Randi Discussing Religion

[bluetrain]

She had a caller on a little bit ago who said that just about everyone he knew was either an Atheist or (something to the effect of) believed in a "God" but weren't zealous and didn't discuss it. She claimed America is more religious than ever. I know that's what the T.V. says and what the megachurches, etc. would lead one to believe, but my experience has been the opposite. I'm curious as to what the real deal is. I'm a 25 year old artist living in NYC and L.A. which I would think might contribute to the fact that almost everyone I know is either an Atheist or Agnostic. Even the conservobots. The only people I know who are "religious" are a handful of middle aged Buddhists and the once heavily Evangelical mother of a friend who has become less and less religious as the years go on (she no longer believes in the Rapture and has decided that the Bible is to be taken symbollically not literally). The only people in my age bracket who I know are Agnostic lean toward various (for lack of a better term) "New Age" philosophies with interests in reincarnation, psychics, Tarot, astrology, etc. but don't consider themselves members of any group. Is my experience unique to my age, locations, group of friends and acquaintances? Do most of you know a whole bunch of heavily religious people? More than you did ten years ago?

[donco6]

1. I don't get it either.

Maybe I just run in the wrong crowds, but I don't know any ultrareligious either. They must be out there somewhere . .

[tocqueville]

2. statistics show that your group is an exception. nt

[verse18]

3. You must have never been to the Bible Belt.

In this part of the country one of the first things people ask you when you met them for the first time is "What church do you go to?" I'm an Atheist, but I usually reply simply that "I don't go to church," and they look at me like I have two heads. Then if I tell them I'm an Atheist, they look at me with the most quizzical look, as if they've never seen a young, Black female who doesn't believe in a Christan god.

I was in a club in Atlanta and a guy who was trying to talk to me asked me what church I went. In the damn club. Sheesh.

[burythehatchet]

4. I told someone once that I was a Hindu

She asked me what church I went to. The religious atmosphere in the Southern bible belt is such that one wonders how it was possible to brainwash a group of people so effectively as to convince them that their truth was universal and anything else was laughable.

[bluetrain]

5. I had a boyfriend in NOLA before the hurricane

so, spent a fair amount of time down there. The Atheists were pretty vocal about being so. And, if anyone I was hanging with was religious, they sure weren't talking about much less living like it.

Even in Cincinnati, where I grew up and which is a pretty Southern feeling town for the Mid-West, I didn't know anybody who was really "religious" except for one lady who was a Wiccan and did a lot of Reiki. Sure, in grade school, kids would talk about having to go to church and there were a couple of Jehovah's Witnesses who had to sit in the hall on birthdays while the rest of us had cupcakes and there was one girl whose father was a Rabbi so she couldn't so sleepovers on Friday nights, but by the time I was in high school that all seemed to disappear and I haven't come into direct contact with it since. I met a guy around my age, recently, who had been a Mormon missionary as a teenager, but stopped believing in it and left the church. I, also, know a guy who maybe ten years or so ago was a Scientologist, but, also, stopped believing and left. So, I don't know, the only people I know who have ever been heavily entrenched in a religion have given it up or eased into more moderate beliefs, leading me to feel that people are getting less and less religious.

[SharonAnn]

10. I moved to East Tennessee and soon learned "it's religious here"

The important thing when you meet someone is "what church do you go to".

You can't schedule a meeting on Wednesday evenings, because many people go to church on Wednesday nights. It might be services, choir practice, Bible study, whatever, but that's where they are. if they don't go, they don't want people to know that they don't so they'd never plan or attend a meeting on Wednesday night.

Every local meeting, every single one, begins with a prayer. It usually asks Jesus to bless what we're about to do and gives thanks to Him for our freedom to worship as we wish (as long as it's Christian, I guess).

For many of the locals, their level of understanding of religion and theology is pretty limited. The Left Behind series of books, interpreting Revelations, and preparing for the Rapture are pretty much it.

Interestingly, many are extremely anti-Catholic and anti-Mormon.

Sigh, it's tough sometimes.

BTW, I live 45 miles from Dayton, Tennessee which is the home of the Scopes trial about evolution.

[bobbieinok]

6. come visit OK ---- in Tulsa ca 80% of churches in phone book

are Baptist/SoBapt, Assembly of God or some variation, or 'non denominational' which appears to be code for charismatic/pentecostal.

[Leopolds Ghost]

7. Are there any liberal charismatic/pentecostal churches in OK?

[bobbieinok]

9. are there such things??? a colleague had been raised

as a 'charismatic Mormon.' He said the family was the only such he'd ever heard of.

He left the Mormons and became a pentecostal missionary to Chile. He thought Allende was bad and Pinochet was maybe not too bad. He and another colleague got into long arguments; the other colleague talked with his students about such things as the US in Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, etc. He passed out in class the CIA's (?) torture manuals printed in Spanish for the various US backed SoAmerican death squads.

[Leopolds Ghost]

8. How does an artist live in NYC -and- LA? Just wonderin...

I would say your life experiences were fairly unique.

[bluetrain]

11. I bounce back and forth, subleasing and such, and friends on both coasts

I can crash with if need be. It helps to not own much because then there's less to move.