Nones on the Rise

http://ideas.time.com/2013/03/14/10-big-ideas/slide/preach-like-your-faith-depends-on-it/

The article above at Time Magazine is called "Ten Big Ideas" and the above site is number three of the ten big ideas.

Nones are people who have gone from 15% of the population to now 20% of the general population in the U.S. They are people who don't affiliate with any specific religion. This number is growing and that makes sense as the level of education increases in the U.S.

Religions have always helped people control and manage their fears regarding death as to when it happens, what to do when someone you know and loves dies, and how to deal with your own death when that happens. But now, as people realize that if they just live to be 30 they likely will see 90 or more all this tends to change. Things are less about being worried about what goes bump in the night and more about educating yourself for any possible outcome in your life.

I myself, might be classified as a none in regard to religion because I don't affiliate or go to church regularly. However, for me, being spiritual is a 24 hour 7 day a week thing whereas religious people often are only religious for only 2 hours or less a week and even that is show and superficial completely. So, I consider my path superior because I am involved in my search for truth and enlightenment 24 hours a day. But that is just me. Am I religious? I would say "No longer". Am I spiritually seeking enlightenment 24 hours a day ongoing? "Yes!" The reason I am not religious is that I find it generally superficial and without genuine meaning. It is cultural for most people and it because of that doesn't usually go deep enough into truth. If you believe something because someone tells you to that doesn't have anything to do with truth. Truth is only found when we search for it by ourselves, otherwise it can't be truth it can only be obedience to that other person.

So, even though I consider myself to be a Mystical Christian Tibetan Buddhist this is also a "none" in the sense that there isn't one church that I attend regularly. If I go to a church usually it is specifically to watch one or more  of my friends on tour play music and sing.