Religion Dispatches
My grandfather, born to immigrants in 1878, was undoubtedly familiar with the all-but-forgotten figure of Robert Green Ingersoll, the “Great Agnostic,” who popularized Darwin for the millions, who championed the disgraced Thomas Paine, and who kept alive the important tradition of American free thought during the last quarter of the 19th century.
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“Today we’d probably call Darwin something of a seeker. You might say he’s something of a proto-None.”
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“I’d feel most comfortable assigning myself to the category of people who prefer not to be assigned to categories,” a fifty-something, Silicon Valley entrepreneur I’ll call Nathan* joked when I asked him how he’d describe his religious identification or affiliation. “But I suppose ‘none’ will do.”
Read MoreReasons to cheer—and possibly fear.
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Should nonbelievers adopt a new label or take it back from the orthodox in their ranks?
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For folks who are unorthodox but aren’t atheists, who care about metaphysics but who aren’t mystics, perhaps the good old-fashioned term “heretic” will satisfy.
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Everyone is an expert when it comes to religion. Those of us in the discipline are well acquainted with the fact that religious convictions are strongly held even by those with no formal training. They can often explain why they believe what they do. At length. This is the dilemma of the religion…
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Bono finds “soul music” in the work of secular do-gooders, and a contingent of Scottish police declare themselves members of the Church of Jedi. Looks like we have religion everywhere, and not a god in sight.
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Religion surveys have become a battleground for the American religious marketplace—and a magnet for big money.
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Buried in the results of a recent survey is the fact that secularists may now be one of America’s largest minorities—larger than gays or African Americans. Will nonbelievers, traditionally one of the most loathed demographics, begin to feel their oats and demand greater recognition in the public square?
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