God Isn't Dead, He's Just Spiritual™

I.

According to a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, religion is on the way out, and making way for the encroaching "nones". No surprise there; it's four millennia late on its rent and cedar don't grow on trees.

The article explains that the distribution of U.S. adults who claim to be religiously affiliated has dropped from 83% to 77% since 2007. Not to be confused with the following statistic, which states that those who claim to be unaffiliated has risen from 16% to 23%. Don't worry about the redundancy, they've got a point to make, just have a little faith. They continue to measure that of those who identify as "unaffiliated", 61% claim to believe in God (from 70% in 2007).

Seems off, doesn't it? I'd wager 100%.

I know, over at Reddit an antitheist just grew his neckbeard, and I can feel your resistance already, but don't you hang up on me.

It doesn't matter if you think you believe in God or not -- you wouldn't see me lined up for the communion wine unless it was an open bar -- but his omnipresence is hardwired whether you like it or not. He's not just a part of your culture, he's in your brain, in your actions, and in your porn. "I like older men." Gross. God is a social construct, not of proxy but of necessity, and in a nation of branding and appearance you better thank him for his audience.

He's your conscience, your guilt, your hope, your morality, and even your paranoia; every action you make and every thought you have is altered by your subconscious understanding that God is watching, whether he's a Platonic Santa or your "higher consciousness", depending on how much acid your generation had to dole out. Don't misunderstand me; he's only the image of man insofar as he's a reflection of yourself, but his mere notion is evidence of his tangibility in your life. But Christianity is no longer en vogue, "God is watching" used to result in chastity, but now it's just exhibitionism, and that loving paternal gaze suddenly feels a lot more judgy. This isn't a loss of faith, it's poor advertising. Someone should sack Yahweh's PR guy, it's 2015 and they're still trying to connect with the youth using MC Kosher.

"The study also suggests that in some ways Americans are becoming more spiritual. About six-in-ten adults now say they regularly feel a deep sense of “spiritual peace and well-being,” up 7 percentage points since 2007. And 46% of Americans say they experience a deep sense of “wonder about the universe” at least once a week, also up 7 points over the same period."

So what you're seeing isn't a deflation of religious devotion, it's a rebranding of the self. "Piety is SO pre-Enlightenment, you should read this Spirit Science article. "

And there stands the harbinger of the ever-shuffling zeitgeist: no one can buy that content on its own [ostensible] merits, so we recruit science, the unwilling but inevitable agent of our own self-aggrandization. The very word "science" connotes infallibility, and note well that it never suggests change, only justifies it. "Experts have proven the existence of a soul". An expert of what, mescaline?

"I'm spiritual, but not religious" is only a gradual sublimation of that omnipresence from manual to automatic -- we get the gist, and the purpose is self-perpetuating, so let's lose the dead weight, reinvent the brand and move on to New Religion™.

Catch the Wave.

This modern responsibility of science is not its natural trajectory; it's our natural reallocation of our faith. Faith and religion were historically the means by which we justified our actions, our thoughts, our beliefs, and there's no room for that in our progressive new world -- but stop. Our skepticism is no greater, our faith no lesser; we've only depersonified our God -- indeed we've regressed, assured that our new provider of omnipotent confirmation is infallible. We outsource our beliefs and our morality for the approval of an anonymous greater intelligence, and this much has not changed -- this is the very reason we can't change.

II.

I'll risk the blowback and use the example of the body-positive plus-sized woman. The sentiment of comfort in one's own skin is, itself, laudable, true, but I'm going to say something that'll have the Tumblr deathsquads on my porch by midnight: no woman that identifies as "plus-sized" is comfortable in her own body. 

This is not because overweight women cannot, but because she will not, her sense of self is not her own; she's surrendered it to The Other, to Science, to God. In exchange for its approval of her self, she exchanges to it that power. Insisted by the culture in which she was raised, she is not able to make this decision, it belongs to the societal collective, and thus her confidence needs to cite its sources. Historically, it was God, "he loves me no matter what", "only God can judge me", "the pastor didn't seem to mind", etc. Now that's no longer cutting it, but don't worry, because Pop Science is here to help her reinvent her brand too: she's not fat, she's Plus Size™. And this comforting new study says that real men prefer "curves". She doesn't develop self-confidence; she garbs herself with a brand connoting to others the trappings of self-confidence.

We are tacitly aware of this need, and we crave not self-confidence, but external affirmation. We think that we're learning to love ourselves, but what we're really doing is learning to believe everyone loves us, which is all we really wanted. But we expend our energy assuring ourselves that we are good, and science has become an agent of the ego, echoing only what we want to be true -- tantamount to cherry-picking your favorite bible verses.

And like the bible, it's probably best science leaves out some of the cruder early years.

"But I don't search for these articles, they just wind up on my Facebook feed."

And there's how you know it's a cultural pathology. So massive and so ingrained is this outsourcing of our ego that it finds you. Whether it's a Facebook post, or suggested article, or a concerned mother, it finds its way to its demographic, to assure you, and comfort you, and from there it breeds until it's Common Knowledge™: You're Probably Right. And with our self affirmed externally, our confidence atrophies, and our sense of self becomes dependent on The Other, on Science, on God.


III.


"You're getting side-tracked"


You sit back down, or I'll derail this fucker entirely. Did you know they'll just let anyone drive these blogs?


My point, and the problem with this line of thinking, is that it further perpetuates the culture of narcissism so paramount to the American way of life. You're not an individual, and your thoughts are not your own. Politics, social policy, self-image -- all of these things are reliant on the options of identification provided to you, and your behavior adjusts accordingly. You aren't labelled for who you are, you become your label, and you choose to do this. Nevermind the false dichotomy of Democrat and Republican, now you're a walking advertisement for them, and you better behave in-line with that brand, not for them, but for yourself.


How will the world know who you are if you don't?

So the prime directive of the self is no longer to change, no longer to improve. It doesn't matter what constitutes it, it matters what it appears to be. At your fundamental level, you don't exist as a person but as a series of identifiers, descriptors, brands, the molds of which you retroactively fill to convince the world who you are. So pick your side, democrat or republican, religious or spiritual, feminist or meninist, Coke or Pepsi, happy or sad, but you've been taught by the very system you compose , and indeed taught yourself not to fight to change, or to succeed, or to improve, or to be happy, but to affirm to anyone, any entity capable of assuring you:

"I am me, and I am good."

Brought to you by the makers of God.