way of thinking about American social society," said Burge, the Illinois pastor and researcher. They will "create organizations and institutionswe've never seen or consideredbefore," he predicted. "There are already atheist groups forming to engage in social services in their local community, and I think this is just the beginning."

Though the pews are getting emptierat houses of worship, religion won't become obsolete.

The search for meaning is a universal and eternal questamong human beings. In a2017 Pew Research Center survey,90% of respondents said they still believein some kind of higher power, with 56% professingfaith in God as describedin the Bible.

Sixty percentof unaffiliated young people called themselves "at least slightly spiritual" in a2020 study by Springtide Research.

NorthJersey.com and the USA Today Network New Jerseyspent months chronicling the complex stories of those who have left organized religionto try to understand who they are,the forcesthat drive themand what it means to be spiritual in a highly secular world.

One thing is certain: We need to get used to the Nonesand their practices. They are not going anywhere, and some believe that in the coming years they may even dominate theculturallandscape.

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One in four Americans identify as Nones. Why are millions leaving organized religion? - NorthJersey.com

While C.S. Lewis wrote profound allegories, his fascinating life story will be coming to life on the big screen.

The Most Reluctant Convert: The Untold Story of C.S. Lewis is set to hit theatres in the U.S.A on November 3. The film isdirected by double-Emmy and double-BAFTA Award-winning filmmaker Norman Stone andstars Max McLean, Nicholas Ralph, and Eddie Ray Martin.

Lewis is best known for The Chronicles of Narnia's novel series. He published many other novels includingThe Screwtape Lettersand The Great Divorce. He penned a few non-fiction titles as well, and after doing a series of BBC radio talks during the Second World War, thosetalks were turned into the well-knownbook,Mere Christianity.

While Lewis became known as a renowned Christian apologist writer later in life, he struggled greatlywith his faith after his mother died. In fact, he was an atheist for many years.

According to New Release Today, the film is based on the hit U.S. playC.S. Lewis on Stage: The Most Reluctant Convert. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, it had been performed 287 times in 64 cities and on college campuses since its 2016 premiere. The play has been attended by roughly 100,000 people.

Different actors play varying ages of Lewis throughout the movie, showing the many hardships he faced. It alsoexplores the impact friends had on the dedicated atheist who was forced to question his own disbelief such as J.R.R. Tolkien, Hugo Dyson, and Owen Barfield.

Both the play and the upcoming film are based primarily on Lewis' memoir,Surprised by Joy.

Read the rest here:

Film about C.S. Lewis' life and reluctance to faith hitting screens this fall - CHVN Radio

How bad is the diversity gap when it comes to current and past presidents of the European Parliament? The answer is: quite bad. And this is true for not just one, but a number of different aspects of diversity.

In a curious twist, the elected parliament's first president, Simone Veil, was in many ways the flagship for diversity, compared to those that followed.

She was not a man, she was not conservative or socialist, and as an atheist Jew, she was also not a Christian. Without her, the diversity picture would look far more bleak.

Veil, who held the position from 1979 to 1982, was in many ways the exception, and it's now more than 40 years since she was elected, and the institution's diversity has been in decline.

The discussion about the diversity credentials of the president of the European Parliament is especially relevant now that chamber is heading for its traditional midterm re-shuffle of positions.

Manfred Weber, the leader of the conservative European People's Party (EPP) group, has declared he is "not available" for the presidential election later this year. In fact, his chances of winning were slim and he's merely bowing to reality.

He also would have been the 15th man to hold the job and the 8th in a row.

Since the first direct election of the parliament, in 1979, only two of the 16 presidents have been women. Nicole Fontaine, a conservative (and French, like Veil), served as president from 1999 to 2002.

To be sure the parliament's record on gender is far better than the two other big EU institutions.

Ursula von der Leyen is the first woman to hold the position of president of the European Commission in its 63-year history. The three presidents of the European Council, Herman van Rompuy, Donald Tusk and Charles Michel, all have been male.

But a weak showing by other EU institutions should not give European Parliament cover. After all, the Parliament is meant to be the most representative body to showcase the European project.

And of course gender is not the only issue when assessing diversity.

Another way to look at the diversity-gap among presidents of the parliament are the countries and regions they represent.

One-quarter of all presidents have come from just one member state, Germany, and almost two-thirds have come from just three different countries, Germany, France and Spain. Had Weber, a German, put himself forward and won the vote, he would have merely reinforced a pattern.

