A country increasingly polarized by religion

[xchrom]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/michael-gerson-a-country-increasingly-polarized-by-religion/2013/03/28/297c6586-970c-11e2-814b-063623d80a60_story.html

At the Normandy American Cemetery on the cliff above Omaha Beach, there are rows and rows of crosses and Stars of David. Certainly, many buried there were not religious. But the overwhelming majority of Americans in the mid-20th century identified themselves culturally as Protestants, Catholics or Jews, no matter their personal beliefs.

This cultural expectation has begun fading in American life. The fastest-growing religious affiliation today is the lack of religious affiliation — the rise of the “nones,” as in “none of the above,” who now constitute nearly 20 percent of the population.

For some, this is an indication that America is finally on the path of secularization taken by much of Europe, where non-religious funerals have become common and half of Europeans have never attended a religious service. Much of modern sociology has been premised on the notion that modernization and secularization go together.

In America’s case, the hypothesis remains unproved. While Americans have become less attached to religious institutions, there is little evidence they have become less religious. In 1992, according to the indispensable Pew Research Center, 58 percent of Americans described religion as “very important.” In 2012, it was . . . 58 percent. There is a similar stability in the proportion of Americans who regard prayer as an important part of their lives.

[Phillip McCleod]

1. hand-wringing balderdash.

the concluding sentence says it all..

'In religion, it is easy to measure what is dying; it is harder to locate the manger where something new is being born. '

baby jesus much?

[dimbear]

2. Very important doesn't mean useful or good. Religion provides the fuel for our wars that everlast.

That just makes it important, not attractive or valuable.

And--while we're mentioning places that aren't on the religious bandwagon-- let's not leave out China.