Then there were NONES

The new generation forgot to listen to Journey's advice

A new study by the Pew Research Group shows that there are more non-religious people in America than ever before. Or at least since the beginning of the survey.

More than 13 million atheists and agnostics and nearly 33 million claim no particular affiliation. About 20 percent of U.S. adults say they had no religious affiliation, an increase from two decades ago when about 8 percent of people were deemed so-called “nones,” according to a new study released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion and Public Life.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/under-god/post/who-are-the-nones/2012/10/09/e3669952-1238-11e2-ba83-a7a396e6b2a7_blog.html

In the report itself, there were some graphics worth discussing.

It seems that religion is seen by a majority as a community organizing, socially just moral institution. But mostly about getting folks together and doing good for the poor.

A commentary from the above article says:

 “Saying that you are an atheist no longer carries the stigma that it did in years past. More and more are recognizing that you can be good without a belief in a god.”

That thing there. That. Being good without believing in "a god". That.

If indeed religions are about getting people together to do good things, then I get it. Who needs a religion? I do good stuff with or without religion.

But what the Church stands for is SALVATION. We believe that we can't determine what is good or bad on our own. It happened in the Garden of Eden (which is an allegory but if you want to believe it as fact, you get no fight from me. The internet is only s'big). Anyway, the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil that bore the Fruit? That story (report) means that we humans tried to take the knowledge of God and make it our own and we fail miserably at determining what is good or bad. We're very much clueless.
 

“I’m undecided as far as religion is concerned,” Sean Taylor, 25, a college student who lives and works in Baltimore, told The Post.
He said about five or six years ago, “it came to me that when you look around you got Muslims, Christians, people over in China and people who say that their way of life is built around a certain belief and people who don’t belief that are wrong.
“But who am I say something is right or wrong or whose religion or right or wrong,” Taylor said in a telephone interview Tuesday with The Post.

 See? If you don't know what right or wrong, then...well..is there a right or wrong? And who cares and whatever and stuff.

Catholics care. We don't think it's all about passing out soup and coats. We do that, however. We actually are more interested in the care of one's soul. We believe that stuff. We believe the Church matters to the soul.

And so we're here. The old Catechism of the Catholic Church said it beautifully. There are two classes of people in the Church: The Good and The Bad. Both deserving of Charity and concern.

So we have nones, too!

As opposed to nuns which are totally not nones...

...aw bloody hell....