{"id":2718,"date":"2015-05-13T08:44:01","date_gmt":"2015-05-13T08:44:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/astraea.net\/blog\/?p=2718"},"modified":"2015-05-13T08:44:01","modified_gmt":"2015-05-13T08:44:01","slug":"system-change-is-accelerating-but-were-still-unprepared-for-our-spiritual-vacuum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/system-change-is-accelerating-but-were-still-unprepared-for-our-spiritual-vacuum\/","title":{"rendered":"System change is accelerating, but we’re still unprepared for our spiritual vacuum."},"content":{"rendered":"

\"2015RLSpromo640x320\"<\/a>The Pew Research Centre reports<\/a> that Americans identifying themselves as having no religion has grown from 16% to 24% since 2007.<\/p>\n

Naturally the increase has been at the cost of Christian affirmation which remains high at 71% (down from 78%). The increase in non-affiliates is found across America, highest in the west (28%), while even the South has seen a doubling from about 10% to about 20%.<\/p>\n

The trend is welcome, not because we don’t want spirituality, but because dogmatic opinion must be replaced by thoughtful consideration of facts (science) in our virtual world built of science.\u00a0\u00a0 It is unhelpful to base ones morals on someone else’s mantra when they seem to go against one’s inner sense, and that is why there is a fall-off in religiosity – people feel they are more free to choose what they think without being vilified by society.\u00a0\u00a0 Expect the trend to continue and accelerate.<\/p>\n

But there is a danger: “throwing out the baby with the bathwater”.\u00a0 Giving up religious faith can also lead to a neglect of one’s spiritual nourishment.\u00a0 That happened to me and it took a year or so for me to recognise it and remedy the situation.<\/p>\n

There is no doubt that there is a spiritual dimension, an invisible dimension to existence.\u00a0 In science the electro-magnetic spectrum is critical to understanding life even though it can not be seen.\u00a0 We have thoughts and emotions, which can not be seen.\u00a0 For humans to fulfil their potential they must nurture their capacities in this arena as well as their physical health. How?\u00a0 Thinking helps.\u00a0 And meditation or prayer.\u00a0 And in time one can manage your physical body to allow it to more easily interact with the metaphysical dynamics of the universe.<\/p>\n

Let us hope that the trend to atheism, which is healthy, if not easy, is not accompanied by a trend to amorality or worse.<\/p>\n

BBC: US Christians numbers ‘decline sharply’, poll finds<\/a><\/p>\n

PRC: America?s Changing Religious Landscape Pew Research Center<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Pew Research Centre reports that Americans identifying themselves as having no religion has grown from 16% to 24% since 2007. Naturally the increase has been at the cost of Christian affirmation which remains high at 71% (down from 78%). The increase in non-affiliates is found across America, highest in the west (28%), while even …
Continue reading System change is accelerating, but we’re still unprepared for our spiritual vacuum.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[36,3],"tags":[116,115,118,117],"class_list":["post-2718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-perspective","category-holonics","tag-antitheism","tag-atheism","tag-metaphysical-dimension","tag-spirituality"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4hwcd-HQ","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2718"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2718\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2720,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2718\/revisions\/2720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.astraea.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}