The girl said she believed in "something" but didn't find a whole lot of meaning in religion. In fact, she said she thinks governments have shaped "religion" to control people. The guy said she was "so right" and that he considers religious people weak and ones who need someone else to tell them what to believe.
Finally, they decided that even if a Christian's God does exist, he is a forgiving God and would eagerly welcome people of all faiths and lifestyles into heaven. Therefore, people really don't need to worry about what they believe and certainly shouldn't assume they are the only ones with the right answers.
In a lot of ways, the things they said made sense. How can anyone know for certain that he understands the mysteries of the universe? And, since knowing what to believe is so confusing, why would a higher power punish people for simply behaving in ways they consider right?
That said, having indiscriminate views about religion hardly makes these people enlightened. Furthermore, just believing in "something" and thinking no religion can have all the answers represents a socially acceptable and maybe even trendy idea. Although the couple considered religious people unintelligent and easily led by society, they produced no well-reasoned arguments about their own religious beliefs and upheld fairly mainstream ideas.
From kindergarten on, our generation has been taught to respect people's differences. Public school teachers can't lead prayers in schools or recommend certain religions to their students. Likewise, schools encourage students to learn about different cultures, meet people who have different backgrounds from themselves and even learn a language other than English once they reach high school.
Therefore, it doesn't seem like a huge jump from mainstream American ideals of accepting diversity to deciding that the questions of spirituality have many possible answers. Sure, people who don't subscribe to any particular religion aren't simply consuming the ideas a particular place of worship tells them to believe, but they also aren't necessarily thinking independently.
Most people our age, especially students studying at liberal arts colleges, want to appear inclusive. They may not think highly of other races, but they'll start out, "I'm not racist but ..." when they want to make arguments against interracial dating, support racial profiling or suggest that certain stereotypes exist.
They might call homosexuality disgusting, but they'll be sure to tell you they aren't one of those bigots who would ever condone beating or killing a gay person. They might consider women unfit for jobs as pastors, rabbis, senators or judges but would never say that women can't contribute to society or aren't valuable people.
In this culture of outward tolerance, it follows that people would want to find religious beliefs that leave room for different interpretations. If they claim to have all the answers about God or even suggest they have found the one true religion, they openly admit they find people with different beliefs to be wrong. And, as we've been taught for a long time, even if we don't really think everyone is equal, we sure better pretend that we do.
