Religion Versus Spirituality
Although religion and spirituality can go hand in hand, it's surprising how often the two are divorced. Can one be religious in a real sense without being spiritual? Possibly, though I suppose it's not as easy as it might seem.
Perhaps if one has doubts and works at understanding the issues and honestly observes the forms without distorting the forms, one could be called religious without having spirituality. Literature is full of priests who never quite felt the spiritual dimension but who still felt strongly connected to their religion. But more common are preachers and priests who may or may not have being moved initially by their religion but who eventually abuse their office while observing the forms of religion, at least in the eyes of officialdom. I recently read The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Hugo has no patience for church figures as well as the king. The book opens with a play with religious observances being interrupted by the pomp and ceremony of the top religious officials entering the building. The mob finds the pomp and ceremony more entertaining. Though not necessarily religious in the typical sense, the two most spiritual figures in Hugo's book are Quasimodo and La Esmeralda. In the end, one is hanged for capricious reasons and the other dies of despair.
New studies show that religion in the United States, or at least formal observance of religion, is on the decline. Even the fundamentalists are declining in numbers. To be honest, I'm not sure I understand the latest developments. Maybe everyone is tired of meaningfulness and just want a castle with three rooms, central heating and a dishwasher. That would be a sad development but not the first or last time people have turned away from religion. Barbara O'Brien in her regular column on Buddhism has observed this:
The 1950s, as I recall them, was an age of excessive materialism. It was understandable given the Great Depression of the 1930s and the global conflicts of the 1940s. It was a time of rebuilding without much desire to think about anything except the mortgage and how to get a raise.
In the 1960s, young people wanted to turn away from materialism but didn't quite succeed and before they knew it they were settling in larger and larger homes by the 1980s. Where are we now? Are we again turning away from materialism? If so, it's not necessarily towards formal religion or even an informal spirituality. People are turning towards the inanity of the Internet and information technology. But that's not quite fair. There are a growing number of people genuinely concerned about the environment, nature and sustainability.
You can't interface with nature the same way you interface with programmed technology. Nature offers its surprises—and a richness computers are still far from reaching. If religion is losing some of its appeal, spirituality could possibly be on the rise, at least where people are not addicted to tribal gossip, computer games and technological gadgets. Beliefnet has a poll taken by Newsweek in 2005 that suggests spirituality, or at least the desire for spirituality in one's life is on the rise.
But I was struck by one result in the Newsweek poll. The first question was, "Can a good person who isn't of your religious faith go to heaven or attain salvation, or not?" It turns out that 91% of Catholics, who belong to a particularly formal religious organization, with lots of hierarchy and structures, believe good people of other faiths can go to heaven or attain salvation. That's a surprising degree of tolerance not found in other groups. Actually, only 22% of evangelical protestants said no to the question. I remember that 22% by way of people who approached me in my teens and twenties: they were hardcore and used hardcore sales techniques that put their beliefs in a poor light.
Over time, Americans appear to be getting more tolerant. That might be a factor in why Barack Obama was able to win and why McCain's vice presidential choice and his other proxies seemed so unappealing. We're in a time when the answers are not so clear. Perhaps those who claim to have all the answers are appearing more and more ridiculous to the young. Perhaps we're in a age where people need to find their own answers. That would be a step forward I believe. As long as the searching by the self is reasonably honest.
Perhaps if one has doubts and works at understanding the issues and honestly observes the forms without distorting the forms, one could be called religious without having spirituality. Literature is full of priests who never quite felt the spiritual dimension but who still felt strongly connected to their religion. But more common are preachers and priests who may or may not have being moved initially by their religion but who eventually abuse their office while observing the forms of religion, at least in the eyes of officialdom. I recently read The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Hugo has no patience for church figures as well as the king. The book opens with a play with religious observances being interrupted by the pomp and ceremony of the top religious officials entering the building. The mob finds the pomp and ceremony more entertaining. Though not necessarily religious in the typical sense, the two most spiritual figures in Hugo's book are Quasimodo and La Esmeralda. In the end, one is hanged for capricious reasons and the other dies of despair.
New studies show that religion in the United States, or at least formal observance of religion, is on the decline. Even the fundamentalists are declining in numbers. To be honest, I'm not sure I understand the latest developments. Maybe everyone is tired of meaningfulness and just want a castle with three rooms, central heating and a dishwasher. That would be a sad development but not the first or last time people have turned away from religion. Barbara O'Brien in her regular column on Buddhism has observed this:
You can find no end of speculation about why the mainline Protestant churches went into such a steep decline. My take on it, for what it's worth -- first, as I remember it, in the 1950s and 1960s "going to church" was sold to us as one more thing we "should" do, like eating vegetables. But with the mainline Protestants especially, for many there seemed to be no compelling reason why, and younger people lost interest. I understand something like this is going on with Japanese Buddhism now. I suspect the fault is not in the religion but in a kind of institutional inertia. It can happen to any organization.
Anyway, evangelicals had less of a problem with exiting boomers because they had a more assertive message, reaching out to people who were troubled, telling them Jesus was the answer to their personal pain. In comparison, mainline Protestantism seemed something like spiritual dental floss.
The 1950s, as I recall them, was an age of excessive materialism. It was understandable given the Great Depression of the 1930s and the global conflicts of the 1940s. It was a time of rebuilding without much desire to think about anything except the mortgage and how to get a raise.
In the 1960s, young people wanted to turn away from materialism but didn't quite succeed and before they knew it they were settling in larger and larger homes by the 1980s. Where are we now? Are we again turning away from materialism? If so, it's not necessarily towards formal religion or even an informal spirituality. People are turning towards the inanity of the Internet and information technology. But that's not quite fair. There are a growing number of people genuinely concerned about the environment, nature and sustainability.
You can't interface with nature the same way you interface with programmed technology. Nature offers its surprises—and a richness computers are still far from reaching. If religion is losing some of its appeal, spirituality could possibly be on the rise, at least where people are not addicted to tribal gossip, computer games and technological gadgets. Beliefnet has a poll taken by Newsweek in 2005 that suggests spirituality, or at least the desire for spirituality in one's life is on the rise.
But I was struck by one result in the Newsweek poll. The first question was, "Can a good person who isn't of your religious faith go to heaven or attain salvation, or not?" It turns out that 91% of Catholics, who belong to a particularly formal religious organization, with lots of hierarchy and structures, believe good people of other faiths can go to heaven or attain salvation. That's a surprising degree of tolerance not found in other groups. Actually, only 22% of evangelical protestants said no to the question. I remember that 22% by way of people who approached me in my teens and twenties: they were hardcore and used hardcore sales techniques that put their beliefs in a poor light.
Over time, Americans appear to be getting more tolerant. That might be a factor in why Barack Obama was able to win and why McCain's vice presidential choice and his other proxies seemed so unappealing. We're in a time when the answers are not so clear. Perhaps those who claim to have all the answers are appearing more and more ridiculous to the young. Perhaps we're in a age where people need to find their own answers. That would be a step forward I believe. As long as the searching by the self is reasonably honest.
Labels: religion
posted by Poechewe at 12:08 PM
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