{"id":3825,"date":"2010-02-20T14:07:04","date_gmt":"2010-02-20T22:07:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/secularright.org\/wordpress\/?p=3825"},"modified":"2010-02-20T14:07:50","modified_gmt":"2010-02-20T22:07:50","slug":"spirit-quest-or-something","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/spirit-quest-or-something\/","title":{"rendered":"Spirit Quest (or Something)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The appeal of going on some sort of spiritual voyage has always eluded me. I\u2019m happy where I am, paddling in the spiritual shallows. Today\u2019s <em>New York Times<\/em> <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2010\/02\/20\/opinion\/20blow.html \" target=\"_blank\">piece <\/a>by Charles Blow had a beginning that was, therefore, unlikely to draw me in:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00a0I recently met a young woman who was just back from a monthlong Costa Rican vacation. She said that she had gone in part to connect with her spiritual self, to shed the moral strictures of her youth and to find her place of peace as an adult. In her mind at least, it had been a successful trip. She was a new woman, spiritually awakened.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>\u00a0Oh, good grief.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0Nevertheless it is worth persevering with Blow\u2019s piece, which is a useful reminder of the fact that the need to embrace some sort of religion (call it what you will) is a very widespread human characteristic. To assume a secular future continues, I think, to be a mistake.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0Blow writes:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00a0In fact, on some measures, the data suggest that these so-called millennials may be more spiritually thirsty than older generations. According to a Knights of Columbus\/Marist poll also released this month, being \u201cspiritual or close to God\u201d was the most selected of any other \u201cprimary long-term life goal\u201d among those 18 to 29 years old (other choices included \u201cto get married and have a family\u201d and \u201cto get rich\u201d). The rate at which they selected it was significantly higher than other generational groups, and nearly twice that of Generation X.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>\u00a0The print version of Blow\u2019s article is illustrated by some interesting charts: Apparently, 58 percent of\u00a0 \u201creligiously unaffiliated\u201d Millennials (aged 18-29) believe in miracles and 42 percent in angels and demons.<\/p>\n<p>A well-named generation, it appears.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The appeal of going on some sort of spiritual voyage has always eluded me. I\u2019m happy where I am, paddling in the spiritual shallows. Today\u2019s New York Times piece by Charles Blow had a beginning that was, therefore, unlikely to &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/spirit-quest-or-something\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3825"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3825"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3827,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3825\/revisions\/3827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/secularright.org\/SR\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}