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Certainly not in my area. There are hundreds of them and they don't bother me at all. In fact the only ones I see handing out tracts and collecting donations are Christians.
I've never known of a Christian going door to door handing out tracts and collecting donations. Are you certain they're Christians?
To be honest, my kid's school has asked them to go door to door to beg money more than I have EVER asked my congregation (0 times).
America will do fine fine for now. Europe is doing well enough. Keep looking around for anything that will prop up your refusal to face facts.
It is YOU that refuses to face facts. THE FACT IS: Religion is UP, not down.
You are like a guy that has been invested in a Mutual Fund...that calls your financial adviser complaining that you "lost money".
He tells you that you are wrong...that, in fact, he made you money.
You then point to a few bonds and stocks that are part of the fund that have decreased in value...and say, "See?! You have lost me money".
Your adviser explains that those bonds and stocks only make up a very small percentage of the fund...and shows you that the major percentage of the bonds and stocks the fund is invested in have very large gains, resulting in a large net gain of the overall fund.
You STILL insist that he, "lost you a lot of money"...and again point to the bonds and stocks that were down in value.
He then shows you one bond alone that makes up over 20% of the value of the fund and shows you that the gains in just that bond alone made up for all the losses of the stuff you pointed out more than seven times over. He reiterates that overall you have not lost money, but, in fact, gained a lot of money.
All you do is keep pointing to the couple of stocks (that are just a few percent of the total) that have lost some value.
Then you go around and tell everybody that you lost money on your investment.
I will state it AGAIN: "Big gains" in Religious to Atheist conversions are bogus. Religion is GAINING, not losing. It's Atheism that is losing.
Pointing to small areas that are exceptions to the overall trend...is beyond disingenuous, it's desperate.
Look...I know you get all twisted up over people embracing religion. So it bothers you that what you don't like is increasing in size and power...and what you endorse is losing size and power.
But don't feel bad...Atheism was never nuthin' anyway, so it's not like you really lost anything.
It is YOU that refuses to face facts. THE FACT IS: Religion is UP, not down.
I will state it AGAIN: "Big gains" in Religious to Atheist conversions are bogus. Religion is GAINING, not losing. It's Atheism that is losing.
Did you not even read the study on the first page? You do notice we're talking about America only, right? Care to explain how you arrive at your vastly different #s, which apparently are non-existent? Go ahead, this is how factual debates work - where's your citation?
OP did clearly link to a post that says America's Changing Religious Landscape, so it's not terribly surprising that the poll focuses on....well, America.
If you want to change the conversation to the global population, there is another story to be told, but that is not a simple success story for believers either.
Religious faith tends to decline with education and wealth, as do birth rates. I am not claiming a cause and effect relationship between birth rates and religious belief, simply a loose correlation with education and wealth.
As more countries lift their populations industrialize and out of poverty, gain more education, and provide Internet access to their people, I suspect that they will follow in the footsteps of other industrialized nations. Their birth rates will drop, and so will their religious beliefs.
It is a sad commentary that religion thrives on ignorance and poverty, and perishes in the light of knowledge.
The spot with the best education and with the most gaining wealth, has the most Atheist to Theist converts. That is the ACTUAL FACT of how it REALLY IS. Completely contrary to what you stated.
Did you not even read the study on the first page? You do notice we're talking about America only, right? Care to explain how you arrive at your vastly different #s, which apparently are non-existent? Go ahead, this is how factual debates work - where's your citation?
Read my Post#2 in this thread.
The USA is less than 5% of the world population. Pointing to losses in such a small sample, and then proclaiming, "Religion Down", is skewing the overall facts by cherry-picking.
Yes, religion is down in low population US...but way up in much larger population countries.
Making the proclamation "Religion Down", without qualifying it by noting the cherry-picked small sampling of the globe gives a false impression from the fact that religion is actually up overall.
The spot with the best education and with the most gaining wealth, has the most Atheist to Theist converts. That is the ACTUAL FACT of how it REALLY IS. Completely contrary to what you stated.
That is one professor's guess about what might happen down the road. It is not present data. From the article:
Quote:
"By my calculations China is destined to become the largest Christian country in the world very soon," said Fenggang Yang, a professor of sociology at Purdue University and author of Religion in China: Survival and Revival under Communist Rule.
"It is going to be less than a generation. Not many people are prepared for this dramatic change."
China's Protestant community, which had just one million members in 1949, has already overtaken those of countries more commonly associated with an evangelical boom. In 2010 there were more than 58 million Protestants in China compared to 40 million in Brazil and 36 million in South Africa, according to the Pew Research Centre's Forum on Religion and Public Life.
Prof Yang, a leading expert on religion in China, believes that number will swell to around 160 million by 2025. That would likely put China ahead even of the United States, whichhad around 159 million Protestants in 2010 but whose congregations are in decline.
Last edited by mtpfoodie; 05-13-2015 at 12:07 PM..
Reason: fix formatting
Read my Post#2 in this thread.
The USA is less than 5% of the world population. Pointing to losses in such a small sample, and then proclaiming, "Religion Down", is skewing the overall facts by cherry-picking.
Yes, religion is down in low population US...but way up in much larger population countries.
Making the proclamation "Religion Down", without qualifying it by noting the cherry-picked small sampling of the globe gives a false impression from the fact that religion is actually up overall.
So most people in this thread are responding to the American study while you wanted to change it to a global study without linking to one. I suggest starting a new thread if you want to talk about global religion, not just this American one.
We are not that concerned about China. If the Christian population (4%) doubled in 15 years, it would still be a minority religion there. Buddhism (10%) would beat it into second place. (irreligion 50 -odd %, though declaring as atheist -as you would probably rush to point out- is 16% last look)
In five years, should American society find its way to rid itself of it religious delusions, then China would have ten years to come to its senses too.
If it doesn't that's China's problem, not ours. and you can live in a secular society where religion has no more influence than Astrology, telling yourself that you still have a lot of fellow believers reciting their Bible.
In Chinese.
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