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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsChristian Right Has Major Role in Hastening Decline of Religion in America
March 22, 2014 |
Of those aged 18 to 35, three in 10 say they are not affiliated with any religion, while only half are absolutely certain a god exists. These are at or near the highest levels of religious disaffiliation recorded for any generation in the 25 years the Pew Research Center has been polling on these topics. As encouraging as this data is for secular humanists, the actual numbers may be significantly higher, as columnist Tina Dupuy observes. When it comes to self-reporting religious devotion Americans cannot be trusted. We under-estimate our calories, over-state our height, under-report our weight and when it comes to pietywe lie like a prayer rug.
Every piece of social data suggests that those who favor faith and superstition over fact-based evidence will become the minority in this country by or before the end of this century. In fact, the number of Americans who do not believe in a deity doubled in the last decade of the previous century according to both the census of 2004 and the American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) of 2008, with religious non-belief in the U.S. rising from 8.2 percent in 1990 to 14.2 percent in 2001. In 2013, that number is now above 16 percent.
If current trends continue, the crossing point, whereby atheists, agnostics, and nones equals the number of Christians in this country, will be in the year 2062. If that gives you reason to celebrate, consider this: by the year 2130, the percentage of Americans who identify themselves as Christian will equal a little more than 1 percent. To put that into perspective, today roughly 1 percent of the population is Muslim.
The fastest growing religious faith in the United States is the group collectively labeled Nones, who spurn organized religion in favor of non-defined skepticism about faith. About two-thirds of Nones say they are former believers. This is hugely significant. The trend is very much that Americans raised in Christian households are shunning the religion of their parents for any number of reasons: the advancement of human understanding; greater access to information; the scandals of the Catholic Church; and the over-zealousness of the Christian Right.
http://www.alternet.org/belief/religion-america-great-decline-christian-right-has-major-role-hastening-it
MANative
(4,112 posts)are determined not to go without dragging the rest of us to "hell" with them. Morons.
Wounded Bear
(58,603 posts)Our system of government tends to protect the interests of a vocal, wealthy minority over the will of the democratic majority. In short, the political power of the religious right will lag the actual demographics by a considerable margin of time.
We seriously need a strong lurch to the left on fiscal issues, as well as social ones.
Cirque du So-What
(25,908 posts)that the wealthy are any more religious than the general population, although I believe the 1% use religion to their advantage - always have, always will.
Wounded Bear
(58,603 posts)It's kind of like politicians going to church. In general, it's for show.
As for your second point, I believe that for much of recorded history the two classes-wealthy/religious-have been deeply intertwined.
The exploitation of faith for gain is probably the real 'oldest profession.'
dawg
(10,621 posts)than that bunch of hateful, intolerant, fundamentalist "Christians."
There is much that is good and edifying in the Christian faith and the teachings of Jesus Christ. But no one is doing more to drive people away from that faith than the right-wing fundies.
LiberalEsto
(22,845 posts)If I had to choose between KKKristians and having no religion, it would be a very easy choice.
stopbush
(24,392 posts)in the Bible and concentrating on the not-as-bad stuff.
Certainly, that's what Christopher Hitchens believed. He even went so far as to attack the stuff that most people consider to be "good" about Christianity in his book, "God is not great."
Having read the book (twice), I tend to agree with him.
jwirr
(39,215 posts)than anyone.