Faith and values in 2014: 10 telling numbers

[cbayer]

http://www.religionnews.com/2014/12/30/faith-values-2014-10-telling-numbers/

Cathy Lynn Grossman | December 30, 2014 |


A polar bear walks along ice floes in the Arctic Ocean.
Photo courtesy of FloridaStock via Shutterstock

(RNS) Scores of studies and surveys in 2014 revealed myriad, quirky ways we live out our faith and values. But the most intriguing findings were not always the headliners. Here are 10 telling numbers about religion and society that caught our eye.

- One in 3 Americans want a divorce between clergy and civil marriages. They say it’s time for clergy to quit saying “By the power vested in me by the state … ”

- Suck it up, polar bear. Just 5 percent of Americans say climate change is their top issue, and religion is a major marker of divided views. White evangelical Protestants were the least likely to believe that climate change is a fact and that human activity is among the causes.

- Amen to online. Almost half of U.S. adults (46 percent) say they saw someone sharing “something about their faith” on the Internet in the last week.

more at link

[AtheistCrusader]

1. I feel kind of bad about this.

Look, you won't find a person that loves the idea of organized religion foundering, and sinking fast. Especially since the dipshits in charge have blown holes in their own hull to make it happen but...

"•One in 4 millennials who grew up in a religion but now claim none say that an important reason for leaving was their childhood church’s negative teachings or treatment of LGBT people."

I love that people are leaving, but this is a disappointing reason. We'll be better off as a society, but damn... *that's* what it took you to wake up and leave? Depressing. (And simultaneously depressing that religious leaders still spout that vile shit, openly in full daylight, or hiding in vague 'internally disordered' language.)


I'd rather see that as an uptick in philosophical introspection, a new enlightenment, but it's happening without that sort of improvement in the general human condition.

And that is sad, in a way.

[TlalocW]

2. Maybe it's the catalyst that opened their eyes?

They saw the treatment of LGBT people, and they didn't like it, and they asked themselves, "What else has the church been doing that I've been ignoring and may not like?"

TlalocW