Study: Americans becoming less Christian, more secular

[Brian63]

This news just came out today:

Study: Americans becoming less Christian, more secular

The number of Americans who don't affiliate with a particular religion has grown to 56 million in recent years, making the faith group researchers call "nones" the second-largest in total numbers behind evangelicals, according to a Pew Research Center study released Tuesday.

Good job, guys and girls! Still quite a ways to go for this country to be sobered up, but we are doing well and on the right track. It seems most of the transition is occurring in the younger generations, so even if people may later become more religious as they age, at least now more of them will have some experience in being secular, so will likely not be as averse to it as current elder generations are, who were moreso raised being religious during their younger life.

Brian

 

[Sarpedon]

Seven percentage points in 7 years. That is huge. almost on the scale of the collapse of hostility to gay marriage.

I have long felt there were millions of religious people who didn't believe, and were just going along with it for social reasons. I hoped they'd eventually stop the charade. My hopes seem to be coming true.

 

[Keith&Co.]

... so even if people may later become more religious as they age,

Hey, forget plastics. THAT would be the growth industry of the future. Tailor a religion to cater to the needs of aging populace beginning to wonder if they should cover their bets for the great unknown.

All are welcome, your past shouldn't haunt you, we can cleanse your soul at your convenience, a buffet approach to a sort of 'build your own' theology...

And all of it online.

Text 'I offer my testimony' and we'll send back 'you're forgiven.' 99 cents per soul, $1.50 for any practicing family group...

 

[cycomiko]

Americans will always do the right thing.................after exhausting all the alternatives.

 

[SLD]

Great news, we now are the second largest "denomination" - after evangelical Christians. We can be a force to reckon with in the coming presidential election! This could have an impact on the fate of the Republicans, as they kowtow to the religious right in the primaries, and thus kill their chances in the general election. Hopefully.

I see this as a chain reaction. As more of us come out of the closet, more and more become brave enough to come out of the closet. I just hope this movement grows stronger in Alabama soon. Still dangerous to come out of the closet around here.

SLD

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

What are you all on about?! The fewer of them, the fewer the kittens for each of us. We could be looking at a kitten famine by 2055!

Americans will always do the right thing.................after exhausting all the alternatives.

Sounds like the Republican Primary in '12.

 

[skepticalbip]

I think these results could be misleading.

Certainly, there is a decline of organized religions... but what does that really mean?

The surveys need to add more options to account for the shift in thought. I suggest something like:

Which of the following best fits:
1. You are affiliated with an organized religion.
2. You are not affiliated with an organized religion but believe your essence, spirit or soul lives on.
3. You are not affiliated with an organized religion and believe death is the end.

Number one is obviously decreasing but my personal, nonscientific observation is that the movement is to the woo culture of number two, not to number three. I have talked to some who left organized religion because they didn't find it "spiritual" enough. Organized religion spent too much time talking about how great god was and morality issues, not on the "really neat shit" that is found in the various wooisms.

 

[Brian63]

Even to the extent that people would migrate to some very woo-ish belief rather than all-out secularism, that still seems a much better scenario than having those people involved with organized religion. A mere belief in a soul or spirit or vague afterlife is much preferable over the more formal religions which are also associated with politics, childhood indoctrinations, anti-scientific efforts, tribalism, etc. So it still seems like very good news either way, but sure it would also be even better news if the people were moreso becoming nontheists altogether.

The internet has likewise played a huge role in this trend as well, as more people are seeing atheists and agnostics self-identify than they ever have before, or ever would have in real life (it is safer to "come out" as an atheist online than in real life). I sometimes lurk over at Ray Comfort's blog and he frequently writes about atheism, and the comments sections of his posts are massively filled with atheists who criticize those remarks. It is something you just would not see much in real life venues. My own hunch is that Ray has more secret doubts about his beliefs than he publicly lets on, but that's for another topic.

I just think the advance of the internet accounts for the large majority of this progress in the rise of secularism and decline of more organized religion.

Brian

 

[ideologyhunter]

I have seen some polls where the 'None' response could mean affiliation with an independent, upstart church with some charismatic pastor. On the other hand, the "new atheists" that columnists refer to (Harris, Hitchens, Dawkins in the forefront) have given atheism a modern face and more press attention. Where Madalyn O' came off as freakish and egotistical in the 60's (and a good reason for freethinkers to stay undercover), the new crop gives a better account of themselves on the page. I was delighted recently when I asked a woman I know for a religious term (I was trying to think of the word 'paraclete') and she said, "How would I know? Atheist Central here!" In my experience, you wouldn't hear that a lot in everyday talk in the 90's and before. Maybe a change is really coming. (There are also a number of celebrities that self-identify as atheist, i.e. Ricky Gervais, Penn Gillette, Kathy Griffin, Patton Oswalt... more that I can't think of right now. They're helping.)

 

[credoconsolans]

Americans will always do the right thing.................after exhausting all the alternatives.

Sounds like the Republican Primary in '12.

I think it was Winston Churchill.

 

[thebeave]

It will be nice not having to answer the door to Mormons and JW's as often, but I do worry about the huge increase in rape, robbery and general mayhem from all these new atheists who don't have morals anymore. I may have to get an extra deadbolt for my door.

 

[ideologyhunter]

Always know where your kittens/puppies are.

 

[Underseer]

Always know where your kittens/puppies are.

And babies! We also eat babies!