Christian Science Monitor – February 26, 2008:
A panoramic snapshot of American religious life in 2008 reveals an extraordinary dynamism that is reshaping the country’s major traditions in historic ways.
Almost half of Americans have moved to a different religious denomination from that in which they were raised, and 28 percent have switched to a different major tradition or to no religion (i.e., from Roman Catholic to Protestant, Jewish to unaffiliated).
The fluidity is combining with immigration to spur dramatic changes in the religious landscape. Protestantism appears on the verge of losing its majority status. The number of “unaffiliated” Americans has doubled, to 16 percent. One-third of Catholics are now Latino and the religion is depending on immigration to maintain its share of the population.
These shifts are captured in a survey released Monday by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.
I was raised Presbyterian USA. I left when i realized the focus. Every Sunday, we would recite the Apostles’ Creed which mentions miraculous stories of virgin births and resurrection, but fails to mention that I believe in the teachings of Jesus …to love your neighbor, to love even your enemies. I am a Christian, but my faith is based in the teachings of Love …not supernatural miracle stories which the Presbyterians seem to focus on.
I guess “love your enemies” is not too politically correct these days.
#17 – rectagon,
Stalin. Atheist. Forbid religion.
Mao. Atheist. Forbid religion.
Pot. Atheist. Forbid religion. Those 3 murdered more than all the crusades and any other so called “religion based” (really… “money-power based”) wars rolled up.
Very familiar pattern here. Two things:
1. The atheists in your list killed for an ideology, in all three of these cases communism, not for atheism. The crusades, the inquisition, and many other wars were fought specifically in the name of religion. None were fought in the name of atheism.
2. Genocide is a percentages game. It doesn’t do to compare numbers killed in the USSR with hundreds of millions of people in it to the crusades, which were fought with probably that many on the whole planet, not just the local geographic region. To compare these atrocities would require comparison of the percentage of people either on the planet or in a whole region killed by the events.
3. I’m not trying to convince you to become atheist. I am merely trying to win respect for atheism. Your own statements show that you don’t have any. So, you are exactly the type of person from whom I must demand respect for my views. You believe it is necessary to believe in Christ to be moral. I believe that a belief in any flavor of the Judeo-Christian-Islamic religion (deliberately singular) actually twists the morals of people that would otherwise be moral.
Clinic bombings and doctor shootings are a prime example. Blocking stem cell research is another. What kind of a person would put the so-called life of a blastocyst with no brain cells and fewer cells than are in a mosquito brain ahead of a living human being’s pain and suffering? What kind of a person would take actions shown to do nothing to prevent the spread of AIDS instead of distributing condoms and giving sex education to teens which have been shown to reduce the spread of AIDS?
Even today, religion still kills. Even today, religion twists people’s morals into a pretzel of bad logic causing pain and suffering. Perhaps if the good outweighed the bad, I would not hate religion so much (I don’t hate religious people at all, just the institution of religion). perhaps if all of the edifices built to make god happy also housed the homeless. Even with church soup kitchens though, the amount of resources spent on religious buildings could house and feed so many more homeless.
#4 – rectagon
“You should be glad you live in a world where Jesus people not only tolerate other/opposite views… but are asked to love everyone anyway.”
I guess the Jesus people do that ‘toleration thing’ in their spare time, when they’re not busy condemning billions of souls to Hell every day – and sometimes actively sending them there?
Now, now, being a genocidal maniac is just another viewpoint. In the name of diversity we must tolerate and respect it.
Nice to hear that youth are trying different religions out and actually thinking about it instead of just blindly following everyone else…. its is an encouraging sign for the future of the western world!
The title of this blog entry should be revised. The linked article had almost no age demographic data. The article doesn’t point towards the “internet generation” in particular.
#4 – You should be glad you live in a world where Jesus people not only tolerate other/opposite views… but are asked to love everyone anyway.
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#26 – Patrick,
Try this link for the full report. There are tabs and links for various breakdowns of the data. I’m not sure whether it has exactly what you’re looking for.
http://religions.pewforum.org/
#28
Yes, thanks. Should be read. For instance, 31% of 18-29 year olds, closest to “internet” gen, are unaffiliated as opposed to 40% of those 30-49. So, this contradicts the title of the blog entry.
27, thanks for that.
