Good Without God: Why “Non-Religious” Is the Fastest-Growing Preference in America | | AlterNet

Very interesting article….

My theory is that Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson and the Religious Right have made Christianity appear so hard, judgemental and unforgiving, that they made it safe for Americans to be open to alternatives.  In the long run, they did more to hurt the “moral majority” than to help it….

Add to that, the expansion of our ability to easily access information on the Internet, increased travel and the internationalization of the world economy that exposed Americans to other cultures and beliefs and we have a much more open society.

Currently more than one billion people around the world define themselves as agnostic, atheist or nonreligious — including 15 percent of Americans. Perhaps more striking, “nonreligious” is not only the fastest growing religious preference in the U.S., but also the only one to increase its percentage in every state over the past generation.

Phil Goldberg and Greg Epstein have provocative perspectives on who these people are, what they believe, and how they arrived at their worldviews and their moral codes.

In February, 1968, the Beatles went to India for an extended stay with their new guru, Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. It may have been the most momentous spiritual retreat since Jesus spent those 40 days in the wilderness.

With these words, interfaith minister Goldberg begins American Veda, his look at India’s impact on Western culture. From Emerson, Thoreau and Whitman, succeeding generations absorbed India’s “science of consciousness,” and millions have come to accept and live by the central teaching of Vedic wisdom: “Truth is One, the wise call it by many names.”

Acccording to Greg Epstein, the humanist chaplain at Harvard University, recent bestsellers from Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, and Sam Harris stress the irrationality of belief and what’s wrong with religion, while offering few positive alternatives. In Good without God, Epstein explains how humanists strive to live well, build community, uphold ethical values, and lift the human spirit…all without a god. “It’s not enough to just ‘discover’ the meaning of life. Humanism is concerned with one of the most important ethical questions—what we do once we’ve found purpose in life.”

via Good Without God: Why “Non-Religious” Is the Fastest-Growing Preference in America | | AlterNet.