| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"JPG" |
| Date: |
20 Jan 2004 11:02:51 AM |
| Object: |
"no religion is how more people identify themselves" |
http://www.pennlive.com/living/expresstimes/index.ssf?/base/living-0/1074249282160700.xml
What atheists believe
'No religion' is how more people identify themselves.
Friday, January 16, 2004
By JOHN A. ZUKOWSKI
The Express-Times
Pete Hance said he didn't have a problem with his upbringing in the United
Church of Christ. He liked the people at the Allentown church which he attended.
And he had no bad experiences.
At age 14 he set out to read the Bible from cover to cover.
But something happened when he began reading it.
"There was so much that was in direct conflict with science that it put the
seeds of doubts in my mind," he says.
He didn't immediately become an atheist. That happened gradually, over time, he
says.
Hance says people have generally accepted his atheism. But he's heard some
criticism about atheists. The worst of it?
"If you don't believe in God you're not a patriot, or if you don't believe in
God you're evil and you're going to hell," he says.
He especially doesn't like the idea that atheists can't be patriotic. So he
displays an American flag at his Fogelsville home.
Something else bothers him. That's when he hears some people say atheists are
immoral and unethical.
"Atheists do the right thing and they would help a person in need just because
it's the right thing to do, not because they expect to be treated favorably in
the afterlife," he says.
He's even compiled some guidelines he likes to follow. He refers to them as "Ten
Ethical Principles for Atheists."
Among the principles are: "maintain and project an ethical outlook in every
aspect of one's life," "accept responsibility for one's own actions," and "spend
quality time with those closest to you."
Hance is part of the 11 percent of the U.S. population who identify themselves
as either atheists or agnostics, according to Barna Research Group, a Ventura,
Calif., organization which conducts polls on religion topics.
The number of people who identified themselves as belonging to "no religion"
increased from 8 percent in 1990 to 14 percent in 2001, according to a survey by
the City University of New York. The people who claimed no religious preference
ranged from those who declared themselves secular humanists to those who defined
themselves as religious.
While it's difficult to track if atheism is on the rise overall, a spokeswoman
for the New Jersey Humanist Network in Bridgewater says membership in the group
shot up after the Sept. 11 attacks.
"For a lot of people Sept. 11 was a concrete example of how religion can give
people the wrong motives," Tamara Mount says. "Considering that the terrorists
did it for God and to have a wonderful afterlife."
Atheists -- who also sometimes call themselves humanists, freethinkers or
secular humanists -- also are in the news more lately because they have been
politically active.
Some observers say there's a renewed atheistic activism which recalls the work
of Madalyn Murray O'Hair, founder of American Atheists. O'Hair's legal
challenges led to a 1963 U.S. Supreme Court ruling which banned mandatory Bible
reading in public schools.
Ellen Johnson is now the president of American Atheists, which has its
headquarters in Cranford, N.J. She says atheists have become more politically
active recently. That's to counteract support by some religious groups on issues
such as faith-based initiatives and vouchers for religious schools, she says.
Last year, atheist groups initiated some high-profile cases which forced courts
to define the separation of church and state.
A humanist group challenged whether a Ten Commandments plaque could hang in the
Chester County, Pa. courthouse.
The Supreme Court declined to hear about whether the Ten Commandments can be
displayed in government buildings or in public spaces. For now, that leaves it
up to lower courts to decide.
However, the high court agreed to hear the case of an atheist who challenged the
words "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance.
This year the Supreme Court will hear a case brought by a California atheist who
says the use of the words "under God" in his daughter's class amounted to the
government endorsing a belief in one God.
Although atheists say they have no creeds, dogma or religious beliefs, some
local atheists say that doesn't stop them from holding regular meetings and
social functions. In December, 130 members of the New Jersey group gathered at a
Parsippany hotel and celebrated a non-religious winter holiday.
"There's a strong need to develop a sense of community with people who don't
believe in a deity," Mount says. "People like that sense of community,
particularly after they have children."
The reason some religious pollsters put agnostics and atheists in the same
category is that sometimes it's difficult to tell the difference between them.
