More Americans tailoring religion to fit their needs

[SecularMotion]

That's one of the key findings in newly released research that reveals America's drift from clearly defined religious denominations to faiths cut to fit personal preferences.

The folks who make up God as they go are side-by-side with self-proclaimed believers who claim the Christian label but shed their ties to traditional beliefs and practices. Religion statistics expert George Barna says, with a wry hint of exaggeration, America is headed for "310 million people with 310 million religions."

"We are a designer society. We want everything customized to our personal needs — our clothing, our food, our education," he says. Now it's our religion.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/story/2011-09-14/america-religious-denominations/50376288/1

[orpupilofnature57]

1. 310 million disenfranchised, unedited, Personal conversations ,cool.

only in a Democracy.

[Fumesucker]

2. What I need is to excuse my greed...

And I'll find a "church" that does just that for me.

And if they'll excuse my bigotry too, well it's worth my tithe to have my conscience numbed.

[orpupilofnature57]

3. Thats why Jesus warned against religion ,and that false euphoria of

righteous clubs ,and pomp & circumstance and brokers to interpret.

[roguevalley]

12. Jesus is my mentor and rabbi, God is my friend and mentor. I

don't need religion to know either and to benefit from the relationship. I don't care what religions are doing, what they demand and how they function. They are all too small for me now. Personally, I talk directly to the energy that animates us all. I am a spiritualist through a long personal exploration of my beliefs and needs, a near death experience and conversations with George Anderson and Laurie Campbell regarding my family who are gone. I am going to have a regression therapy session when my old dogs pass and I can travel to Fairbanks without leaving them. (They are seventeen, blind and deaf) I can't wait.

[Walk away]

4. Where is your :sarcasm: icon??? nt

[mwb970]

5. More Americans tailoring science to fit their needs

THAT'S the headline that scares me!

Don't like the idea of evolution? Simply declare it's false. Don't like meteorological explanations for heat, drought, and crazy weather? Simply attack climate-change scientists as money-grubbing liars. Problem solved! Everyone gets to have their own personal "facts".

[orpupilofnature57]

6. Truth ,a trickie commodity ,everybody say's they want it ,we want to

hear that the truth, is what we want.

[NMMNG]

7. When reality conflicts with one's prehistoric worldview

reality loses.

[LiberalFighter]

8. What does religion fulfill for the masses?

A means to socialize with others on a regular basis?

[dickthegrouch]

9. Absolution for their "sins"

Today's religion is all about redefining the sin so you don't even need the absolution.

:sar

(half sarcasm)

I've never understood why so many people proclaim faith in something so rooted in fear, punishment, pain, sorrow, oppression and all the other negative things most religions espouse so wantonly. IMHO religion does a great deal of damage to the human psyche and is responsible for more than a little of the mess the whole world finds itself in.

[LiberalFighter]

11. Religion is created and based on fear.

Go to the very early days before science. They didn't know why people died. So they blame it on god. They didn't know why the weather behaved the way it did.

Religion gave the elite power over people.

Religion is something they don't know in their mind if a god exists and if their afterlife will suffer if they don't. It can't be confirmed or denied.

[roguevalley]

13. the first faltering steps towards understanding your soul.

[rrneck]

10. There can be as many or as few religions as we want

but there should be 310 million different faiths.

[Odin2005]

14. Which just goes to show that "god" is merely a reflection of people's own beliefs.

[Meshuga]

15. I don't think this is news

It's been happening for ages.

Religion has been molded by society from the beginning and it has always been a reflection of the society and its individual members. If a religion does not fall in line with someone's values then conversion happens or the person comes up with his/her own version of it.