Ask Americans what their religion is, and nearly 1 in 3 say this -- none. That’s according to the U.S. adults surveyed by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Mike Dulak grew up Catholic in Southern California, but by his teen years, he began skipping Mass and driving straight to the shore to play guitar, watch the waves and enjoy the beauty of the morning. “And it felt more spiritual than any time I set foot in a church,” he recalled.

Nothing has changed that view in the ensuing decades.

“Most religions are there to control people and get money from them,” said Dulak, now 76, of Rocheport, Missouri. He also cited sex abuse scandals in Catholic and Southern Baptist churches. “I can’t buy into that,” he said.

  • merc@sh.itjust.works
    2·
    1 year ago

    There are approx. 4000 religions out there today. Most of them have a rule saying “our religion is the right one, believe in the wrong one and terrible things happen to you after you die”. If one of those is right and 3999 of them are wrong, what are the odds of anybody picking the right one? Most believers don’t even put in the effort and learn all about the other 3999 to be sure that the one they picked is likely to be correct. They’re just gambling with a tiny chance of avoiding “hell”.

      • merc@sh.itjust.works
        1·
        1 year ago

        Unless the correct religion is one that is really harsh on people who believe in one of the heathen religions, but welcoming of non-believers who nevertheless live a good life.

        • bob_wiley@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          1 year ago

          I suppose. I don’t really even believe in a literal heaven or hell. I think it’s more that every religion lays out some ideas of things you can/should do which will be a net positive to yourself and the world around you. If you do those things, you’ll generally be happy with happy people around you… which can be akin to heaven. Do a bunch of bad stuff and don’t take care of yourself and turn the world around you into a mess… you’re basically living in hell. Heaven and hell both exist simultaneously on Earth, and you can live in either one depending on how you go about living your life. The biblical heaven and hell are just extreme versions, spoken about metaphorically, to help illustrate the ideas through stories before things could be written down.

          From that perspective, all 4,000 are right, and the non-believers can be right too.