What I observe is that many, perhaps most, of the ‘unaffiliated’ people are *not* atheists in the sense of scientific materialism. They often define themselves as “spiritual but not religious”, and a lot of them hold mystical beliefs such as magical crystals, homeopathy, and astrology.
David: Sociologists call them “unchurched independents.” But you haven’t really listed religious faiths or spiritual engagements – you’ve listed narrow enthusiasms. All faiths ask believers to believe seeming absurdities (“For what we are about to believe…” in the words of clever James Joyce…), but there’s a clear difference between the depth, communalism, and seriousness of the major religions (however unconvincing one finds them) and the pathetic utilitarianism of the activities you mention.
“pathetic utilitarianism”…pathetic some of them may be, but I’m not so sure about the utilitarian part. How do we know that these things are not giving them a sense of spiritual connection to (something)?
Also, there are surely plenty of mainstream-church members whose affiliation is indeed mostly utilitarian.
David: You’re right that the whole enthusiasm/spirituality/religiosity deal is notoriously difficult to parse. But people generally distinguish, for instance, between culture and cult, with culture indicating a large community of shared established values/creeds, and cult having to do with small groups of people having secretive, often narrow and sometimes dangerous compulsions/rituals – though both phenomena can be said to have something to do with spirituality in the sense of conferring what participants see as higher meanings on their lives.
September 26th, 2019 at 9:34PM
What I observe is that many, perhaps most, of the ‘unaffiliated’ people are *not* atheists in the sense of scientific materialism. They often define themselves as “spiritual but not religious”, and a lot of them hold mystical beliefs such as magical crystals, homeopathy, and astrology.
September 26th, 2019 at 9:51PM
David: Sociologists call them “unchurched independents.” But you haven’t really listed religious faiths or spiritual engagements – you’ve listed narrow enthusiasms. All faiths ask believers to believe seeming absurdities (“For what we are about to believe…” in the words of clever James Joyce…), but there’s a clear difference between the depth, communalism, and seriousness of the major religions (however unconvincing one finds them) and the pathetic utilitarianism of the activities you mention.
September 26th, 2019 at 10:15PM
“pathetic utilitarianism”…pathetic some of them may be, but I’m not so sure about the utilitarian part. How do we know that these things are not giving them a sense of spiritual connection to (something)?
Also, there are surely plenty of mainstream-church members whose affiliation is indeed mostly utilitarian.
September 27th, 2019 at 1:17AM
David: You’re right that the whole enthusiasm/spirituality/religiosity deal is notoriously difficult to parse. But people generally distinguish, for instance, between culture and cult, with culture indicating a large community of shared established values/creeds, and cult having to do with small groups of people having secretive, often narrow and sometimes dangerous compulsions/rituals – though both phenomena can be said to have something to do with spirituality in the sense of conferring what participants see as higher meanings on their lives.