Non-believers: we're #2!

In his inaugural address, President Obama (love that phrase!) mentioned - for the first time, I think - "non-believers" as part of America's "patchwork heritage." This comports with the latest Pew research findings, which show that though Christians comprise 78% of the population, "non-believers" are the second largest group. This is probably a low number considering that of those Christians, many are faking it - including many in Congress.

In a fluffy "statement," the Christian Science Church makes a wild claim that the Obama era marks a trend toward more spirituality:

As significant as this shift in US government is, we are convinced a far more momentous change has been stirring globally—a spiritual transformation.

You have to be pretty selective where you look to make a statement like that. While it's true that in certain parts of the world, poor and underdeveloped countries for instance, the influence of fundamentalist religion is rising, the larger world is decidedly going the other way. Educated and prosperous areas see in rapidly developing breakthroughs in science and technology less and less need for a miraculous imaginary friend to solve their problems.

Bush and Obama represent a stark contrast of vision: Bush smacks of the Manichean black/white world view. Obama is more "ecclesiastical," seeking to include many shades of thought. A good article on this can be found here.

One of those shades of meaning is non-belief in a deity, and I'm glad to be included in the real transformation that the Obama era has begun.