Skeptical Faith

Google Image A May 2015 survey by the Pew Research Center shows that 23 percent of Americans identified as "religiously unaffiliated," up from 16.1 percent seven years earlier. And a third of people under 30 answer “none” when asked about religious affiliation. They’ve become known as “the nones,” in fact. So, is church-going, and belonging to a religion, a thing of the past? I don’t think so.   According to a Gallup Poll published 18 months ago – the most recent such poll I could find - nearly four in 10 Americans report that they attended religious services in the previous seven days, close to where it was in 1940 and 1950. What’s more, an average of 56 percent of Americans said religion is "very important" in their lives, while another 22 percent said it is "fairly important" and 22 percent said it is "not very important." The “nones,” the polls show, are mostly millennials, and characteristically, it may be taking them a bit lo...

Google Image If it’s hard to get people’s attention about God and religion, it may be even harder to get them to read about protecting the environment. And protection is needed more than ever, according to news reports. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which for 25 years has been gathering data on climate trends from more than 400 scientists around the world, says on average, 2014 was the hottest year ever — in the ocean, as well as on land. National Public Radio quotes Deke Arndt, a climate scientist with the agency and an author of the 2014 report, as saying it's the lower atmosphere that's warming, not the upper atmosphere…. No Coincidence “That's not a coincidence,” he says. “The changes that we see in the lower part of the atmosphere are driven by a change in the composition of the atmosphere," Arndt says. "If an external forcing — such as the sun or some orbital phenomenon — would be driving the warming, we would see a war...

Google Image Pope Francis’ recent document on the environment, “On the Care of Our Common Home,” elicited interesting reactions from many American politicians, including some announced and presumed presidential candidates of his own faith. Many of them don’t directly attack the logic or significance of the document, the substance of which I’ll write about in a future blog. Instead, they say the Pope, as a religious leader, has no business meddling in “scientific” or “political” issues like climate change. “I don’t go to Mass for economic policy or for things in politics,” said one front-running candidate, a Catholic. Another Catholic politician, not a candidate, said: “I think he got it all wrong. On matters of faith, I will certainly hear him. But these are not matters of faith.”   Stick to "Religion" The general message: The pope should stick to “religion” and leave science to the scientists and politics to the politicians. This is an example of people ...

Google Image When I worked as a priest in Bolivia, I was told that the Aymara-speaking people in my parish would do anything short of murder and mayhem to get their babies baptized, and that turned out to be partially true. They used all manner of tricks to get you to baptize their children without them having to go through any kind of education on the meaning of baptism. Reportedly, the community-imposed penalty for ignoring their deeply felt obligation to baptize children - perhaps imposed by early Spanish missionaries – was exclusion from the community. That may not seem like a big deal, but to the people of the Altiplano - the high, arid plains of Bolivia - the community was everything. It was crucial to their income, their mental and physical health, and their continued relationships with family. It entirely comprised their socialization. So when a disaster – such as a hailstorm that wiped out the crops – struck, the elders would search the community looking for babies t...

Google Image I recently attended a Mass at Old St. Patrick’s Church in Chicago’s West Loop where the new archbishop, Blase Cupich, happened to be visiting and conducting the liturgy. As usual in that parish, the liturgy was beautiful and moving. You could feel the energy and joy of the people of that church, which was packed to the seams with people of all ages and colors. Cupich told the story about a talk he had with a business exec in his 40s who told him that he hadn’t visited his parents in five years. He couldn’t bring himself to visit them because of their continual criticism and censure. He had left home as soon as he could and didn’t know if he would ever return. In a continuing conversation with the man, Cupich used baseball as a parable for life. After a batter gets a hit, he runs from home as fast as he can and arrives at first base, proud of himself for a degree of success. Due mostly to the efforts of another hitter, he then gets to second base, where he real...