Are Religious Bodies Doing Faith a Disservice?
The concepts of faith and religion have undergone much scrutiny since the turn of the century. As individual religious bodies have developed splintered and extreme fractions, the core principles of various faiths have become increasingly unclear, creating conflict and dissention within and outside of certain independent belief systems. This has seen a steep rise in the increase of those who practice atheism and are agnostic within the US.
The last 9 years have witnessed the total number of citizens who practice atheism double from its 2001 figure. In terms of individuals who are agnostic, their number has more than doubled in the same length of time, as faith has been tested and numerous eminent voices have disputed the validity of religion as a whole and their values. The question is whether religious bodies and their teachings actually doing God and the concept of faith a disservice?