Gradual decline by American Christians

When we see documentaries about the North American people we get a picture that they are 'very religious'.

Christianity, which was once shared by a majority of Americans, has seen a gradual decline as fewer people hold to the core tenets of the faith.

The latest research by the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University continues the survey series American Worldview Inventory 2021 in examining biblical and competing worldviews of American adults.

According to the most recent release from the study, there has been a sharp decline in the status of Christianity across the nation in the past several decades. In 1980, more than 90 percent of Americans claimed to be Christian. That percentage dropped to 80 percent by 1990, in which the proportion lasted until after the turn of the millennium. By 2010, only three in four adults claimed to be Christians, with a further decline today as just under two out of three make the same claim.

In the previous century confidence in religion was still important.
About two-thirds of American adults had high confidence in religion in the 1970s. By the 1980s, however, that confidence was waning, and Christianity’s influence was declining.
At the start of the millennium, 56 percent of adults had confidence in religion. That number continued to decline, and now, barely four in ten adults hold a high degree of confidence in religion.

No wonder, you could say, when we look at how ministers used their institutions to gain money and trick people into their 'business'. Small personal family churches were taken over by mega churches where one got lost in the group and where there was not a special bond between teh believers.

A great problem is also that the majority of those churches are Trinitarian churches, where they worship Jesus as their god. Though people came to see the weakness of that person and the contradictions they can find in Scriptures, having a Jesus who can not do a lot of things and does not know a lot of things, whilst the Bible tells us God can do everything and knows everything.

The Bible is also increasingly rejected as a trustworthy and relevant document of life principles. Not many people want to know about the values and ethics presented in the Holy Scriptures.

In 1991, 86 percent of people believed in the existence of God as the all-knowing, all-powerful creator of the universe who still rules the world today. Today, that percentage has dropped to 46 percent.

In a lot of the American churches there was not much time spend on the Word of God. Ministers only took some verses, often out of context, to bring a long sermon, often with a lot of shouting and crying about damnation and danger to burn into hell. Often people could not find a relation between the words of the pastor and the words written in the Bible. That undermined the relevance of the Holy Scriptures in the daily life.

Regarding the belief that the Bible is the accurate and reliable Word of God, the decline shifted from 70 percent in 1991 to 41 percent in 2021. On the topic of salvation, 36 percent of adults believed in salvation through confession of sin and accepting Jesus as Saviour in 1991. Today, that amount is 30 percent. The survey also noted that this measured as high as 45 percent and was 39 percent in 2011.

The percentage of Americans possessing a biblical worldview also significantly decline (12 percent in 1995; 6 percent in 2021).

Non-practicing Christians widely believing in a god or higher power

Non-practicing Christians widely believe in God or another higher power

Of those who call themselves Christian the majority believe in the Trinity and not as such  as Pew count them as believers in God as described in the Bible. In the 27% who believe in God, the majority believe in a concept they were brought up with, some Catholics even not knowing that their church worships a Trinity, or do not know what it entails. Non-trinitarian Christians though still may be counted as the minority

Most non-practicing Christians in Europe believe in God. But their concept of God differs considerably from the way that churchgoing Christians tend to conceive of God. While most church-attending Christians say they believe in God “as described in the Bible,” non-practicing Christians are more apt to say that they do not believe in the biblical depiction of God, but that they believe in some other higher power or spiritual force in the universe.

For instance, in Catholic-majority Spain, only about one-in-five non-practicing Christians (21%) believe in God “as described in the Bible,” while six-in-ten say they believe in some other higher power or spiritual force.

Non-practicing Christians and “nones” also diverge sharply on this question; most unaffiliated people in Western Europe do not believe in God or a higher power or spiritual force of any kind. (See below for more details on belief in God among religiously unaffiliated adults.)

Similar patterns – in which Christians tend to hold spiritual beliefs while “nones” do not – prevail on a variety of other beliefs, such as the possibility of life after death and the notion that humans have souls apart from their physical bodies. Majorities of non-practicing Christians and church-attending Christians believe in these ideas. Most religiously unaffiliated adults, on the other hand, reject belief in an afterlife, and many do not believe they have a soul.

