Religion
Related: About this forumAn interesting analysis of the "nones"
in the recent Pew report.
http://religiondispatches.org/u-s-christianity-is-dead-long-live-u-s-christianity/
On the other hand, things may not be as bad as they appear. Buried in the Pew report are responses from those who said that they have no religion in particular to the question, How important is religion in your life very important, somewhat important, not too important, or not at all important? Forty percent responded that religion is very or somewhat important in their lives. This might come as a surprise to pundits and scholars who assume the religiously unaffiliated dont believe in God or are somehow secular.
The dataincluding what is available through the Pew report shows that disbelief in God is relatively stable across time and generation. Indeed the current report shows that atheists (3%) and agnostics (4%) still comprise a relatively small proportion of the American population. Thus, the increase in religious disaffiliation is not necessarily linked to an increase in disbelief per se.
Rather, the phenomenon of the religious nones represents the larger reality that increasing numbers of Americans are disenchanted with and disengaged from big institutions in general, whether political, financial, government or religious. That is, unless those institutions directly benefit them. To the extent that churches represent large and often out-of-touch institutions that seem more interested in keeping themselves in business than in serving the needs and desires of members and (potential) attendees, people will continue to opt out of them.
trotsky
(49,533 posts)From something like 1.7% to 3%. Considering the centuries of negative baggage believers have heaped on the word, this is an amazing change in just a few years.
I understand that was a pretty tough survey for many religious individuals to swallow. Especially since it doesn't show what liberal believers (and defenders of religion) want desperately to believe: that people are leaving the right-wing/conservative faiths for liberal ones. Instead, it shows the liberal mainline groups hemorrhaging members, and the right-wing churches holding their own. (The RCC being either the classic example or the outlier, depending on if you think they are left or right wing.)
The days of religious oppression are numbered.
cbayer
(146,218 posts)It will be interesting to see how the "nones" trend over time.
Goblinmonger
(22,340 posts)This isn't analysis by anyone in the "nones." Just hope upon hope that it ain't true.
Personally, I don't think it's bad that people are leaving religion. YMMV.
trotsky
(49,533 posts)It means they won't address the actual reasons why people are leaving, and thus the trend will continue. As long as organized religion continues to become less and less of a factor in people's lives, progress will continue to march on. I don't think it's a coincidence at all that during the same 10 or so years that religion has taken such a huge hit, we have seen support for marriage equality skyrocket.
muriel_volestrangler
(101,144 posts)And the share seems likely to continue growing because young people are much more likely to be secular than middle-aged and older adults.
A remarkable 25 percent of Americans born after 1980, the group often known as millennials, are not religious, compared with 11 percent of baby boomers and 7 percent of the generation born between 1928 and 1945.
Its not clear that millennials will become much more religious as they age, either. Despite the cliché about people getting more religious as they get older, it hasnt been happening recently. No generation has become more religious since 2007, according to the Pew data. Baby boomers and the so-called Generation X have become slightly less religious over that time, and millennials have become substantially less.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/13/upshot/the-rise-of-young-americans-who-dont-believe-in-god.html?abt=0002&abg=0&_r=0
trotsky
(49,533 posts)Let them hold on to their preferred narrative. Much easier than dealing with reality.
kwassa
(23,340 posts)They disagree on the nature of the "nones". The author I quote claims that 40% of these nothing in particular category are very or somewhat interested in religion, while the NYT reporter sees none as interested in religion.
I would like to see the source material for them both. They both seem to have an axe to grind.
It seems to me that the number abandoning religion are growing, and I would be very curious to see the assertion that they have stayed about the same.
muriel_volestrangler
(101,144 posts)He said "The dataincluding what is available through the Pew report shows that disbelief in God is relatively stable across time and generation." That is not about those "very or somewhat interested in religion"; it's about others. The NYT reporter gathered the data for the others, and showed they are growing, both across time (from 10.3% in 2007 to 15.8% in 2014) and generation (many more in the 'millennial' generation than earlier ones). And the growth still applies if you restrict the definition to just 'atheists and agnostics', or just 'atheists'.
Flory's article is mainly about the people with 'no religion in particular', but to whom religion is still important; but that doesn't mean he can just assert that the numbers for those who aren't interested in religion are stable. But you might think from the way he wrote that there was a more significant increase in the 'no religion in particular but religion is still important' group. Actually, Pew says:
http://www.pewforum.org/2015/05/12/americas-changing-religious-landscape/
The proportion of the whole population for 'nones' went from 16.1% in 2007 to 22.8% in 2014 (table at the top of that Pew page). So, the 'very/somewhat important' group went from .36*16.1% = 5.8%, to .3*22.8% = 6.8%. The group that Flory calls the 'religious nones' is growing more slowly than those with no interest in religion at all.
I also notice that the headline, and Flory's article, both assume that the 'religious nones' are still Christian, just not keen on the particular churches available to them. That assumption seems unwarranted to me; they could easily be the 'I believe in some higher spiritual power' type.