Rachel is an ordinary American woman in her mid-twenties.
She grew up in a normal American household with her mom, dad, big brother, and
big sister. Her dad is a pretty successful department manager in a large
corporation and her mom is the office manager for a local dentist.
Growing up, Rachel dreamed of becoming a world renowned
architect. So she applied and was accepted at Cornell University for both her
undergrad and graduate program and landed a job with Gensler, one of the top
architecture firms in the world, in their San Francisco office.
When she was growing up, her family attended church almost
every Sunday. She was an active participant in Sunday school and the youth
group. When she moved to Ithaca for college, she thought about trying to find a
church there, but after struggling to find one that reminded her of the one she
grew up in, she gave up trying thinking that church really didn’t seem to do much
for her anyway.
Once she moved to San Francisco, the thought of finding a
church home didn’t even cross her mind. After all, she was the one who earned
her way into Cornell. She was the one who excelled in her academic studies. She
was the one who earned a job at Gensler. What role did God really play in all
of those things? He seemed like nothing more than a distraction. If God would
be willing to get onboard with helping her accomplish her dreams, then she’d
consider going to church. Otherwise, she didn’t see the point. For that matter,
she really doesn’t see the point in affiliating herself with any of the
traditional religions because they didn’t seem to offer her any help in
achieving her dreams. Rachel considers herself to be non-religious.
Although Rachel is a fictitious person, her story is shared
by millions of young adults in America. Year after year, the number of people
in America who choose not to affiliate with a particular religion continues to
grow. But are these people really non-religious? Is there really such a thing
as having no religion? I’ve written this article in an attempt to further explore
this topic.
How Do We Define Religion?
In order to arrive at an answer to this question, I need to
develop a working definition for a religion. We commonly associate religion
with one of the traditional religions such as Christianity, Judaism, Islam,
Hinduism, or Buddhism. What do these religions have in common? All five of them
have a set of common beliefs amongst religious adherents. Four of them focus on
the worship of deities such as God, Allah, or a variety of gods. The other,
Buddhism, does include worship, but the focus of the worship is different than
the other four. Nonetheless, worship is still present. Let’s dig deeper into
what it means to worship.
Worship is not merely an outward expression. It is an
outward expression which results from what’s going on inside of us. Some of the
best worship I’ve witnessed takes place with sports teams. Let’s say you’re at
a football game and the home team scores. What happens next? The entire stadium
erupts in cheering. Why? Are they simply going through the motions? Not at all.
There’s something inside of them which experiences satisfaction in an object
(the football team), causing them to jump to their feet in praise of their
team. This is worship.
Football team worship is not isolated to the weekly games;
it also takes place throughout the week. Anything people do which displays the
glory and honor of their team throughout the week is also an expression of
worship. When someone shares about how great his team is to his coworker, this
is just as much an expression of worship as the person who jumps to his feet in
praise during the game. It’s an expression of worship when someone proudly
wears a shirt with his team’s logo on it. It’s an expression of worship when we
dedicate a room in our house to our favorite team. We worship every single day.
No matter what we do, we can’t get away from it.
Can you think of a time when someone worshiped nothing? That
thought doesn’t even make sense. Our worship is always directed towards an
object. The object may be anything including a supernatural deity, an employer,
wealth, or a spouse.
Going back to where I started, a commonality with all
religions is that their adherents engage in worship of a common object.
Christians and Jews worship God, Muslims worship Allah, and Hindus and
Buddhists worship a host of gods. In the same way, there is a religion on the
market known as Buckeye-Football-ism. People who adhere to this religion
worship the Ohio State Buckeye football team. There is a religion on the market
known as consumerism. People who adhere to this religion worship the goods and
services they consume. There is a religion on the market known as politics-ism.
People who adhere to this religion worship politics. And there are many, many
more.
Therefore, all religions have the following in common: (1)
an object of worship, (2) worship of that object, and (3) a common set of
beliefs. I’ve talked about the first two, so I’ll briefly talk about the third.
In a traditional religion such as Christianity, adherents
hold to a set of common beliefs such as believing that everyone is a sinner,
Jesus died to forgive these sins, and Christians will receive eternal life with
Jesus. Most of us have heard that before. But what are the common beliefs held
by adherents of Buckeye-Football-ism? One belief is that their team is the best
team. That doesn’t mean they’re deluded into thinking their team has the best
record in NCAA football, but it does mean that they believe the Buckeyes are
more valuable to them than any other team in NCAA football. Another common
belief is that they need to show allegiance to their team by wearing team
logos, watching team games, and not denying association with their team. Another
belief they all share is that they must shun all Michigan Wolverine fans and stay
out of Ann Arbor! Yeah, that one’s kind of humorous, but for those of you who
know adherents of Buckeye-Football-ism, you know it’s true. Similarly, every
religion, including consumerism and politics-ism, has a common set of beliefs.
Applying These Thoughts to Rachel’s Story
Based on this discussion, do you think our fictitious
character, Rachel, is truly non-religious or is she still religious? I’d conclude
that she’s still religious, but simply changed her affiliation. Instead of
worshiping God, she’s now worshiping herself, a religion known as Me-ism, and
Gensler, a religion known as Gensler-ism. She is deriving some sense of
satisfaction from worshiping those two objects instead of God.
In the same way that Rachel is still religious, I’d conclude
that people who claim to be non-religious are still religious; they just happen
to not be adherents to traditional religions such as Christianity, Judaism,
Islam, Hinduism, or Buddhism. They still have an object of worship, they worship
that object, and they have a set of beliefs about that object, making it a
religion.
We may try to rid ourselves of worship and ultimately religion,
but we can’t do it. It’s impossible.
–
What are your thoughts? Do you agree or disagree? Would it
be helpful for me to make any additional clarifications?
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