Indeed, many religiously unaffiliated adults eschew spirituality and religion entirely. Majorities agree with the statements, “There are no spiritual forces in the universe, only the laws of nature” and “Science makes religion unnecessary in my life.” These positions are held by smaller shares of church-attending Christians and non-practicing Christians, though in most countries roughly a quarter or more of non-practicing Christians say science makes religion unnecessary to them. (For a detailed statistical analysis combining multiple questions into scales of religious commitment and spirituality, see Chapters 3 and 5.)

500 Years of Reformation Divisions Have Lost Much of Their Potency

After 500 Years, Reformation-Era Divisions Have Lost Much of Their Potency

Theological differences diminished to a degree that might have shocked Christians in past centuries.

As Protestants prepare to mark the 500th anniversary of the Reformation, new Pew Research Center surveys show that in both Western Europe and the United States, the theological differences that split Western Christianity in the 1500s have diminished to a degree that might have shocked Christians in past centuries.
When we look at the Lutheran, Calvinist, Presbytarian, Pentecostal and Baptist churches we do not notice a lot of free thinking and continued Biblical study in the church.

While the Reformation led to more than a century of devastating wars and persecution in Europe, both Protestants and Catholics across the continent now overwhelmingly express willingness to accept each other as neighbours and even as family members. this would not be bad when they all kept to study of the Bible and would aim to bring their flock closer to God.

The majority of present protestant churches are aiming to please their folks and are looking for ways to make their service as entertaining as possible; That way the Pentecostals are enjoying a growth whilst many other protestant churches are loosing members.

In Western Europe, the Pew Research Center conducted telephone surveys from April 11 to Aug. 2, 2017, among 24,599 people across 15 countries. In the U.S., the survey was conducted online from May 30 to Aug. 9, 2017, among 5,198 panelists on Pew Research Center’s American Trends Panel (although all of the questions analysed in the survey were asked of only half the sample).

Of the U.S. Protestants 46% say the Bible provides all the religious guidance Christians need, a traditionally Protestant belief known as sola scriptura. But 52% say Christians should look for guidance from church teachings and traditions as well as from the Bible, the position held by the Catholic Church.

In the United States we can find mega churches where the preachers just shout with quotes from the bible but not really look into biblical texts to teach about the Word of God. How more entertaining a pastor can be how bigger his church can be.
Among self-identified white evangelicals, 44% express both convictions of sola fide and sola scriptura, and this figure rises to 59% among white evangelicals who say they attend church at least once a week. 19% say neither religious tradition espouses sola fide, and one-in-ten U.S. adults (11%) say only Catholicism traditionally teaches that salvation comes through faith alone.
Among Protestants who know that only Protestantism (trinitarian) traditionally teaches that salvation comes through faith alone, about three-quarters (77%) embrace the concept of sola fide. But among the much larger share of Protestants who are not aware that sola fide is solely a Protestant teaching, far fewer (35%) believe that faith is all that is needed to get into heaven. The survey does not take into account the non-trinitarian protestant churches which for the majority teach that people are not just saved by their baptism or by their reborn status. Most of non-trinitarian protestant churches teach one has to become like Christ and one has to follow the commandments of Christ and the commandments of God. According those churches one has to live according the faith and have to do good works. Without repenting for the wrong being done, they do not believe one can enter the Kingdom of God.

Some of the key findings presented in “Five Centuries After Reformation, Catholic-Protestant Divide in Western Europe Has Faded” include:

• In nearly all of the European countries surveyed, majorities or pluralities of both Catholics and Protestants adhere to the traditionally Catholic view that both faith and good works are necessary to attain salvation. In fact, in every country except Norway (where 51% of Protestants say salvation comes through faith alone), belief in sola fide is a minority view even among Protestants.

• Catholics and Protestants in Western Europe generally report low levels of religious observance: Medians of just 8% of Protestants and 14% of Catholics say they attend religious services weekly or more. But Europeans who say religion is important in their lives are especially likely to hold their respective church’s traditional position regarding the means of salvation. For example, 31% of Protestants in Sweden who say religion is “very” or “somewhat” important in their lives believe in sola fide, compared with 10% of other Swedish Protestants.

• The impact of secularization is apparent, but so are pockets of religiosity. For instance, the Netherlands has a relatively high level of disaffiliation, with about half of Dutch adults (48%) describing themselves as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular” religiously. Yet Dutch Protestants also stand out for some of Europe’s highest reported levels of church attendance, with 43% saying they go to church at least once a week.

