Is religion taking a back seat in western civilization?

When western culture moved into the age of reason, did it also start the process of the abandoning of religion? With every subsequent generation people are defining themselves less by their religion.

http://www.pewforum.org/2015/05/12/americas-changing-religious-landscape/

In the link we see those in the "unaffiliated" religious category has gone up 6.7% since 2007, surpassing those affiliated with Catholicism. And those identifying as Protestant dropping 0.9% in the same time frame

I have a theory that the more options we have the greater our likelyhood to formulate our own beliefs and the less important these beliefs are to the creation of a community. The first amendment pretty much leaves the door open. If there is no regulation of religion what stops a person from just joining the one that suits their lifestyle versus adjusting to a religion? If that is what we do, what is the point? We can join any community and get what we get from Religion.

Is religion still important? Is it just a relic from a by gone era?

What do you think?

 

In my humble opinion, I think people aren't any less slaves to the social currents today than when they were more religious. The processes that govern what a person believes are complicated and often unknown, but I don't see why they would be freer just because they don't have a particular god concept attached.

To me a more interesting point is the point about community. Religion has no logical monopoly on community, but secular groups tend to have a lack of community building. That's not to say it is absent, but not enough. I think we have a lot of dissecting left to do on religion. Lots of aspects from religion are still important, and many of those are so central that it'd be hard to separate them from the rest of those religions. While I think we're moving away from religion, I don't think it's helpful to think in absolutes, or in religions as ideas with well defined boundaries.

 

Honestly I see religion more as life imitating art. People who don't belong to religion socialize and build community in other ways. Religion certainly isn't the only Avenue for that.

Further I'm not really interested in discussions of gods, but the apparatuses used to worship them.

 

I anecdotally think the advent of the Internet has had a large influence upon the decline of Christianity in America. The more informed one is, the more gaps of our knowledge are filled in, the less the need for a God of the gaps. I doubt that we will ever be rid of theism, but I think as times goes on that man made religion will continue to shrink here in the west.

Religion tells one what to believe whereas the Age of Reason teaches one how to think for them self.

 

This is a subject that has been widely debated in the Christian community as well. There is definitely a decline in fundamental Christianity and especially in the old denominations. I think there are many reasons for the decline. One of the biggest I hear is hypocrisy, and it is a very real issue. A child grows up in a home that teaches Christian beliefs but the parents lives don’t reflect what they claim to believe. The confusion this creates is tremendous.
One of the biggest weaknesses of fundamental beliefs is an unwillingness to change and recognize scientific discoveries that disproves some of their basic theology.
Some claim it is the fulfilling of the end time prophesies, I really have no opinion on that but it can easily be argued since we are destroying our planet at a remarkable rate. This may be true since prophetically this planet will die at some time in the future.
Many people that claim to be Christians have never really had a spiritual connection with God, or the Holy Spirit and in that case they don’t have a foundation for their beliefs. Many that claim to be Christians today can’t really give a good answer for why they believe, so why would someone they know what to jump on board.

Then there are the professors that mock Christianity in an attempt to humiliate students that are theist, making it very difficult for Christian students to share their beliefs.

 

This is not new. This is not the only time in human history which could be called the "age of reason". Its not the first time that the reason vs. religion argument has come up, ancient Greeks debated faith and reason.

The importance and popularity of religion (as in people who are deeply religious) fluctuates with circumstances, tending to decline in prosperous times and increase in difficult times.

Religion has been around from the beginning, it will always be here. And it will always be important to the people who believe a religion, there is no way a secular human can force a truly believing religious person to abandon her faith.

 

People being deeply religious is interesting to me. You just pick the religion you like. It seems more like being a Saints fan.

 

Why an individual selects a particular religion is an interesting question. I don't think its as simple as picking the one you like, although many people do pick the one that is the most conducive to their lifestyle - but that's not really selecting a religion based on its merits, that's really just selecting a religion for self-validation.

