Among these:

Hardworking people and their jobs, now seen as failures.

Crafts, disrespected and not artsy enough, one school even dropped the word from their name, California College of Arts and Crafts.

Public service and service clubs, community service has come to mean punishment, jail deferral.

Attending regular services of any kind, not just Christian but others.

We now honor electronic gizmos and Kardashians and fashion and shoes and makeup.

True true...

But rejecting ancient superstitions, and the institutions that fleece people with them is not one of the ways.

Our SOP is quite clear in that regard, as stated under the "About this group" button. And if you cannot hold yourself back from poor choices of words and phrasing, you will be asked to leave.

The San Antonio School of Arts and Crafts has not only kept its name but has been certified to grant BFA's.

In a sense all art is craft because the successful artist is the one who hauls ass 8-12 hours a day, experiments with technique, pushes the envelope with the materials, goes off on weird tangents with both. "Inspiration" comes out of those things; it's not a brick from heaven that falls on your head. And it results in innovations that can be taught to others.

or are they simply not associating with any one particular religion? There is a major difference, and we've all tried to get that point across in the past with the last research poll that put forth the "nones" category.

My mom had split with her Baptist church over its shady tax deal with a grocery chain, and my dad was an unchurched Episcopalian because he was divorced and remarried. Yet my mom's funeral was conducted by a Catholic deacon and my dad's by a Methodist minister. Neither had abandoned the faith, just relocated themselves on the spectrum.

My father towards the end of his life was not as active in the Episcopal church as my mother still is. Both of my sisters would say they are not religious or that they follow any denomination, yet one is nominally Christian but meditates through a Zen center & the other is active in a UU church so that my nephew has exposure to many traditions and faiths.

All of them are still quite spiritual, they just 'relocated' on that spectrum as you put it.

One of my dearest friends is an observant Jew (Reform.). One of her sons is now strictly Orthodox; another is a Wiccan priest. A mutual friend was raised completely without religion. He's now attending shul with her, and he's probably going to convert. My own family is an equally mixed bag--Traditional NA, Episcopalian, Baptist, Lutheran, some observant, some not. There's a lot more searching going on.

opened up Americans to more exploration of spiritual traditions including those like Buddhism which are non-theistic.

And I don't just mean with regards to the obvious ones like Neo-pagans and New Ageism. For example, Christian writers like Tillich and Hartshorne presented new ideas and ways of imaging god for a more modern & scientific age.

I am for lack of a better word an atheist, yet I have been involved with Buddhist teachings for almost 35 years now. I also participate in my ancestral religious traditions of Ocha & Palo. I really don't think things are as cut and dry as some may be hoping them to be. I am not surprised at the increase in atheists. I see that as a direct response to the worst fundamentalism of the Abrahamic traditions, and yet, it is still a decidedly minority position on the psycho-spiritual spectrum.

Every day more people are leaving the church and finding God--or words to that effect.

And the same thing I said only with fewer words

The best version is on the "Lenny Bruce at Carnegie Hall" recording. You have to find the complete concert, not the crappy excerpted version.

The premise is that Christ and Moses decide to come down from heaven to' attend a church service at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York. (This would be in February, 1961, which is when the concert was recorded).

What follows is hilarious. The local Catholic authorities are so anxious they call the Pope. Bruce then gives us the New York half of the conversation.

"You'll never guess who's here."

"I'll give you a hint" (singing) 'With the cross of dah dah.'"

"No, not Zorro!"

"Yes, it's Him, and He brought a very nice Jewish boy with him."

"Of course he's white!"

"Look, all I know is we're up to our asses in crutches and wheelchairs!"

"Oh God, the lepers are here!" (Turning aside). "Sonny, would you pick up your arm, ma'am, your nose?"

But reading it doesn't do it justice, you have to hear it. There's a great part where Bruce says, "But Jesus is confused, because his route took him through Spanish Harlem, where he sees twenty people living in a single room and here there's plenty of room, so why aren't those people living here..."

I could go on and on. But check out the recording, if you can find it. Great stuff as well on discrimination against gay people, though in the context of the times the language is pretty non-PC.

Best wishes.

Yet I will see what I can find and listen (or read.)

It reminds me how atheists often say we can't take having our beliefs mocked, and that's just not true. What it takes, though, is someone who knows how to make it funny versus the kind of mocking most of us see online, which is meant to hurt, belittle, demean, and so forth.

My favorite comedian is also one of the best examples of an atheist that knows how to mock beliefs and yet have believers rolling on the floor in mutual laughter. There's an art to that, of course, but I get the impression that there's also a sense of respect for the believer, otherwise it just wouldn't be funny.

He also knows his history fairly well, and makes fun of all of that, too

it's taken from "Lenny Bruce at Carnegie Hall." I misquoted some of it, but it's worth a listen.

Hope you enjoy

Although I must confess that I either didn't get or didn't quite catch some of the things because I'm not Jewish, not from New York, or it was a dated reference. But the Jesus and Moses part was great overall

The hymn singing especially.

And the sermon was great--and in fact is kinda like the Lenny Bruce sermon by the Reformed Rabbi. "So Reformed they're ashamed they're Jewish." Bruce of course has a lot of material on being Jewish. In the same concert he talks about the discrimination he experienced growing up Jewish in the 40s. "The only college you could go to was CCNY--Circumcised Citizens of New York."

Anyway, thanks for this. A great laugh.

CCNY (don't post it in GD )
And thanks for the clarification on the reformed Rabbi. Some of it was difficult to understand just for pronunciations.

Eddie Izzard also covers Moses and God. Some of the Lego animations done to his bits are even more hilarious than simply the original material