• In every European country surveyed, roughly nine-in-ten or more Protestants and Catholics say they are willing to accept members of the other tradition as neighbours. And large majorities of both groups say they would be willing to accept members of the other group into their families. For example, 98% of German Protestants say they would accept Catholics as members of their family, and a similar share of German Catholics (97%) say the same about Protestants.

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Find also to read

1. Followers, protestors and reformers
2. 500 years of a provision of the Word in the language of the peoples
3. Religions and Mainliners
4. Divisive pastors and Strange Fire conference
5. The Catholic synod on the family and abortion
6. The Anti-Reformation in Todays Evangelical Church 
7. A New Reformation

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Heaven and hell still high on the believers list showing a religion gender gap

Typological groups according to the Pew Research Center. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A new Pew Research Center analysis of international census and survey data finds that there is a religion gender gap: Women generally are more religious than men by several key measures of religious commitment, although this pattern is not universal and can vary by religious tradition.

In some countries and faiths, men are more religious than women, at least by some measures. For instance, among Muslims and Orthodox Jews, men are more likely than women to attend worship services at least weekly, the new study finds.

Religiousness also can be measured by asking people how important religion is to them personally. In more than half of the 84 countries surveyed (46), roughly equal shares of men and women say that religion is “very important” to them. However, in 36 other countries, more women than men say religion is important in their lives – and usually by wide margins. As a result, across all 84 countries, women surpass men in this aspect of religious commitment by an average of 5 percentage points (65% vs. 60%). Only in Mozambique and Israel do men say that religion is very important to them more often than women do.

The biggest exception to the general pattern of women being more religious than men occurs in weekly attendance at worship services. Across the 81 countries where Pew Research Center data are available for this measure, more men than women attend worship at least once a week (48% vs. 42%).

This attendance gap is largely driven by 27 countries in the survey with large Muslim populations. In many Islamic societies, men are expected to attend communal Friday worship services in the mosque, while women can fulfill this obligation either inside or outside the mosque. There are similar religious norms regarding worship attendance among Orthodox Jews in Israel. As a result, men in these 28 countries report far greater rates of attendance than women, often by margins of at least 20 percentage points.

By contrast, in countries that have large Christian populations (30 of the 81 studied on this measure), women are more likely to report attending services weekly. And in 23 other countries, men and women report attending about equally.

According to an other Pew Research Center published last month, surveys in 63 countries have asked Muslims and Christians about belief in heaven, hell and angels and showed that lots of people are still convinced that they might be tortured for ever after they die or that they go to heaven when they are finished here on earth.

In 47 of the 63 countries (75%), men and women are about equally likely to profess a belief in heaven. Women are more likely to believe in heaven in 15 countries, often by margins of 5 percentage points or more. 

Men and women in 52 of 63 countries (83%) are about equally likely to say they believe in hell. Women hold this belief more than men in 10 countries, while men surpass women in this belief in Lebanon. Overall, when the 63 countries are taken together, an average of 81% of women and 80% of men believe in hell.

Across all 63 countries, a greater share of women than men believe in angels by an average gap of 3 percentage points.

Looking at Christians only, there are just a handful of countries where the genders differ significantly in their beliefs in these concepts. A larger share of Christian men believe in heaven in only one country (Lebanon); Christian men are more likely than Christian women to believe in hell in two countries (the United States and Lebanon) and to believe in angels in one country (Zambia). On the other hand, more Christian women than Christian men profess belief in heaven in five countries (Russia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Chile, Botswana and the United States), in hell in four countries (Kazakhstan, Russia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Chile) and in angels in nine countries (Kazakhstan, Russia, Uruguay, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Chile, Argentina, Ecuador, Uganda and Guatemala).

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Russian Orthodox Church demonstrating its presence

Cathedral of Christ the Saviour over Moscow River. Moscow (Russia).  (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When we see documentaries about the ex-Soviet states we are confronted with the quantity and size of Russian churches and the holy images on buses and taxis.

On the buses and taxis people at first after the end of the Soviet Union could find adverts for all sorts of human pleasures.  The dashboard standard in the 1990s was soft porn which as the 2000s wore on, got superseded by "holy images" as a visible sign of social change in post-Soviet Russia.
Sometimes we have the impression that the Russians have found back religion and that the churches are getting enough visitors. But from people who recently went to Russia this may be an incorrect picture.

