A collection on spirituality vs. religion vs. atheism

Peter Edman

I’ve noticed a small wave of articles on faith, religion, and spirituality—which are not synonymous. Several appear to be driven by a recent AP survey on religion.

Items:

• Dave Shiflett has an article from 7 June 2005 on National Review Online, “God-Lite Doesn’t Cut It: Americans like a stouter brand.” He discusses findings from his new book, Exodus: Why Americans are Fleeing Liberal Churches for Conservative Christianity.
• Ironically, the same day US News & World Report, 7 June 2005, posts an article on a trend that could be seen as confirming or countering Shiflett’s thesis: “Religion in America: Pumping life into mainline Protestantism” (Hat Tip: Relapsed Catholic -> Church Marketing Sucks -> CT Weblog) discusses how moderate-to-liberal congregations in otherwise-declining denominations are thriving by getting serious about their faith and their tradition.
• And just the day before, Giles Fraser posted a pleasantly insightful editorial in London’s Guardian on a new UK “reality” show focused on the spiritual smorgasbord: “God’s been mugged: Spirituality, the latest subject of reality TV, is religion minus the difficult bits for feckless consumers”
• On the other hand, we have UPI reporter Uwe Siemon-Netto and a March 2005 wire story, “Science, ‘frauds’ trigger a decline in atheism” discussing former atheist Anthony Flew’s defection to theism.
• In line with this last, in light of the TV show mentioned in Dr. Fraser’s commentary, it’s almost refreshing to see Salman Rushdie’s wisful desire to “Just give me that old-time atheism!” (The Toronto Star, May 23 2005).

Shiflett quotes the New York Times in his article, and then comments himself:

What is behind this traditionalist rise and progressive decline? The New York Times, in its summary of the survey, noted, “Socially conservative churches that demand high commitment from their members grew faster than other religious denominations in the last decade….” Glenmary director Ken Sanchagrin told the paper he was “astounded to see that by and large the growing churches are those that we ordinarily call conservative. And when I looked at those that were declining, most were moderate or liberal churches. And the more liberal the denomination, by most people’s definition, the more they were losing.”

God-lite is thin beer indeed. One group of theologians has whittled the traditional God down to 30 percent of his original power: He cannot affect the past or future and isn’t holding all that many cards in the present. This 30 percent god may not be powerful enough to fix a parking ticket. For many Americans he is certainly not worth rolling out of bed for on Sunday mornings.

A bit from the Fraser commentary:

Spirituality has become the acceptable face of religion. It offers a language for the divine that dispenses with all the off-putting paraphernalia of priests and church. And it’s not about believing in anything too specific, other than in some nebulous sense of otherness or presence. It offers God without dogma. Spirituality is just the sort of religion suitable for one of Michaela’s dinner parties with her “lots of friends”. It takes the exotic and esoteric aspects of religion and subtracts having to believe the impossible, having to sit next to difficult people on a Sunday morning, and having to make any sort of commitment that might have long-term implications for her wallet or lifestyle. Yes, spirituality is religion that has been mugged by capitalism.

As for Rushdie, he may perhaps be excused a jaundiced view of religion given the death threats he lives under from Islamists, but his logic is dubious at best. The Evolution-Creation Struggle by Michael Ruse, the book Rushdie is responding to, looks more promising. There is also this article from Science & Spirit by Nobel Laureate Charles Townes.

Gleanings, Arts and Culture, Faiths and Worldviews, Public Square, Mon 13 Jun 2005