Just one president has been from Eastern Europe, Jerzy Buzek of Poland, who held the post from 2009 to 2012, and there has never been a president from either the Nordics or from one of the very small member states.

Then there's the political affiliation of the presidents. It is not exactly a secret in Brussels that the historically two largest groups, the EPP and the social democratic group, S&D, have tended to split the position between themselves.

Just over a third of presidents have been from the socialist family, and only two have been liberals, Veil and Pat Cox of Ireland. The rest have been conservatives either from the EPP or from the now-defunct European Democrats, that later merged with the EPP.

Of course the diversity-gap list does not stop at gender, geography and politics.

All of the European Parliament's presidents have been white Europeans, and with the exception of the first president, Veil, they all were affiliated with versions of the Christian faith. Adding other aspects such as declared sexual orientation, age and educational and occupational background would paint a similar picture.

So, looking at the historical record, a clear picture emerges: the president of the European Parliament is an above-middle aged white man, most likely German and with an overwhelming possibility of being either conservative or socialist. In the rare cases that the president is a woman, she will be from France, and either liberal or conservative.

What unfolds over the coming political season depends on political agreements and deals.

Yet the vote is secret, too, and so what MEPs choose to prioritise can also be decisive. Indeed, past presidential elections have seen diverse candidates in terms of gender, ethnicity and other aspects. They have just not been elected.

Among the current batch of 705 MEPs, there's no shortage of potential candidates who are both strong politically and who could help bridge the diversity gaps outlined above.

Among them are Sandra Kalniete (EPP); Stelios Kympouropoulos (EPP); Tanja Fajon (S&D); Kathleen van Brempt (S&D); Samira Rafaele (Renew Europe); Dita Charanzova (Renew Europe); Kira Marie Peter-Hansen (Greens); Assita Kanko (ECR); Manon Aubry (The Left); and Katerina Konecka (The Left).

Plenty more could be added, and this list omits some more obvious possibilities already discussed publicly such as the conservative Roberta Metsola, an elected member from the bloc's smallest member state, Malta.

This however mainly underlines my point: the possibilities for a more president of the European Parliament with far greater diversity credentials are there. The question is whether the parliament's various political groups will prioritise those qualities when putting forth their candidates over the coming weeks.

See the article here:

Sexism and the selection of the European Parliament president - EUobserver

Photo: Norm Macdonald, by Greg2600, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons.

The death of legendary Canadian comic Norm Macdonald last week caught North America by sad surprise. For years, the eccentricSNLstar had successfully hidden the leukemia diagnosis that took his life at 61. Its a young death for an entertainer who had an old soul. Many are mourning the loss of perhaps decades more laughs, while at the same time admiring the restraint it took to hide cancer for ten years.

Citing influences as varied as Bob Hope, Sam Kinison, and Leo Tolstoy, Macdonald had a style all his own that was nothing if not an acquired taste. He was best-known for his deliciously rambling shaggy dog bits, humor that didnt seem to have a point until it did (watchthe moth jokeif youre unfamiliarand wait for it). But in more recent years, some of his more memorable moments were completely serious, about serious topics such as, for instance, theGod hypothesis.

Norm jokingly dubbedhis 2012 interview with Guy MacPhersonthe least funny podcast with a comedian ever. But it may genuinely have been one of the most insightful. Norm was in a mood, and he had some venting to do, and being Norm he didnt care how big his targets were. (Listener discretion advised, Norms language is R-rated, as was his wont.)

In conversation with MacPherson, an atheist, Norm casually took on the entire scientific community for refusing to explore what he considered the fundamental question of Gods existence, a question of equally intense interest to religious people and atheists. Man, he drawls, they spend time trying to find new galaxies, as ifthatsimportant. Since Gods an unproven thing, just a hypothesis at this point, I think it would be good to study it. Even if they came back to announce theyd proven Godsnon-existence, Norm would accept that. At least it would besomething. I dont care what you prove. Like at least prove one of them. But try to work on the only important thing.

MacPherson pushes back that they cant, in the scientific process, because its not as if they found God floating around in space. What is there to test, or falsify? Scientifically, theyre bound to say its unknowable. But Norm is less than impressed with the word unknowable. I dont know when scientists started saying things were unknowable, but thats a new one on me, because thats not a scientific term as far as I know.