With the exceptions of major holy days, however, churches are not full. One of the curious characteristics of resurgent Orthodox Christianity is that, while the vast majority of citizens of the Russian Federation identify themselves as Orthodox, this is not reflected in church attendance. {In Search of Believers}

The end of communism has allowed the church to demonstrate its presence in a way that the Soviet authorities would never have permitted. Mühling’s interest in the story of an icon painter shot by the Soviets leads him to the New Martyrs’ Church at Butovo, just beyond the southern edge of Moscow’s urban sprawl. During the purges of the 1930s, it was here that in 14 months, some 20,000 people were shot and buried for crimes against Soviet power. Mühling’s encounter with the church’s priest, whose own grandfather had been among those killed, is a fascinating piece of personal and social history. {In Search of Believers}

 In 2007, as BBC Moscow correspondent, James Rodgers, Senior Lecturer in Journalism at City University London, where he lectures on the History of Journalism and the Reporting of Armed Conflict, visited the church to report on the ceremonies, which were held to mark the 70^th anniversary of the start of the killings.

Among the impressions gathered that day, two remain with me above all. Firstly, given that this was such a traumatic period in the country’s past, how few people were actually there: hundreds only, just a stone’s throw from a city of some ten million. Secondly, that no senior officials were present. Mr Medvedev, then prime minister, was not among the crowd nor was President Putin. Mühling’s telling of what unfolded there, and the links between past and present – there is also an encounter with an elderly resident of a nearby dacha settlement, who dismisses the deaths at Butovo as ‘a few priests’ – could have been even better had he reflected a little on the way that wider Russian society today seems not to pay much attention. {In Search of Believers}

> Continue reading:  In Search of Believers,
concerning James Rodgers 's review of A Journey into Russia (Haus Publishing, 2015) by Jens Mühling 

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Europe and much-vaunted bastions of multiculturalism becoming No God Zones

Cristina Odone for the Daily Telegraph looking at the situation in Europe about religious groups remarks that Jews are not alone envisioned to be mocked at. or endangered for life In some parts of the world, wearing the label "Christian" also carries a death sentence.

Whether executed for the crime of apostasy in Pakistan, or attacked as "kefirs" (infidels) in Mosul, in northern Iraq, Christians are forced to die for their faith in parts of the Middle East.

We do not have to think Muslims are safe and that they are the ones threatening others. Muslims are not spared the persecution the other Abrahamic religions suffer: in western China and episodically in India, public allegiance to Islam is punishable by death.

In ever-greater swathes of the world, being a believer means embracing martyrdom. "Civilised" countries have failed to defend the persecuted – and in fact have created an atmosphere where the person of faith finds themselves pushed into an intolerable place. The extremists want their blind allegiance or will claim their lives; while the secularists suspect their collusion with hot-head co-religionists. 

Soon Europe, even London, the much-vaunted bastion of multiculturalism, will become No God Zones, banning any public display of religiosity. ‘For your own good’, the authorities will tell their pious citizens, "you must carry out your ancient rituals in secret. We cannot vouch for your safety otherwise." Believers will have to hide their precious religious symbols, and conceal their rites. Like the early Christians in the catacombs, they will lead lives in the shadow. 

Read more > Europe is becoming a no God zone

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Are you religious, spiritual, or do you belong to a religion, having a faith or interfaith

Many people today feel they have stepped away from religion, and found a way to feed their spirituality without a religion or faith practice.

Religion and its contribution to culture of peace (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Many practice 'out of religion' activities and are convinced they have nothing to do with 'a religion'. But....If they have certain things they believe in, If they use these concepts to better themselves and others, and If their concepts lead them closer to "the source"... is it not a religion or faith practice for them?  You can also ask if spirituality is connected with only religious exercise.

All created in the image of God do have received intelligence and some instinct also knowing good and bad.  Throughout history people looked for ways to form their minds. They created different systems to form the soul (spirit/pneuma/psyche/mind). In this way they also created rites or returning actions which were recognised by others and as such got them labelled under religious and spiritual groups. In their truest deepest form religion and spirituality may belong together.

