NONES

 

We are millions of religiously-unaffiliated “nones,” comprising both believers and nonbelievers. We surf the tsunami of secularization. We’ve become skeptical, ambivalent, or indifferent toward religion because we’ve woken up.

We find paternalistic church, mosque and temple dogma to be repressive and exploitive (if not irrelevant) in today’s world. We can be moral and ethical without the dictates and unfilled promises of religion. We tolerate all peaceful faiths, and no faith. We live in harmony with friends, neighbors, and loved ones of diverse views. Not needing the social inclusion of a religious community, we don’t fear social alienation, rejection, or abandonment.

Many of us find belief in the supernatural to be irrational and delusional, if not pathological. Many also feel that deities, miracles, superpowers, and myths are vestigial relics of folk tales and primitive belief systems. We cannot find evidence for spirits, salvation, faith healing, or eternal damnation. It is our right and obligation to seek valid, evidence-based truths through science. Not believing in a “final reward,” our hope is that we’ve made the world a better place today. Our views may either anger, or comfort you.

Look deep within yourself whenever possible, and explore your gifts of creativity and logic. On your wondrous journey through secular and religious realms, discover truths that are uniquely yours. Lead an ethical life of personal fulfillment that aspires to the greater good of humanity: a more just and peaceful world.

–Will Walsh  © 2023 - 2024