But there’s a couple of angles that haven’t been discussed. First of all, people sometimes don’t tell the truth to survey takers. Sometimes for a a real reason, sometimes just for kicks. An example of the former would have been my stepfather’s father. He was an atheist who was a Baptist minister. In the words of all those Flintstone’s appliances, “It’s a living.” Note that this was in the 1920-1940s. Still, the admission would have put him out of a job.
Another thing is Jews, for example. I am Jewish by heritage, as my mother was Jewish, at least when I was born. Now, Mom is agnostic and goes the Unitarian Church, and I’m an atheist. But we both make a mean matzo ball soup, get together for Passover, etc. As far as it goes, most atheists that I know celebrate Christmas to some extent. So where does that leave us?
# 20 Gary, the dangerous infidel said, The empirical evidence against such a brain function, which I see as strong enough to disprove its existence, is the diverse and contradictory “spiritual reality” that religious people seem to detect with it. So many different religions can’t all be right.
That’s where atheists have a heck of a battle. Atheists claim that that 97.68% ( http://tinyurl.com/2rcwc5 )of the world can’t be right.
More likely we 98% can’t be all wrong. My belief is that we’re perceiving the same reality but interpreting it differently.
The closest simile is the ability to perceive love: The vast majority of humans perceive love but a small percentage simply aren’t wired to do so. We “lovers” have a million ways to explain it, even though we can’t prove that love exists in any scientific way.
The “non lover” extreme minority just think we’re all stupid dupes.
This is almost exactly the same dynamic between God-believers and atheists.
BTW: You dismiss the spiritual neurology theory but others don’t. Do you have better science credentials than the guys mentioned in this article?: http://tinyurl.com/ashxd
#31 – GregAllen,
That’s where atheists have a heck of a battle. Atheists claim that that 97.68% of the world can’t be right.
1. Atheists claim 97+% of the world has presented no evidence for their claim that god(s) exist(s).
2. Nothing in your post points to any scientific evidence for the existence of god(s).
More likely we 98% can’t be all wrong.
Terrible argument. The counter to it can be rather vulgarly summed up as “eat shit; a billion flies can’t all be wrong.”
Alternately and with a less vulgar image, consider that the entire population of the planet once believed the sun to revolve around the earth.
You dismiss the spiritual neurology theory but others don’t.
I don’t dismiss neurological study. It is very interesting to learn about the workings of our brains and even why we as a species believe such nonsense. However, it adds not a single iota of credibility to the god hypothesis.
So, since you’re in the majority, why not present some scientific evidence of god or the efficacy of prayer? Or, just answer where you believe god came from? To me, it’s just turtles all the way down, and thus, a self-inconsistent and failed hypothesis.
#31–Greg==what the hey are you smoking? “Feelings reveal reality.” HAR de HAR HAR! Jeebezus!!
All animals get hungry. Hunger does not exist in the world. Getting hungry does. See the difference?
Humans fall in love. Love doesn not eist in the world, falling in love does. See the difference?
Humans long for simple direct explanations of the world culturally directed now as “god”. God doesn’t exist, only the feelings for a god. See the difference?
Greg Allen wrote, “You dismiss the spiritual neurology theory but others don’t.”
You misunderstood me, Greg. I don’t dismiss the spiritual neurology theory. What I dismissed was your hypothesis which characterized it as “spiritual reality.” Thousands of contradictory, mutually exclusive perceptions of god do not reality make. It sounds, however, like an excellent and easy-to-follow recipe for war and strife.
#34 – Gary,
Could be proof a mean vindictive god created in our own image, of course.
Let us pray. Indeed.
#35 Misanthropic Scott, absolutely agreed. It has to be a bit uncomfortable to worship a god that shows some of humanity’s worst foibles. I’d like to start from scratch and invent a more ethical god.
#36 Monster’s Lawyer, the old phrase often uttered by ministers and priests is “Let us prey,” not “pray.” Until you see it in writing, it’s easy to confuse the two
#37 – Gary, I was commenting on the picture. What an angel.
As long as we’re on the subject of changing religious beliefs, I would add that few people have had a more negative recent impact on Christianity in the world than George W. Bush. His daily prayers for wisdom and guidance have had a remarkably small, or even negative, return. In the long prelude to the war, no deity seems to have whispered in his ear to interject a note of truth and quiet the repetition of false premises.
When religion and politics comingle, rather than politics becoming more moral, religion simply becomes more sullied.