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I just now watched a CNN news line that a recent poll in N. America clearly indicated that the number of those who believe in God is continuing to drop. The number of those folks who now claim to not believe in a God is now a firm 20%, a point that counters the oft-made claim by theists in general that atheism remains a very tiny percentage, less than 5.
Nope. One in Five (and growing) are now absolutely claiming they have lost their spiritual belief, based primarily on their own decisions and thinking on the subject. As well, the poll determined that the respondents are, more than ever, less concerned about their social standing as regards religion. In other words, they are less concerned that by truthfully answering such polls, they will not now suffer ostracization, a common fear in the past.
Two sentences from this article are of particular interest to me, since I, as with many atheists, continue to be deeply concerned about the influence that Christianity has had on our children and teens.
"The number of these Americans has grown by 25% just in the past five years, according to a survey released Thursday by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.
The survey found that the ranks of the unaffiliated are growing even faster among younger Americans."
__________________________________________________ ____
"Oh, what will my fellow parishioners think? After all these years... Oh My! I'd best hide my loss of belief if I intend to get along in this town."
Education and the influence of indisputable science-based discoveries (also known as The SM: durable, repeatable, rational questioning, and subsequent deductive reasoning) and the influence of startlingly good explanatory visual media (on such topics as the early beginnings of our universe, (see: Through The Wormhole with Morgan Freeman) and instruction (in this case, the visual media has made a spectacular impact on the education of our next generations) is clearly evident.
We're finally catching up to the typical educated "person-in-the-street" thinking in Europe (and fortunately for us, North America's changes are minus the rising extremist excesses of Euro-Islam, which is a self-destructive and tribal-quality religion bound to fail in the end. Full-on self destruction mode, guaranteed. ).
Finally! Freedom & Truth raise their inevitable heads! The double-headed dragon doth arrive!
Good post but you do know they have been taught this is a sign of the end of times?
Keeping the flock ignorant of scientific advances is the only way the church can expand its ponzi scheme and hope to survive.
The verse in question is ;
But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased Daniel 12:4
Perhaps this is a self fulfilling prophesy at the individual level?
Rifleman, according to the story you linked to, the statistics relate to those are religiously unaffiliated rather than those who profess to have no belief in God.
It describes the group in question as such: Pew found that 68% of the religiously unaffiliated say they believe in God, while 37% describe themselves as “spiritual” but not “religious.” One in five said that they even pray every day.
Here's an interesting summation from another CNN editorial:
"At the heart of the spiritual but not religious attitude is an unwillingness to take a real position. Influenced by the contribution of modern science, there is a reluctance to advocate a literalist translation of the world.
But these people will not abandon their affiliation to the sense that there is "something out there," so they do not go along with a rationalist and materialistic explanation of the world, in which humans are responsible to themselves and one another for their actions - and for the future.
Theirs is a world of fence-sitting, not-knowingess, but not-trying-ness either. Take a stand, I say. Which one is it?
√ A belief in God and Scripture or
√ a commitment to the Enlightenment ideal of human-based knowledge, reason and action?
Being spiritual but not religious avoids having to think too hard about having to decide."
Rifleman, according to the story you linked to, the statistics relate to those are religiously unaffiliated rather than those who profess to have no belief in God.
It describes the group in question as such: Pew found that 68% of the religiously unaffiliated say they believe in God, while 37% describe themselves as “spiritual” but not “religious.” One in five said that they even pray every day.
Did you link to an incorrect source?
Yup, a bit confusing, esp. when the opening line is clearly this:
"The fastest growing "religious" group in America is made up of people with no religion at all... "
...and then goes on to absolutely identify them as polling at an overall 20%.
The internal makeup of that group is then reviewed, but is also a bit confounding and confusing I still see the overall result, which reflects a rapidly growing trend in American religious society.
Ah well, we have Mark Twain's (or S. Clemens'...) famous line: "There are lies, damned lies and statistics!" (Even that line is not reliably known to actually be attributable to him! Perhaps it was Churchill?)
At any rate and nonetheless, the trend is very clear: a larger percentage of Americans (and, one imagines, also those perennially less religious Canadians...) are now "fessing up", as it were, to having no religious affiliation, and of those, a large percentage are agnostic or atheist.
I'm sure this trend and it's predictable consequences will all become clearer as time progresses. I'm betting within the next decade or two.
I just now watched a CNN news line that a recent poll in N. America clearly indicated that the number of those who believe in God is continuing to drop. The number of those folks who now claim to not believe in a God is now a firm 20%, a point that counters the oft-made claim by theists in general that atheism remains a very tiny percentage, less than 5.
You did read the article? Or did you just stop after the first paragraph?
From the article:
And yet Pew found that 68% of the religiously unaffiliated say they believe in God, while 37% describe themselves as “spiritual” but not “religious.” One in five said that they even pray every day.
32% of 20% = 6.4% 6.4% of folk in North America do not believe in God. Not 20%.
I would suggest you read the whole article before posting.
You did read the article? Or did you just stop after the first paragraph?
From the article:
And yet Pew found that 68% of the religiously unaffiliated say they believe in God, while 37% describe themselves as “spiritual” but not “religious.” One in five said that they even pray every day.
32% of 20% = 6.4% 6.4% of folk in North America do not believe in God. Not 20%.
I would suggest you read the whole article before posting.
Did you not read the whole thread? In the post before yours, rifleman admits to having been a bit duped by the misleading language, and acknowledges the point you're making.
Rifleman's point is well taken though the confusion caused by some rather imprecise terms (non - religion does not necessarily mean un-theist) could be expected as much as Mr150's making a big deal out of it.
The point is that the religious affiliation is being dropped and, while that might not lead to a wholesale gallop to atheism, it is, by the blue- nosed pongolin, a mighty step in the right direction and indicates that the signs of losing faith in Faith that appear to be there really are there.
The point is that the religious affiliation is being dropped and, while that might not lead to a wholesale gallop to atheism, it is, by the blue- nosed pongolin, a mighty step in the right direction and indicates that the signs of losing faith in Faith that appear to be there really are there.
And, hopefully, a step in the direction of humanization of atheists in the eyes of many who still consider atheist to be a bad word.
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Nonetheless...
