“Spiritual but not religious” is a growing way of thought that has gripped the United States in the last five years. Spirituality has become an increasingly popular practice for people who do not identify with any specific religion or religious practice, but who still have their own beliefs. A spiritual quest is an individualized journey and it requires people to choose how to best attain their goals to reach the end of their quest. Some people may find that specifically identifying with a particular religion is the way their spiritual quest was meant to be, but others have found that a specific religion is not the way for them to go about their quest. Spirituality is a broad term and its meaning varies from person to person. It offers someone a way to explore their beliefs on their own terms. Within the last five years, research has showed that the percentages of people who have begun to identify as “spiritual but not religious” have increased tremendously. (pewresearch.org). Through analyzing the factual data presented by the Pew Center in their article “More Americans now say they’re spiritual but not religious,” the surveys conducted across all types of people provided a look into the increasingly popular phenomena of being spiritual but not religious, and how it helps facilitate the spiritual quests of people.
Description
In the article “More Americans now say they’re spiritual but not religious,” Michael Lipka and Claire Gecewicz examined the data collected from a three-month survey on whether people identified as spiritual or religious. They looked at many different demographic factors, such as gender, race/ethnicity, political stance, age, and education. The numbers of those who identify as spiritual but not religious have gone up about 8 percentage points in the last five years (pewresearch.org).
The authors of the article did point out that they did not ask the question “are you spiritual but not religious,” it instead asked its participants two separate questions: if they thought of themselves as religious or not, and if they considered themselves to be spiritual or not. In all of the categories measured, the numbers had increased of people who considered themselves to be more spiritual than religious since the last time the question was surveyed. It was noted that the people did check that they followed some sort of religion, but they had a low observance of the important celebrations within the religion. The data showed that the division of men and women of being spiritual but not religious was about the same on both sides. The article also reported that other factors did not have any influence in the results, stating that “Similarly, when it comes to race and ethnicity or age, those who are spiritual but not religious do not look dramatically different from the U.S. public overall…” (pewresearch.org).
Some factors that did influence the outcome of the survey was that the spiritual but not religious population was education and political stance. People that held higher degrees and received more education tended to lean more towards being independently spiritual rather than identifying with a religion. A higher percentage of people that were spiritual were Democrats (71%), as opposed to the 30% of those who were republican. (pewresearch.org).
Age was a factor that was observed, and it did actually present as being slightly skewed. The results of the age in the amount of people tested was skewed younger. Compared to the ages of people that were tested in a given group, only 12% of the 65+ adults were spiritual but not religious, while the remaining 88% were younger than 65. (pewresearch.org). The only factor that proved to be different than originally thought was age.
Key Points/Point of View
The point of this article was to show how the number of people who identify with spirituality and not religion have risen, and while showing the factors both play and do not play a role in their decision. A key point from the article was to show that the numbers have gone up in every category from 2012-2017 of those who consider themselves to be more spiritual at this point in their lives than ever before. It was also noted that the authors did not pick one specific category to look at, as that would have skewed results. They looked at every/any category that could have influenced people’s decision when answering the survey. Lipka and Gecewicz presented their readers with all of the information they collected. A key point from the article is that with the rise of people identifying as spiritual rather than as religious, it shows the freedom and acceptance people feel in disclosing their personal choices. The idea of the spiritual quest being an individual journey for people has become more popular as the numbers have risen. The numbers increasing show that people have started to make their own interpretations about how they should attain their spiritual quest.
Lipka and Gecewicz took a neutral stance on the article, and clearly presented all of their information in a concise and methodical way. They appealed to the logical sense of people’s emotions, or logos, with this article. Not involving any opinion and reporting facts while using comparisons and graphs to support their claims made this a logical appeal. Because of their use of all their data and showing it in a clear way, they also proved to their audience that they are credible, so they also appealed to people’s ethos.
Reflection
A spiritual quest is related to this article because it can help people see that it truly is an individual journey one has to take. A religion is the right path for some people- it offers them guidance and stability and a way to reach their quest through the means of that practice. However, as the world has evolved, and being different from the societal norm has become more widely accepted, people have embraced the idea of spirituality as an individual quest. As mentioned earlier, some people that identified themselves as spiritual but not religious did actually follow a religion. However, they did not observe the important days. These people could possibly be following a religion and not participating in it fully because they do not identify with every aspect of it, but it offers them assistance while they are on or starting out on their spiritual quest. The survey conducted by Michael Lipka and Claire Gecewicz showed that people have become more comfortable exploring the spiritual side of themselves and creating their own path for their quest.
The article presented new information to me that I have not seen before, and it made me realize that individualism has become an increasingly popular phenomena in every aspect of life- most recently, in religion and spirituality. No significant information was left out, and Lipka and Gecewicz gave detailed explanations for all of the demographic factors that they tested. Personally, I agree that spiritual quests are related to the decision of people being more set on discovering their own spiritual quest, rather than following a set of rules and practices given by a particular religion. The increase in numbers of people focusing more on spirituality than religion is very easy to understand after reading through the data collected from Lipka and Gecewicz. My perspective has not been changed, but from reading the article, I was exposed to more information that reinforced my beliefs on individualism and its relation to the spiritual quest. After examining this work, I realized that people all over have taken notice of the increase in individualism, and they have utilized this by doing what is best for them to be on the journey to find and better themselves. It was interesting to see that across all types of people- democratic, republican, white, black, Asian, educated, not educated, men, women, Hispanic, old, young, Protestant, Catholic- saw increases in the number of people who identify as spiritual rather than religious. The far-reaching effect of individualism in the spiritual quest was much bigger than I had previously assumed.
Conclusion
The Pew Center presented claims that were fully supported by evidence and that accurately depict and represent the validity of the idea that spirituality is becoming more popular than practicing a particular religion. No claims of bias could be valid in this case, because the number of factors tested varied widely. A spiritual quest is something that cannot be dictated or have a written set of rules that people have been following for thousands of years. It is something that comes from within, and it should satisfy the needs of the person who is on the quest. As America has become more accepting of the differences that its citizens have, it has opened the door for advances in individualism. Within the last five years alone, every single category that was surveyed saw an increase in the people who shifted from religion to spirituality. The article “More Americans now say they’re spiritual but not religious” helped define the correlation between spiritual quests and individualism in today’s society.