Faith - is the demonstration of our spiritual beliefs even if it is a combination of various spiritualities
interfaith is the sharing of one's faith with others to gain an understanding of one's beliefs.  When we look at "Interfaith" we may find a situation were the people present a willingness to overlook the borders of the different faithgroups. Those who consider themselves belonging to an interfaith are persons of goodwill who want to reconcile the various opinions, beliefs, faiths and sometimes invention of the wide variety of religions which have developed as a result of the lack of understanding of the true facts of our spirituality.

His Religion and Hers (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We do not need a religion to question ourselves , the reason why we are here or what we do have to do. When we do use our brains we shall come to an understanding that have in our soul (nephesh) the flesh and the inner soul (pneuma/psyche) our way of thinking which is the one which give more importance to the soul (ruach/breath/wind), the life-breath which keeps us alive. This knowledge having to give importance to psychological and spiritual development gives way to the liberty to look across the many borders set up by religious, non-religous and atheist people.

As explained in the several articles on Spirituality and Religosity on Stepping Toes, "Spirituality" requires no belief or faith, because it has the knowledge of its abilities and experience. Our mind can think and guide our body. Without a healthy mind we shall not be able to get a healthy body.

Today we see that some sort of cross-fertilisation is occurring within and between religions at this juncture of history.

As we are caught up with it and feel the energies of the process positively so we find ourselves sustained by what we are calling "spirituality", and exhilarating tone of life that is a vibrant reality for many - whether our lives are full of suffering and tragedy or just plain humdrum, or remarkably privileged amonst the gross inequalities of our lives. So our old religious homes are actually benefitting from this renewal rather than fading away and dying. There remains however the problems of fanaticism and desperation and exclusivism in religions. Can our spiritualities overcome our new fanaticisms and the continuing oppressive inequalities of our ancient political economies which seem to revive old types of wars of religion?

writes George Armstrong.
according to Rev. Stephen Albert:

WP Religion (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

"Interfaith" is not a religion. It does not have a set of rules that require an adherent to act or perform one way or another. Those who call or involve themselves with Interfaith, may celebrate one or more religious traditions and they honor the many people who believe differently than they. The beauty of interfaith is that once you take the time to investigate the deeper beliefs of a religious group of people, the more they begin sounding just like you. Abigail and I just returned from the NAIN (North American Interfaith Network) conference in Detroit Michigan where 150 or so people from a variety of faiths celebrated the similarities and the differences of the many religions. They were not afraid to ask the "hard questions" and to more deeply interact with new friends and colleagues. For the last two years I have mentioned this yearly conference to this group and, besides us, only Laura Zinn has attended. By the way, her workshops were great and she is a great organizer and presenter. Mark your calendars now to attend the NAIN Connect from July 19-22, 2015 in Regina Saskatchewan Canada. Bring your interfaith friends or even those who believe their way is the only way (They won't come anyway). The events are fun, they feed us great and you will come away with a great respect for whatever you believe. Blessings.

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Additional literature:

1. Religions and Mainliners
2. What is faith and is it the only thing required
3. Faith
4. Soul
5. Do not forget the important sign of belief
6. Living in faith
7. Science, belief, denial and visibility 1
8. Science, belief, denial and visibility 2
9. Ian Barbour connecting science and religion
10. Religion and spirituality
11. Looking for True Spirituality 1 Intro
12. Looking for True Spirituality 2 Not restricted to an elite
13. Looking for True Spirituality 3 Mind of Christ
14. Looking for True Spirituality 4 Getting to Know the Mind of Christ
15. Looking for True Spirituality 5 Fruitage of the Spirit
16. Looking for True Spirituality 6 Spirituality and Prayer
17. Looking for True Spirituality 7 Preaching of the Good News
18. Looking for True Spirituality 8 Measuring Up
19. Self-development, self-control, meditation, beliefs and spirituality
20. Experiencing God
21. The Supreme Being God of gods
22. Cosmos creator and human destiny
23. Only One God
24. God is One
25. Our relationship with God, Jesus and eachother
26. Patriarch Abraham, Muslims, Christians and the son of God
27. Preparedness to change
28. Being Religious and Spiritual 1 Immateriality and Spiritual experience
29. Being Religious and Spiritual 2 Religiosity and spiritual life
30. Being Religious and Spiritual 3 Philosophers, Avicennism and the spiritual
31. Being Religious and Spiritual 5 Gnostic influences
32. Being Religious and Spiritual 4 Philosophical, religious and spiritual people
33. Fruits of the spirit will prevent you from being either inactive or unfruit
34. American atheists most religiously literate Americans