Agnosticism is a doubting or questioning if there is a God. Agnostics usually
say it cannot be proven one way or another if God exists.
Some atheists completely reject the concept of any type of God. Other atheists
reject definitions of a personal or deistic god and sometimes sound like
agnostics stressing the uncertainty of knowing if there is a god.
In some theology, both agnosticism and atheism are being viewed not only as
ideologies but as components of spiritual maturation. Even some people who
define themselves as religious or spiritual say agnosticism or atheism is
sometimes part of a person's spiritual formation.
The Rev. Julie Newhall of the Skylands Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in
Hackettstown says she's heard people refer to themselves as atheists or
agnostics for a variety of reasons.
Sometimes people no longer believe in the same definition of God they had when
they were growing up. So they must outline another one. Sometimes they grow up
unchurched and have to explore their views on religion. Sometimes they confront
a tragedy or crisis in their life and question their belief in God. Other times,
people stay committed to a belief there is no God or a doubt about the existence
of God.
But Newhall says she isn't shocked at people who say they experience atheistic
or agnostic feelings.
"I would reassure them that it's perfectly natural for someone to go through
it," she says. "You can see it in famous spiritual searches. Sometimes it's a
short phase, sometimes it's a lifelong position."
But for atheists who take that firm lifelong position, they emphasize they don't
follow any religion. But some atheists say that they don't disdain all religious
people or clergy.
"Those that encourage tolerance, understanding and community spirit are good
religious leaders doing good work," Hance says.
At the same time, some atheists work to promote atheism so people can know it
exists.
Johnson says that when she grew up, she didn't know what atheism was. Although
her parents weren't regular churchgoers, some of her friends were strict
Catholics and Lutherans. So when she was young, she prayed. But she says she
didn't get anything out of it.
Years later, she heard O'Hair on television.
"I never heard the word atheism once in my life, but she was not religious and
there was a name for it," she says. "It's almost like being gay. When you
growing up you know you're different and then later you find out you're not the
only one."
As for what she calls some of the "big questions" in life, she says she's
reached some resolutions about them. But she says she looks to science to answer
those questions, not to religion.
As for life after death, she believes this life is all there is.
She says even if it could be proven there was a God, she'd have some questions.
"Where was God on Sept. 11?" she asks. "What about children who die? If you or
anyone in your office had the power, would they allow a child to die from bone
cancer?"
She says in some parts of the country, it's difficult to ask those questions and
to publicly declare oneself an atheist.
"It's similar to what happens to gays," she says. "They don't like it when you
come out of the closet. If you don't challenge the status quo then it's not a
problem. But once you do then it's a problem."
Reporter John A. Zukowski can be reached at 610-258-7171 or by e-mail at
jzukowski@express-times.com.
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| User: "Mark K. Bilbo" |
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| Title: Re: "no religion is how more people identify themselves" |
20 Jan 2004 07:13:11 PM |
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And so upon Tue, 20 Jan 2004 17:02:51 +0000 didst JPG speak thusly:
At age 14 he set out to read the Bible from cover to cover.
But something happened when he began reading it.
The bible has made more atheists than just about any other work...
--
Mark K. Bilbo - a.a. #1423
EAC Department of Linguistic Subversion
"There is no system but GNU, and Linux is one of its kernels."
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| User: "Bill" |
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| Title: Re: "no religion is how more people identify themselves" |
24 Jan 2004 07:41:32 PM |
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That's why the catholic hierarchy is opposed to layman reading the Bible.
"Mark K. Bilbo" <y@hoo.com-amikchi> wrote in message
news:pan.2004.01.21.01.13.11.913232@hoo.com-amikchi...
And so upon Tue, 20 Jan 2004 17:02:51 +0000 didst JPG speak thusly:
At age 14 he set out to read the Bible from cover to cover.
But something happened when he began reading it.
The bible has made more atheists than just about any other work...
--
Mark K. Bilbo - a.a. #1423
EAC Department of Linguistic Subversion
"There is no system but GNU, and Linux is one of its kernels."
.
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