Otherwise educated magazines are forever making big "alas" statements about the disappearance of religion. What they really mean is that THEIR religion has weakened. This quoted and linked article is an English comment on America which takes as diagnostic two aspects of the phenomenon of denominations: the formal creed and the practice of "signing up," maybe in an actual book. I can't quote anymore of the article because of their pay wall. This intro is supposed to make you want to sign up. As though they were a religion.
"For anyone who studies Americans and their beliefs, the most startling phenomenon of recent times has been the rise of the religious “nones”. About a quarter of the total population, and about a third of those who became adults in the new millennium, identify with no creed. Some new figures suggest the flight from organised religion is even quicker than previously thought.
''The share of Americans who acknowledge being members of a religious group is falling much faster than the proportion who, perhaps loosely, hew to one faith tradition or another. Comparing 2016-2018 with the last three years of the 20th century, declared participants in organised religion have plunged by nearly 20 points to 52%. And among millennials, signing up to a church is a minority (42%) pursuit, according to Gallup, a venerable pollster."
Something happened twenty years ago. Whether it was plotted or just was a response to conditions, it suggested a deep change to the point of subtly shifting everything. Let's consider the possibility that it was a religious change or maybe an interval between "religious" aspects of life that were unsupported and a new one that is forming but quite different. This is very difficult to think about because what we call "religion" is so complex and often so unconscious.
It forms like a pearl, some sharp intrusion is so painful that it is coated with explanations, insights, aesthetics, group support, and safeguards. Eventually it becomes a sphere with no entry point but much beauty, easy for those who wish a point of attachment. Some say religion is an idea-ball that is whole and must not be broken because that will destroy its value. Others reject the pearl idea altogether and see religion as seeking bravely and possibly individually.
Here's a list of possible aspects, a list of pearls:
1. God is dead so we can do what we want to, because He was the source of all commandments. This is why people are doing so much bad stuff now. We need God.
2. Mental health is subjective and conditional. It is possible for a Mafia Don to go to a good shrink and not leave his life, just be a happy and well-balanced criminal. You could watch a show about it. Why do you suppose this series is popular?
3. Religion is about congregations and if one attends on Sunday, takes Communion with the "little cracker", as Trump calls it, that's enough. It's little ceremonies done with a group of believers. If you do the ceremonies well, they will be efficacious. This is the millennia-old belief of the Mass, even without a congregation.
4. Religion is access to another realm beyond human knowledge or comprehension that can be reached by faith, believing in it. It is magic, but vulnerable to tricks so fakers are dealt with harshly.
5. Religion is a moral platform for doing the right thing, which is lined out for members either as rules or principles or as an expression of compassion. Maybe sermons are needed to supply examples.
6. Religion is a natural response to the world that is felt even by animals. Moments of awe and wonder must be organic, real, not thought out.
7. Religion is a source and justification for the order of the world and we must not let the differences among religions get entangled in government. Keep them separate in order to preserve the precious, but still do work that might be dirty and dangerous.
8. Religion is an organization with a name, a CEO, an income like taxes, a hierarchy, a building, a program of education, and a history. There are a lot of religions in a democracy but that must not break the unity of the governing body. The governing body must tolerate the plurality of private belief.
9. Since all good religions come to the same principles (Golden Rule, etc.) it is legitimate and even desirable to use "themes" to organize worship that is a smorgasbord of prayer, hymn, liturgy, and ceremonies -- all from religions in other times and places.
10. Religion is something we act upon in our daily lives whether it is consciously formed into a covenant or not. Part of the work of meditation and prayer is trying to realize what drives or shelters us.
This short list is only some of the ways we explain religion. It used to be waved around to make people do what society wanted, like not have sex before marriage. Now we are faced with a question like "would it preserve life on this planet if all the humans were removed?" when human survival is the most primal drive. The proof is that so many of us are still here.
One of the basic principles of many religions is the protection of the family and some of our destruction comes from our neglect of families and children. In fact, at this moment in the US it's easy to prove that we are willing to destroy families and kill children, mostly those we call "brown" people, though they are actually just culturally different, thus vulnerable. Mafia is a competing organizing government based on survival of their own families. They stay secret because of using criminal methods. Why do the rest of us accept that? Because stigma, not least that of using drugs, has taught us to be secret within our own small groups. One drive of religion is safety. Pointing out that the President is Mafia is dangerous.
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