How the Internet Is Taking Away America’s Religion

[FarCenter]

Back in 1990, about 8 percent of the U.S. population had no religious preference. By 2010, this percentage had more than doubled to 18 percent. That’s a difference of about 25 million people, all of whom have somehow lost their religion.

That raises an obvious question: how come? Why are Americans losing their faith?

...

He finds that the biggest influence on religious affiliation is religious upbringing—people who are brought up in a religion are more likely to be affiliated to that religion later.

However, the number of people with a religious upbringing has dropped since 1990. It’s easy to imagine how this inevitably leads to a fall in the number who are religious later in life. In fact, Downey’s analysis shows that this is an important factor. However, it cannot account for all of the fall or anywhere near it. In fact, that data indicates that it only explains about 25 percent of the drop.

He goes on to show that college-level education also correlates with the drop. Once it again, it’s easy to imagine how contact with a wider group of people at college might contribute to a loss of religion.

Since the 1980s, the fraction of people receiving college level education has increased from 17.4 percent to 27.2 percent in the 2000s. So it’s not surprising that this is reflected in the drop in numbers claiming religious affiliation today. But although the correlation is statistically significant, it can only account for about 5 percent of the drop, so some other factor must also be involved.

That’s where the Internet comes in. In the 1980s, Internet use was essentially zero, but in 2010, 53 percent of the population spent two hours per week online and 25 percent surfed for more than 7 hours.

This increase closely matches the decrease in religious affiliation. In fact, Downey calculates that it can account for about 25 percent of the drop.

That’s a fascinating result. It implies that since 1990, the increase in Internet use has had as powerful an influence on religious affiliation as the drop in religious upbringing.

http://www.technologyreview.com/view/526111/how-the-internet-is-taking-away-americas-religion/

Actually, the internet has a considerable anti-authoritarian influence, and not just with respect to religious authority.

If you spend enough time on the internet you don't believe in modern medicine, global warming, genetic modification of organisms, or much of anything. The age of "question everything" seems to have arrived.

[Warren Stupidity]

1. I still believe in modification of orgasms!

[idendoit]

2. I thought God was on Twitter.

[FarCenter]

3. On the Intenet, nobody knows you're a God.

[idendoit]

4. Amen, Brother? Sister?

[SevenSixtyTwo]

5. The internet is changing a lot of things.

Mainly the USPS. The internet could be a huge boon for religion if not for the idiocy of some religious people. They're doing a pretty good job of ruining it themselves. Atheists are the result, not the cause.

[Bigmack]

6. Information often has

a way of doing that…. Ms Bigmack

[HockeyMom]

7. I lost my religion in Catholic School

I guess once you learn to question your religion, the next step is to question everything. No more blind faith for anything.

The Internet was not around back then. The Internet does help comfirm that you are not all alone in your thinking.

[FarCenter]

8. Some of the difference may be that people are more willing to say they are not religious

Knowing that other people have similar thinking allow them to be more confident.

The demise of communism may also be a factor, since atheism was associated with political views.

[CANDO]

11. Nailed it...

Swimming against the tide, so to speak. For far too long, no one wanted to go against the massive number of "believers".

[Dawson Leery]

9. Same here.

Raised Catholic, did not go to Catholic school though.

[reformist2]

10. I think your last sentence was brilliant. It's not just religion that people are losing faith in...

[2banon]

12. "Back in 1990, about 8 percent of the U.S. population had no religious preference." - Rediculous

The first line in the op is lacking in serious credibility. Seriously. Not. Credible.

As someone who engaged with many many people in 1990, 99% of those people had no religious preference whatsoever, like myself.

Completely meaningless, anyway.

My father was self proclaimed atheist, but in the military it was mandatory at the time to claim a religious affiliation. So he chose Protestant - because he was forced to choose something, but he was an atheist. How many others in the military and their families did the same? There's no way to know for sure. Given that I never saw military families ever go to church on Sundays or any other day for that matter, would suggest to me a lack of religious affiliation.

[2banon]

13. This s/b in Religious Forum. n/t