Non-Religious Believers & New Age
Religious Studies: KS3, topic 4.2.1
Non-Religious Believers & New Age
Some theists prefer personal spirituality over organised religion, while New Age believers embrace pantheism and independence.
Non-religious believers
- Some people are theists because they believe in God or gods, yet they do not feel that they need to join organised religion or attend church regularly.
- Those believers believe that religion is a personal matter.
- Those believers engage in their own beliefs on an individual, private basis.
Individual believers
- Some people claim to believe in God or a God, but not a God from mainstream religion.
- Others believe in God, but explain that they cannot describe this God.
- Those believers are satisfied to simply leave the matter as an unexplained mystery.
Spiritualists
- Spiritualists and New Age adherents claim to believe in a form of God.
- Spiritualists and New Age believers have a type of spirituality which enables them to be independent of church attendance or organised religion.
- Oprah Winfrey, the American TV mogul, is a famous New Age spiritualist.
- Oprah Winfrey is often seen televising her times of spiritual engagement from her back garden.
New Age believers
- New Age believers are very eclectic.
- New Age believers believe that God is everything and everywhere - a principle of pantheism.
- New Age believers believe that we should draw our spirituality from within ourselves and from the environment around us.
Non-committed
- Spiritualism and New Age beliefs are very much at odds with the standard dogma of the Christian Church.
- Spiritualism and New Age believers would not normally commit to regular church membership or attendance.