The 2018 General Social Survey found the proportions
of Roman Catholics, Evangelical Christians, and people not affiliated with any
institutional religion to each being within the margin of error around 23 percent of the
American population. To be sure, to claim no institutional religion does not necessarily mean not being
religious, or at least spiritual. Where the heart is concerned, religious
institutions, or organizations, do not monopolize religious or spiritual
sensibilities or sensitivities. In fact, I contend that a spiritual or even
religious instinct exists in humans that can differ among individuals in
salience or force. To be sure, people in whom the instinct is pressing may tend
to belong to religious organizations, but this is not to say that the latter
are necessary for feeling and manifesting the instinct. This is particularly
true, I submit, where programmed worship is unwittingly formulated in a way
that actually interrupts or thwarts outright the experience of transcendence, whether in sustained prayer, worship, communion, or meditation.
