Everyone is religious. Christians are religious. Hindus are religious. Muslims are religious. And believe it or not, atheists are also religious, as are secular humanists and others. Everyone has a set of beliefs and values that they live their life by. If a person does not believe in and worship the one true God, then they will find another god.
Often that god is self – or some cause that people devote their lives to, or some belief that they commit themselves to. They will give themselves over to some ultimate explanation of life, some moral cause, or some purpose greater than themselves.
Such belief systems, philosophies, or worldviews serve “to interpret the universe for them, to guide their moral decisions, to give meaning and purpose to life, and all the other functions normally associated with religion” as Nancy Pearcey puts it. Thus there is such a thing as secular religions.
In the West today we find countless people who have rejected Christianity but have not stopped being religious. They have simply substituted other gods for the God of the Bible. They still want their life to have meaning and purpose. They still have a sense of making atonement of some kind for their various failings and shortcomings. They still have guilt feelings that they seek to deal with.
Thus they will often find substitute religious causes to join. These groups have secular versions of biblical themes such as some sort of beginning, a fall, sin, redemption, and eschatology. These counterfeit religions give these folks a sense of meaning and fulfillment. That is because they are in fact made in the image of God, and if it is not the true God that they worship and follow, then they will make up their own.
One of the big god-substitutes of today is the green religion. Many people who have rejected more traditional religion have embraced environmentalism as their big picture belief system. It gives them a sense of belonging and purpose, and it assuages their guilt.
— Bill Muehlenberg, Culture Watch, Green Religion, August 21, 2019
So, he re-defines the word “religion” to mean “any set of ideas or values whatsoever”, and presto, suddenly it turns out that everybody in the world has a religion!
By the same logic, I could prove that everybody owns a dog if I re-defined the word “dog” to mean “any physical object of any kind whatsoever”.
Of course it’s completely intellectually dishonest, but that’s religion for you.
That’s what Christians do. They change the meanings of words to make everything fit their worldview.
Yep.
“You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common. They don’t alter their views to fit the facts. They alter the facts to fit the views. Which can be uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the facts that needs altering.”
Christian apologists do that for a living.
They are doubleplusgood duckspeakers.
This guy’s basic premise is that all humans need and want a religion and cannot fathom that’s not true.
I think religion requires rituals and dogma. If you have neither, you aren’t religious.
How does this ass-hat know I feel guilt about anything?? Having a sense of purpose and meaning in life simply does not equate to following a god. And a quick internet search reveals that Nancy Pearcy, whom he quotes as some kind of expert, is described as “an American evangelical author on the Christian worldview.” So essentially he uses her groundless opinions to support his groundless opinions and arrives at the conclusion that “there is such a thing as secular religions.” It’s frightening that such people present themselves to the religious community as intellectuals and actually influence people’s beliefs and eventually their decisions — and votes.
this is truly frightening. here in the south, these so called experts are revered. our state is going downhill due to fundamentalist rule. our country is headed the same way as long as we allow religious nuts to run our government.