USA Today recently reported that the number of respondents to a Pew Research survey on religious affiliation who indicated "None" has risen dramatically, from 6% in 1990 to 19% this year. One of the researches attributed this sharp rise in unbelief/agnosticism/disinterest to the following: "Young people are resistant to the authority of institutional religion, older people are turned off by the politicization of religion, and people are simply less into theology than ever before."
What do you think is causing this trend?
The researcher's quote is probably fairly accurate. Part of it may be due to a lack of desire to commit to a certain path; part of it may be the beginning of a generation that was not brought to some church often as children; part of it likely is a lack of care or concern about spiritual things. The last of these is quite concerning.
ReplyDelete"Religion" has become a dirty word in our society. Everyone wants to be their own God, so therefore, they do not identify with any organized religion even if they acknowledge a "higher power". It is reminiscent of what you see in the book of Judges where "everyone did what was right in their own eyes." This didn't work out too well as I recall.
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