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  “When any one group is assailed by the fabric of our society, then it’s torn to pieces,” said Ibrahim Kurtiuis of the United American Muslim Faith Mosque. “Hatred in any type of form will not be tolerated at all by our community or any community in the greatest city in the world.”
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  The St. Paul Interfaith Network in Minnesota hosts a monthly meeting called the “Interfaith Conversation Cafe” (ICC) where different groups come together to talk about whatever that month’s theme is.
  
• How Spiritual Can You Be Without Religion? (patheos.com)
  New Age thinkers usually enter the ditch on the other side of the road: They idealize altered states of consciousness and draw specious connections between subjective experience and the spookier theories at the frontiers of physics. Here we are told that the Buddha and other contemplatives anticipated modern cosmology or quantum mechanics and that by transcending the sense of self, a person can realize his identity with the One Mind that gave birth to the cosmos.
  In the end, we are left to choose between pseudo-spirituality and pseudo-science.
  
• Understanding the multi-faith initiative (elonpendulum.com)
  One of the developmental goals of young adulthood is to clarify what our “religions” will be, what our deepest convictions are, and what we will do about any of them. So our priority is to help you discover, explore, more deeply understand, and take ownership of your faith.  Whatever your tradition we aim to encourage your knowledge and practice.  We won’t make you something you’re not.  We want you to be a rooted and good at who you are and choose to be.
  
• Religion and devotion, prayer and meditation (lifesharerjuneluna.wordpress.com)
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• HumanistLife : A Humanism without the word 'spirituality' (humanistlife.org.uk)
  Can humanists be spiritual and/or use the term spiritual? Should humanists use the term? Is spirituality ‘the best word’ to describe our sense of deepest meaning? I will focus on the question of why I do not use the word, but I also want to state up front that humanists can use the term spirituality if they find it appropriate. I do not use it for two reasons. First, using other words helps me clearly communicate my humanism to non-humanists. Second, I find other words more moving.
• Is Humanism a Religion? (appliedsentience.com)
  Religion may be impossible to define, whether we ask ourselves what the word means or what specific things count as “religious.”  In his classic text The Sociology of Religion, the famous sociologist Max Weber argued that “Definition can be attempted, if at all, only at the conclusion of the study” of religion.  However, as Nicholas Wade points out, and does in his own book, The Faith Instinct, Weber never defines religion – even at the end!
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  Just as the definition of “religion” varies greatly, there is a lot of variety in the content and form of Humanism.  Humanism focuses mostly on a method, namely naturalism and reasoned experience, instead of a set of dogmas from holy books or prophets.  So, given the fact that we all have different personal experiences and capacities to reason, the conclusions we come to can be expected to vary.
  This has two effects. First, different groups use different definitions of religion.  Second, different groups often have widely divergent Humanist worldviews.  So even on inclusive definitions many Humanist groups simply are not religious.  Historically, different Humanist groups have self-identified as religious and non-religious.
  
  
• Religion vs Spirituality (spreadmyvision.wordpress.com)
  Man made religions are nothing but a group of cunning crafty peoples’ way of holding the reigns to others’ faith and hence their fates. No wonder loss of faith in religions is getting increasingly common among the youth today.
• How do you define religion? (thoughtofvg.wordpress.com)
  If one attempts to describe it in terms of belief in God, Buddhism wouldn’t be considered a religion and comparatively, Any organisation or collective group would be labelled a religion if the definition of  “a group in which all members have  similar moral beliefs and goals” were used.  A more accurate definition would perhaps be found by comparing the world religions and by discussing what common concepts they share.
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  Conclusively, we can see that what most religions have in common is spiritual awareness and goals, be there a God or not. Abrahamic fiaths have spiritual goals to become closer with God, Buddhism focusses on the journey to spiritual enlightenment and Hinduism acknowledges a spiritual link and awareness between all things in existence. It is therefore not belief in God that separates moral organisations from religions, but spirituality is what makes an organisation a religion.