Non-religion

[Eastern Mind]

Vannakkam: I found this survey interesting. http://www.deseretnews.com/top/649/1...s-to-most.html

Sometimes here on HDF we have discussed the idea that in the west, there is a huge slice of the people pie that has no religion, a concept that seems foreign to people who live in countries that do have a lot of religion. I just wanted to back my claims with some sort of statistical evidence.

For some of us who were born here, religion is foreign. In jest, I used to think churches were some kind of fancy granaries.

Aum Namasivaya

[yajvan]

hariḥ oṁ
~~~~~~
namast�

Based upon the data offered from the web site given, in general, 1/3rd of the population ( in the USA) say they are 'very religious'.
If this was occurring in the truest sense of the word, we would be approaching a most noble society in the USA and lead the way on this good earth.


Let me explain...
The truest sense of the word religion, it is rooted in religare = re + ligare

• re = 'back to the original place, again' +
• ligare = 'to bind'

So, religare is to bind ( oneself) back to the original place, again.

What does this imply ? To bind ones-self back (again) to the Source of all Creation, the Supreme.

Now what is most interesting is the notion of again. This clearly indicates we were there at one time. There is truth in the notion of religare.
So, we need to bind the self ( small 's') to the Self ( large 'S' ) and we have fulfilled the dharma of religare.

Yet by inspection one can see that this religare has not occurred in the USA ( by 1/3rd of the population) nor would I venture in any other part of the world.
It is my humble opinion that 'very religious' must go beyond going to church, temple, synagogue and the like. This is a good thing no doubt and makes one a ~ frequent flyer~. Yet are you accomplishing the essence of religare ?

Would it not be a wonderful thing to walk on the street and know that 1 in 3 people you see are connected to the Supreme?


iti śivaṁ

[Eastern Mind]

Vannakkam: I didn't take the time to pursue the article in its entirety to see if there was an established criteria for determining degree of religiousity. Clearly, the results may vary tremendously depending on that. If it goes by a simple question, "How religious do you view yourself?" then it could well be very skewed. As we all know, some 'religious' people view themselves as being quite not so, as well as with the opposite, that of some practically adharmic people seeing themselves as quite religious.

But the original point stands.. there are a lot of unreligious people in the west, under practically any criteria. Even then again, if you consider 'behaving ethically' or with kindness, as religion, then a lot of atheists are quite religious.

Aum Namasivaya

[Believer]

Namaste,

Interesting stats EM. As you say, this is a bit of a news to Indians and to people in other countries where it is automatically assumed that everyone belongs to some faith.

Pranam.

[ShivaFan]

Namaste EM

I would add another aspect to these stats as well. I notice they do not break down by "Caucasian", "Hispanic", "Asian" and "African-American".

Firstly, while I have NO statistics to back up what I am about to claim from observation, I think there is some validity to what I observe, which is:

* The number of so-called Christians for example would be even LESS (smaller) if the same survey was only of "whites" (e.g. not including Hispanic, Asian (such as Chinese) and "blacks"). In fact, the only reason the numbers are what they are is because we have (now, and at historically high numbers) a very large Hispanic population in the USA. We have a large number of Hispanics who are legal (and in California, NM, Texas, Arizona, very very large), and we are told that there are also 12 million illegal aliens. But counting the illegal alien numbers alone, it is much larger than 12 million since that number has been used since the 1992 Presidential campaign, and we have hundreds of thousands coming in each year so it is impossible that the illegal head count is only 12 million, rather it is actually about 34 million or more. Most Hispanics from my observation are very, very Catholic. And among Protestants, there is still huge participation in Protestant Churches among African-Americans both those who attend "Historically Black Protestant" churches as well as blacks who attend traditional Protestant Churches.

You must also understand that, even in surveys which DO have breakdowns by "race", they are showing false numbers if the term "Caucasian" is used since in police statistical records Hispanics are not counted as "Mexican" or "Hispanic" for example, but counted as "Caucasian". Only the "suspect description" field uses "Hispanic" but not statistical records. So in many of these surveys which include "race", Hispanics get counted in with Caucasian (which they are, as a matter of fact) and this makes the church going numbers for Caucasians inflated and higher than if we were considering Caucasians as "only white, non-Hispanic". By the way, the old term "East Asian" (meaning from India) is being dropped to the wayside these days, and Indians are also counted as Caucasian (which they are).

So to the point, the only reason you even see the numbers you do is because almost all Hispanics (which is a growing population) are strong Catholics and go to church, and blacks also have a large church going population who attend Protestant denominations of all sorts and not just "Historically Black" churches. If you only looked at "whites" the numbers would be even lower.

Om Namah Sivaya