Aaron R Nelson.com

Before you read the following, know this:  Our recent local and federal debates on certain issues such as gay rights, abortion, stem-cell research and liquor have prompted this post.  I often find myself pondering why such seemingly obvious answers to these issues are up to debate in our nation and state. 

Folks, welcome to 2009.  You may have noticed that if you look back through history, our world has undergone its most drastic changes in the last 100 years.  In terms of technological, industrial, and philosophical advancements, nothing compares to the last century.  As our world advances, what is the one area of our culture that invariably becomes less and less attractive?  What is the one aspect that governs our lives that has declined in popularity more significantly than any other measurable characteristic in the last twenty-five years? 

Religion.

Surprising?  It shouldn’t be.  We live in a society that grows and prospers from our scientific advancements.  What’s more, humans can reasonably evaluate and prove, through evidence, how scientific and technological advancements have improved our way of life.  This is something that cannot be said for religion.  Someone can say “God provided it for us.”  But they cannot reasonably prove that statement.  Whereas a claim like “technological advancements in the medical field over the last 20 years have saved millions of lives” can be evaluated and proved true through universally accepted scientific means.  I know the classic “science vs. religion” debate is old and tired, but it is at the core of who we are as humans.

I am reading a fantastic book by best-selling author Sam Harris.  His book The End of Faith puts our current religious views under a microscope to examine what substance really lies there.  Before reading The End of Faith, I read Harris’ shorter Letter to a Christian Nation.  At only 114 pages in length, this is a breeze to read in one evening and should be considered by anyone, whether they be religious or not.  In Letter to a Christian Nation, Harris frames our current grapple between religion and science in quite eloquent terms:

“The conflict between science and religion is reducible to a simple fact of human cognition and discourse: either a person has good reasons for what he believes, or he does not.  If there were good reasons to believe that Jesus was born of a virgin, or that Muhammad flew to heaven on a winged horse, these beliefs would necessarily form part of our rational description of the universe.  Everyone recognizes that to rely upon “faith” to decide specific questions of historical fact is ridiculous - that is, until the conversation turns to the origin of books like the Bible and the Koran, to the resurrection of Jesus, to Muhammad’s conversation with the archangel Gabriel, or to any other religious dogma.  It is time that we admitted that faith is nothing more than the license religious people give one another to keep believing when reasons fail.

While believing strongly, without evidence, is considered a mark of madness or stupidity in any other area of our lives, faith in God still holds immense prestige in our society.  Religion is the one area of our discourse where it is considered noble to pretend to be certain about things no human being could possibly be certain about.  It is telling that this aura of nobility extends only to those faiths that still have many subscribers.  Anyone caught worshipping Poseidon, even at sea, will be thought insane.” 

Well put, Mr. Harris.

Now, consider this: based on a 2001 ARIS study, 14.1% of the U.S. population does not follow any organized religion.  Insert comment, “that’s not very much, Aaron.”  You’re right, but compare that to only 8% in 1990, and you have an insanely rapid increase, almost doubling the amount in 11 years.  To put that 14.1% in perspective, there are more Americans who say they are not affiliated with any organized religion than there are Episcopalians, Methodists, and Lutherans combined.  This is a staggering and unprecedented decline in religious followers any way you slice it.  If this trend continues, in terms of Christianity alone, by the year 2042, non-Christians will outnumber Christians in the United States.  Furthermore, a 2002 USA Today/Gallup Poll found that nearly half of American adults appear to be alienated from organized religion.  If current trends continue, most adults in America will not call themselves religious within just a few years.

Why is all this change occurring?  Because we are entering an era where evidence, reason and logic supersede fantasy and faith in invisible super powers.  It seems as though humanity, as hopeless as it sometimes presents itself, has discovered that we aught to require reason and evidence in every aspect of our lives, including religion and faith.  Perhaps there is light at the end of the tunnel…

Sources:

Harris, Letter to a Christian Nation, 66-68.

http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_prac2.htm