Fascinating graph about religion and a diverse America.

[madfloridian]

From the Public Religion Research Institute


Posted at Twitter

Retweeted from Brasilmagic who is a favorite there.

[longship]

1. Interesting.

Should probably post this in the Religion group.

It might get locked here.

I am sure it will gain interest there.

[madfloridian]

4. Doesn't make a judgement on it, graph just gives research.

Kind of important in many ways.

I make no comment.

[longship]

5. I just commented because I am a Religion group host.

And if this gets locked, we'd certainly welcome it there.

And I agree. It is important.

[Vashta Nerada]

2. It warms my heart that the young ones are ditching religion, or at least are "unaffiliated".

[pipoman]

16. The young have always

Been less religious/decisive and get more so as they get older.

[starroute]

21. That wouldn't apply to the 30-49 year olds

The standard line has always been that when people have children they decide it's important to raise them in a faith, so they take up going to religious services again. But the graph shows even people in the peak child-raising years having a much higher level of unaffiliated than those older than they are.

There are also any number of stories out there suggesting that American's religious practices are becoming more diverse -- from people engaged in roll-your-own spirituality to various hybridizations of conventional faiths with Eastern or Earth-based religions.

Something really is going on, and it's not all going to reset to status quo ante bellum.

[Arugula Latte]

22. A recent study showed that exposure to the Internet was the biggest factor

in someone being leaving religion. This young generation is much less religious than their parents and grandparents were at the same age. Also, the rightwing fundy nuttery has turned a lot of them off religion.

[Arugula Latte]

3. No wonder I like the young generation better than any other, including my own.

[eridani]

6. Jews and Black Christians have stayed pretty constant

Also youngest groups have white protestants as a whole decreasing, but evangelical and mainline became equalized.

The drop in affiliation seems to be a mainly white phenomenon. White catholic + white protestant + evangelical = 69% of 65+, but 25% among millenials--decrease a factor of three. Unaffiliated = increase by a factor of three.

[eShirl]

10. ? "Jewish" has doubled

[muriel_volestrangler]

11. percentage for 18-29 is 3; 2 for other age groups

But the accuracy isn't enough to say more than "roughly stayed the same". The 18-29 age group would be about one fifth of the total - so about 900 people. 3% of that would be about 27 people who answered 'Jewish'. That's too close to the margin of error to assert it's increasing.

Other surveys show that the proportion of people identifying themselves as Jewish, but not by religion, is increasing: http://www.pewforum.org/2013/10/01/jewish-american-beliefs-attitudes-culture-survey/

[eShirl]

12. sorry, you're right

was looking at the bar directly below green, which isn't there in the oldest age group

[eridani]

27. I'm seeing 2,2,2,3 with the purple background for Jewish n/t

[Exposethefrauds]

7. If ones reads or listens to RW News one would get the impression that over 30% and growing

of the religious in America are Muslim ready to take over the Government and install Sharia Law.

Hell Islam does not even get its own color bar!

Perhaps when the majority of Americans minds are no longer clouded and confused by fairytales we as a nation will move forward and evolve into a move civilized society.

Interesting how the nations that are the best places to live in the world are also Socialist and the majority of the population are not religious.

The crappy places to live in the world are Theocracies controlled by Oligarchs, exactly what the GOP has been pimping for the last 30 years.

Religion and Freedom do not mix.

[cui bono]

8. And if one listens to the mainstream media one would get the impression that we are

a christian nation!

How do they have such a loud voice and why do all the politicians appease the religious nuts so much. I cringe whenever I hear the obligatory god bless America. And all this religion in school nonsense. Separate church and state please.

I'm very glad to see the trend going that way. Perhaps one day the media will actually give proportional representation to the various viewpoints. Oh, what am I thinking... of course they won't.

[Arugula Latte]

23. Yes, the default media position is that of course everyone believes in god, at a minimum,

and that 99 percent believe in the Xtian god.

[blkmusclmachine]

9. ,

,

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

13. Do you guys know how to read this chart?

This is not time series data. This is a snapshot.

All it's saying is that people become more religious as the accumulate stuff, not least of which being children and grandchildren.

[eShirl]

14. It would be interesting to compare it wil a snapshot from 30 years ago.

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

15. Nailed it!

[pipoman]

18. i guess you beat me to it...

VVVV

[PeaceNikki]

19. *know

[WhaTHellsgoingonhere]

20. lol I couldn't figure out what you meant

In my face.

Thanks

[starroute]

26. Here's an article that addresses that

It's from 2008 and was written specifically about New Zealand, where the census includes a question about religious affiliation. And it shows that the 30-somethings and 40-somethings of 2006 were actually less religious than their 20-something and 30-something selves had been ten years earlier.

https://openparachute.wordpress.com/2008/08/29/religious-belief-and-age/

We can get an idea of trends over time by comparing New Zealand census for 1996, 2001 and 2006.

The numbers in all age group declaring “no religion” have been increasing over this time period. These numbers peaked in the 20-29 age group for each census.

However, one could argue that the “no religion” group is not declining with as they age. For example, while 34.5% of the 20-29 year group were not religious in 1996, 10 years later they were in the 30-39 year group of which 42.5% were non-religious. Similarly the “no religion” proportion of the 30-39 year group in 1996 (26.2%) had increased to 32.0% of the 40-49 year group in 2006.

?w=500

[pipoman]

17. I suspect that this is skewed

A bit by not having the same from 30 years ago. I believe the young have long been less religious, and become more religious as they get older. This may show a trend, but it is far from conclusive without historical context, imo..

[Arugula Latte]

25. There were studies done about religious belief in the past decades

and they do show a real decline in religion, not a get-more-religious-with age progression.

[ChisolmTrailDem]

24. Aging sure does make a person fall into line with God (whoever that is). What is frightening to me

is that, even here in the second decade of the 21st Century, 68% of people 18-29 identify as believing in a deity despite having been lied to about every other mythical figure we grow up with as children. One of those is currently making an imaginary tour through a collective global cultural mythos featuring a bunny that brings everybody chocolate eggs and marshmallow peeps, culminating on the anniversary of the alleged reincarnation of a man crucified 3 days before some 1981 years ago.