This trend generally means that the United States is becoming more and more secular. There are currently small but well organized groups or organizations that promote pure secularism. One such group held an event at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC on June 4th called the Reasons Rally. This event is a celebration of the attendees "...secular, atheist, agnostic, humanist, freethinking, and nonreligious identities" and to show their "power at the voting box to bring good sense back to government". Thus, it was, in essence, a political statement.
However, most people in the United States still believe in some type of supernatural or metaphysical reality - much to the chagrin of men like Dr. Michael Shermer, the founding publisher of Skeptic Magazine, who wrote a very interesting book a number of years ago entitled, "Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time". And for the record, in my assessment, this book is an excellent tool for learning how to debunk the wild and crazy claims of dangerous religions, non-orthodox religious movements, and faith-based practices and beliefs that should probably be avoided... but back to the point.
I have mixed feelings about this trend. On the one hand, I am concerned that lot's of people no longer want to consider the ultimate truth when it comes to faith and religion. Starting with a purely secular and naturalistic framework for reality eliminates the the possibility of the existence of an undetectable realm - the realm of angels, demons and of course, God. If such a spiritual realm really does exists (which of course, I am convinced it does) then we can not use our scientific tools to detect or measure it except for when something from that ream interact's in our 3-dimensional universe of time and space. This MUST be true, a given, by definition if the spiritual realm is real.
The implications are tremendous. History speaks out against a world without a transcendent antecedent for societies ethical and moral standards. Even if this spiritual foundation for defining good and evil is based on myth, it will provide guidance on defining good and evil within that culture. Of course, my purely naturalistic friends embrace this fact as evidence that there is no God and mankind's religions are simply evolved myth and superstitions that are left overs from our prehistoric ancestors that aided in natural selection. The problem with this conclusion is it ignores or even worse, prevents the honest analysis of historical claims of any of the modern religious systems embraced by very large numbers of people on earth. Even so, as Americans we may continue to jettison the moral and ethical foundation that philosophically permitted the belief in God, we will build a society that removes reasonable restrictions on behavior. The impact could be devastating to society if taken to it's logical extreme.
Yet, if the broader society does embrace pure naturalism and secularism and those that believe in God are marginalized intellectually and academically, then it will require authentic faith to hold on to the faith. If it's not considered wholesome or good to be a devout Christian that take certain ideas as absolutely right and wrong, factoring in the brokenness of life and creation, then you really have to have courage to be a Christian or to hold on to any other faith. Yet, it seems that Christianity in the United States is the faith system most challenged; this makes perfectly good sense because some form of Christianity has been the predominate faith system of Americans since the formation of the republic. The principles of freedom and of checks-and-balances embedded in Deceleration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights all protest against the abuse of the minority. (Regarding this point, I would hope that the hypocrisy of the many of the founders occasionally kept them up at night in sleepless torture - especially since I am an African American!). Thus, it is possible, as this trend continues, that it won't be "The Tribunal of the Holy Office of the Inquisition" of 1440 torturing heretics and forcing Jews and Muslims to convert or leave Spain! Instead, it will be atheistic and secular leaders calling Christians to abandon their faith or be ostracized.
I'm not a conspiracy theorist so I don't foresee such a dystopian society that would torture and completely marginalize believers. As I said, history cries out against the success of such a society. Instead, I have great hope. In fact, one of the primary tenants of Christianity, is that we are made in the image of God, and thus values such as compassion, mercy, grace, love, empathy and many other principles that feed into the secular side of social justice will always be present. How else, as the scriptures plainly state, would men be "without excuse" for rejecting the truth? Creation and existence itself, the existential realities of a functional, healthy, growing, peaceful culture and society is powerful evidence for a theistic stance. Such values are not some deterministic result of natural selection, embedded in our DNA to aid in helping society to thrive.
So, as the trends continue, I am confident that cool heads in both religious and secular circles will continue to guide cultures and societies. We must continue to debate, discuss and permit differences of life-styles, values, beliefs and practices. As it is written, "No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God’s approval." (1 Cor 11:19). Differences help us decide how to believe and how to live our lives. The purity of the faith must ultimately be filtered by God from within the believer based on indelible truths that come from God. Thus, there is no need to worry about these trends if, indeed, God is ultimately in control.
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