Good question. Whendidscientists start moonlighting as epistemologists? Where did Stephen Hawking get the idea that hes in any position to say God is a fairytale? Norm is just asking.

He further notes that the popular conception of the scientific method completely discounts the pivotal role of intuition. Einstein had an instinct and followed his nose. He wasnt following a rigid five-step program, any more thanKekuldreaming about the structure of benzene in front of his fire. Thats how important things are discovered, Norm says. And once we recognize the role of intuition, he proposes we cant deny the elephant in the room: Virtually every person that has ever lived intuits the God hypothesis, whether they admit it or not.

Norm defends his position by simply pointing out all the ways that atheists functionally construct their worldviews on suppositions that make no sense without God. For example, Norm finds it highly irrational to assert that man has purpose in life without God. Yet you wont find any popular atheists saying man has no purpose. Its not consistent, of course. If a dog or a bee cant make its own purpose, what gives us the idea were any different? Norm suggests it must be because at their core, atheists likewise dont really believe they have no more value than animals.

I personally think Norm may have been over-optimistic in this assessment. Perhaps if hed spent less time honing his comic genius and more time reading bioethics, he would have encountered more actually consistent atheists. But hes certainly right that this crazy idea persists subconsciously among those who havent succeeded in completely searing it over, this sense that man has some quality to him. You know, he opines, atheists have this idea that they cant quite resolve within themselves that man is divine, but they cant say divine, because that means God. But they believe it. No man, I dont care what they say, no man believes hes equal to an insect. No man. (This despite the fact that Norm himself thinks evolution certainly happened.)

I dont know if Norm had ever heard our favorite Richard Lewontin quote, about not allowing a divine foot in the door, but Im sure he would have said See? They cant say divine. Because that means God.

However, if Dawkins is going to insist, Norm wants to know what makes him so special. After all, if everything was created by accident, then everything includes Richard Dawkins. So why the f*** should I listen to him? Like why would an accident be able to convey to me how he became an accident through a series of accidents? That makes no sense to me.

Norm repeats several times that hes a fundamentally intuitive guy. Hes a comedian, not a philosopher. He wouldnt claim to have any evidence for his strong intuition that God exists. Hes just always had it, and hes going to stick with it, as he sticks with intuition in general, because the mind can play tricks on you. Its what guides science itself. Its what would make him immune to a rational case for murder.

Id say Norm sells himself short, because intuition is its own kind of evidence. Indeed, in the language of inference to the best explanation, its what we would expect if the God hypothesis was true. We would expect Norm to have a certain gut feeling, nudging him in a certain direction. We would expect him to look in Jerry Seinfelds eyes and see an eternal being, which made Seinfeld crack up in the moment.

Except this time, Norm wasnt joking.

Read more from the original source:

Norm Macdonald's God Hypothesis - Discovery Institute

According to the latest barometer from the Center for Sociological Investigations (CIS) of September 2021, Spain has reached its lowest number of Catholics, 57.4% (1.8 points less than in 2020), and the second lowest number of practicing Catholics, 18.4%.

The absolute minimum of practicing Catholics was reached in May 2020, in the midst of a pandemic and with many churches closed, at 17.6%.

The question asked was: How do you define yourself in matters of religion: practicing Catholic, non-practicing Catholic, believer of another religion, agnostic, indifferent or not believer, or atheist, the concept of practicing being left to the discretion of the interviewee.

Considering the percentages of those who go to Mass several times per month, the result gives 24.1% as practitioners compared to those who say they are believers. Thus, the percentage of practicing Catholics in Spain compared to the population is 13.8%.

A September 2021 projection reveals that those who consider themselves to be atheists, i.e., those who deny the existence of God, represent 14.6% and therefore outnumber practicing Catholics.

These figures remain questionable, but it is not unreasonable to consider that the lasting downward trend is very certain.

The short to medium term forecasts are not good at all. The number of canonical marriages had already hit an all-time low before the pandemic, and last year's numbers were even worse.

In 2020, church marriages fell 72.7%, to just 9,444 unions, but only time will tell if the number will rise again and it may simply the effect of the closing of the churches.

The impact of this situation on infant baptism is known to everyone. Remember that the birth rate is 1.26 in Spain, the lowest in Europe, except for Malta. And this situation has been going on for almost 30 years.

Originally posted here:

Spain: Historic Drop in the Number of Catholics - FSSPX.News