According to recent reports, there are a growing number of atheists in America.

And, apparently, many of them are joining “secular congregations” and attending a “church without God.” (“Church without God?” That seems to me just another way of describing belief in leftist dogma.)

Nothing like a little 'religious not spiritual,' which appears to be  the flip side of the 'spiritual, not religious' claims of recent years among some less-than-committed Christians.

It is ironic that these professed atheists are reportedly seeking to mimic religious organizations by using the language and structure of a "church," such as meeting on Sundays, hearing a member's "testimony," and adopting various other religious practices.

Of course, some of the non-believers’ churches are a bit different. For example, there are purportedly a growing number of “psychedelic” churches, which cater to people looking to experience spirituality and ritual through drug use. A few mushrooms here, a little LSD there…what could go wrong? I mean, Marxists have famously called religion “the opiate of the masses.” This seems silly. Why not have opium be the opiate of the masses?!

Members of the Church of Perpetual Life believe they can achieve immortality-- on Earth-- via gene editing or cryonic preservation (the practice of freezing bodies after death in hopes that they can someday be resuscitated). And I thought only taxes and the Democrat party were immortal. (They are inextricably linked.) Hope for that kind of immortality requires a suspension of disbelief. And an unwarranted faith…in science.

Yet another secular group promotes the idea that only physical matter exists. Talk about having faith! They don’t know this-- and can’t prove this-- but believe it because…?

Some of these secular groups describe their value system as “Good without God.” That’s always worked out well historically, right? The Nazis thought they were doing good by ridding the world of Jews. Marxists purported attempts to engender equity were only successful in the sense that well over 100 million people were rendered equal in death.

Simply put, it is not rational not to have faith in something bigger than oneself. I once tried to embrace atheism, but I didn’t have any faith in its leaders and just couldn’t bring myself to believe in it.

It is no coincidence that as the West becomes ever more secular in outlook, it loses its belief in everything else, too-- including itself. Moreover, when individuals lose faith, they tend to lose their freedoms shortly thereafter.

Because, as William Penn observed, “Men who will not be ruled by God will be ruled by tyrants.”

Image: Jacob Vogel, via Wikimedia Commons // CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication