The Weakness of Humans
Courtesy of U Chicago, some statistics.[Link] They deal with changes in the beliefs, at least as indicated by a survey, of Americans between 1964 (or slightly later) and now.
- Belief in deity but not a personal deity: 0.05 -> 0.10;
- Belief in deity: 0.99 -> 0.92;
- Never attend services: 0.09 -> 0.22;
- Organizational non-affiliation: 0.05 -> 0.16;
- Daily prayer: 052 -> 0.59;
- Afterlife belief: 0.69 -> 0.72;
From these statistics it may be anticipated that the evangelical will become even more paranoid, frantic, and obnoxious. That the nation is becoming more rational and perceptive is a surprise but a good one.
That rationality seems to be at a premium here in Greater Metropolitan Arab where the number of churches outnumbers all other forms of businesses (slightly). One can only shudder at the tax revenue lost to the city and county by mysticism.
This also gives pause to reflect on the difference between Order and Organization. Humans want the former; it is programmed into us somehow, probably part of being intelligent. I decline the question of whether that search for order is an accident of nature or the purpose of deity acting. I do reflect however that all too often we humans are unable,[1] or unwilling, or just too lazy to comprehend order and instead substitute organization. Even I have a yearning to get books into cases, or, at least stacks instead of piles, and papers into all manner of box or container. Why, I even stash laptops and bricks in cases.
But too much of our lives is given over to slavish membership or subscription in organization. Organized religion is the epitome of this serfdom. Members are often discouraged from thinking outside strictly defined gutters; if thinking is even permitted. Non-belief organizations are often as bad. Scant wonder so many consider they employment to be a burden and a curse rtaher than a source of growth and enjoyment.
We lose sight of the idea that organization should be for the purpose of comprehending order, not of being ordered about.
[1] To repeat the sweatshirt cliche, ‘What part of the Quantum Mechanics don’t you understand?” recognizing that the joke is that any of us, even an SCP who has done QM for two score years, can understand very little of QM. The astute can do the maths and note the correlation with observable reality and muse on the whichness of the why, but understand?