I know many Christians who did not become a Christian because it was the easiest choice or the religion most compatible with their lifestyle. For some, it made intellectual sense and the acceptance of it caused significant disruptions in their old lifestyle, loss of friends, changes in old habits. For others, it made an impact on their life by resolving bad habits (alcoholism, drug abuse, overeating, cheating, a bad family life) and they became a better person but there was significant turmoil during the transition. Some left their old religion - Islam - and became Christians and the cost was the loss of all contact with their family, and a few risked their lives.

 

No religion has merit.

They did pick it because it was agreeable.

But it was still an opinion the converted had that made them join.

Joining social groups for help is likely a huge reason why they exist.

They Still did so out of personal desire.

 

Europe has grown beyond it, WW2 pretty much sealed the deal. America though is still a religious nation much to our collective regret.

 

I disagree, The US is an enlightened nation. It is governed secularly, it is just that there are a lot of religious people that live here. There are a lot of religious people that live everywhere.

 

We are not enlightened. We might elect an imbecile like Trump for goodness sakes. We are the most religious Western Nation in the world. That is why we are not enlightened. As for religious people everywhere, that is true. But in most Western nations religion is more a cultural tradition than a guide to governance or life.

 

Well, the primary process is to blame there. And the more i learn of if the less i think we really participate. If your choice is between getting shot in the heart or getting shot in the head, it's all about whether you want an open casket or not

Um...our nation is secular.

Our government is secular. It was upon its founding. Before any European country

 

I see a rational discussion is still outside your reach.

 

Good bye.

 

I think Rob has it right. Blame the interwebs.

There are STILL many Christians living in the west today who have had zero exposure to criticism of the faith. They, quite literally, can't even imagine such a thing. I know some such people personally. Those close to them spin wheels in the hope that Mom & Dad don't ever have to contend with modern reality. It's super bizarre, but I don't think it's especially uncommon. Anyway, the point is that these people will eventually browse their way onto something like "Christians believe that a magical invisible Jewish man lives in the sky and watches over them". Or a criticism of the Bible, or any one of a million little nudges.

The faith could only remain intact when the faithful had no concept that it could be weighed and measured (much less found wanting). As in, pre-internet.

 

Which of course tells you nothing of it's current state.

 

Do they, though? Or rather, do they do so as successfully? Many of the attempts of community building I have seen end up fading away once the novelty has worn off. There are notable exceptions, but I'm looking for a more all-encompassing solution. Secularism criticises religion for making communities exclusive, but making other exclusive communities doesn't really resolve that.

 

It is secular currently

 

Yes they do. I can think of several that are secular.

 

I'm not so concerned with the number of communities, I'm concerned with the number of people who either fall between them or otherwise end up outside them.

 

Sorry but the subject relates to the people not the government. As for the government, while we do attempt to practice separation from church and state, we certainly did not practice it much because we have been trying to separate church from state since day one. Are you aware that many states had mandatory tithing to a church for every tax payer? Are you aware that the term God is used constantly by our national and local leaders invoking him or his blessing at nearly every event? Are you aware that as we sit today, many on the right want to enshrine their personal religious values and beliefs into law and work tirelessly to do so? Are you aware that slavery was justified by referencing the Bible? That manifest destiny included the obligation to subdue and convert the Indian savages to Christianity? The list goes on and on and on. No, we think we are secular and we hope to be secular but we are most certainly a religious nation, the most religious nation in the West. That is critical to the entire GOP base, it is what separates them from the rest of us.

 

Not sure the logic of your point? People have been living together in communities for eons and this happened without religion. Seems to me that the destruction of communitarianisn has been facilitated by a currently fashionable ideology that each individual is a resiliant loner taking responsibility for himself and resenting any shared responisibilities

 

It was interesting, I read a column by a Religious Right guy named Dennis Prager who was bemoaning "How's that godless Western civilization working out for you?"

IOW, another tirade by some Far Right "Christian" who's upset we don't have a theocracy.


What's ironic is....there are TWO large groups who attack the West as "godless" and "immoral"-


1. the Fundamentalist Christian Religious Right

and 2. the Fundamentalist Islamic Jihadists

 

I am not sure myself. I am not opposed to the idea that the problems were always there, we just see more of them in today's information based society.