items of interest

with contributions from Douglas Todd, Jack Broom, Paul Kalina, Joyce Mulama

"GREATER VANCOUVER must be teeming with people who are hard-nosed, rationalistic, positively cynical, and antireligious. At least that's what you'd think from last week's Statistics Canada finding that 34.4 percent of Greater Vancouverites—or 676,000 people—recently ticked off a box on a census form marked 'no religion.' This rapidly growing cohort of religious 'nones' is being seized upon by some as proof religion and spirituality are rapidly dying out on the West Coast, which is riding the crest of a national wave toward greater secularization....

"Just who are all these People? ... It turns out only a minority of religious 'nones' are acerbically antireligious.... Most religious 'nones' appear to be people who are temporarily disillusioned with organized religion, but who nevertheless think of themselves as spiritual, searching for meaning and purpose....

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