In a posting entitled, "religion and brand loyalty," Rabbi David Gottlieb reflects on the findings of recent research into the relationship of brand loyalty to religion, as reported in the paper, "Brands: the opiate of the nonreligious masses?" written by a research team headed by Prof. Ron Shachar. The research team found that loyalty to name brands functions like religion for nonreligious people. Where the religious express their self-worth religiously, the nonreligious express that worth through loyalty to name brands such as MacIntosh computers or Ford motor vehicles. When shopping, religious folks are more likely to purchase generic store brands where the nonreligious go for the name brand. Brand loyalty, it seems, is a substitute "religion" for the nonreligious, which functions in the same way as religion does for the religious.These research findings complement other research that points to the value of religion for well-being and the fact that religion is an important part of virtually every human culture ever known to exist. Religion speaks to a deep-felt need in the human race, which has to be expressed even when religion itself is eschewed (or ignored). It seems as though the human race comes with a built-in propensity for faith, that is for trust in an external "higher power" of some sort. We normally use religion to express this propensity, but the rise of secularity encourages the nonreligious to express it in other ways. Commentators have long observed how our national political conventions are eerily similar to camp revival meetings. In a recent essay entitled, "Finding the Sacred in the Secular," Heather Wax reports on sociological research that found that in a sample of 275 scientists some two-thirds of the sample "have a spirituality" and that 22% of atheist scientists in the sample consider themselves spiritual.
The scientific evidence is mounting that we need some kind of faith, or spirituality if you prefer that term. The itch that faith scratches does not prove that God exists. It does do a couple of other things, however. First, it allows us to say that believing in and putting our ultimate trust in God is a reasonable, logical inference from the scientific data accumulated thus far. Those who see theism as merely blind ignorance are not paying attention to the data. This is not to say that believing in and putting our trust in God is the only logical conclusion to be drawn from the data, just that it is not illogical to do so. Second, the evidence also forces on us the question of why human nature is spiritual. Why do we need to have faith in something larger, outside of ourselves? Our Christian response is that we are created with the need for faith by a Creator who is creating us to be something more than we are and for ends that we do not comprehend. Can we prove this is the case? Scientifically, no, of course not. Yet, on the basis of our experience and understanding, we do believe that our need for faith reflects the One who created us.
