'Nones' The New Normal

[BarbTherese]

 

"'Nones' Becoming Religion's New Normal" (Australia)

http://cathnews.com/cathnews/32441-nones-becoming-religion-s-new-normal

"According to the 2016 Census, those declaring that they have “no religion” increased to just over 30 per cent.

The “nones” (as they are sometimes called) are the most numerous response category – more numerous than Catholics, in every generation until those over 70.

Jews, Lutherans and Baptists have distributions similar ............"..........read more on above link

[GreenScapularedHuman]

Perhaps this is not compatible with how religion operates in general but I think some of the failures of religion have been a reluctance to modernize (despite this being a trend through history to adapt to culture), a failure to handle public reputation and relations,a failure to market their product/ideology, and quite candidly a failure at why people psychologically and socially go to any religion.

I don't think the importance of faith should be on the number of adherents or believers... I don't think such polls really give a grasp for the influence of cultural Catholicism and Christianity. Even Richard Dawkins, evolutionary biologist and ardent proponent of atheism- rationalism - skepticism - naturalism... has said that he doesn't think his conviction that there is no god is 100% and that he counts himself as a cultural Christian. He in fact has some close friendships with bishops within the church of england and with some scientist priests in the Catholic Church.

In my personal quest with the Green Scapular I have been drawn to writings of the middle ages and prior, moreover the very early times of Christian belief and practice, something I have been trying to understand better is... what was the first appeal to early converts and what kept generations after that interested?

I have some rather detailed thoughts from my reading on various issues... but one issue that I notice by various authors is the stressing of purity and legalization of faith. Faith became more important than charity and hope, and all the other virtues, in the Christian world... despite the fact that what won so many early converts was likely the message of charity and hope. I have been reading in various places, incuding the Second Vatican Council and elsewhere, that the Holy Spirit moves everywhere...

Perhaps rather than seeing this as a cause for frustration but rather see it as a chance for self-examination and learning... perhaps even in some way its the Holy Spirit making a vote against the highly structured and legalistic faiths that have developed that focus rather strongly on some very narrow moral issues.