No, Non Believers Are Not Increasing in America

LowDown · Apr 24, 2019

The stats are given as often and with as much confidence as they are wrong. The story goes that our nation is growing more secular with every passing day. Christianity is tanking, and atheists and generic non-believers mushrooming. The Daily Wire proclaimed that last week, with the headline, "God Help Us; Atheism Becomes Largest Religion In U.S." CNN just reported something similar: "There Are Now as Many Americans Who Claim No Religion as There Are Evangelicals and Catholics."

It's not true. Not even close.

To be more correct, the people for whom religion held no importance have not increased as a percentage of the population. They are just being classified differently now.

The argument goes that the illusion that people with no religion are increasing comes from the way the polls were done. Previously, these people were those who said that their religion was not important to them even if they claimed a particular religion. Now, they have shifted into the "none" category. The percentage of serious, believing and practicing Christians has not decreased.

According to sociologists at Harvard and Indiana University who performed a survey of religious practice in America:

We show that rather than religion fading into irrelevance as the secularization thesis would suggest, intense religion -- strong affiliation, very frequent practice, literalism and evangelicalism -- is persistent, and in fact, only moderate religion is on the decline in the United States.

Which is just as well. Increasing atheism in Europe is not a harbinger of progress but a harbinger of decline and degeneration. In Europe, increased secularization correlates with a decrease in the confidence in the culture, a loss of belief in the future, a decline in the birth rate to unsustainable levels, and slow economic growth.

No, Non-Believers Are Not Increasing In America

blarg · Apr 24, 2019

LowDown said:
To be more correct, the people for whom religion held no importance have not increased as a percentage of the population. They are just being classified differently now.

The argument goes that the illusion that people with no religion are increasing comes from the way the polls were done. Previously, these people were those who said that their religion was not important to them even if they claimed a particular religion. Now, they have shifted into the "none" category. The percentage of serious, believing and practicing Christians has not decreased.

According to sociologists at Harvard and Indiana University who performed a survey of religious practice in America:

Which is just as well. Increasing atheism in Europe is not a harbinger of progress but a harbinger of decline and degeneration. In Europe, increased secularization correlates with a decrease in the confidence in the culture, a loss of belief in the future, a decline in the birth rate to unsustainable levels, and slow economic growth.

No, Non-Believers Are Not Increasing In America

gods do you exist?

....................................

no answer

you should doubt a culture that pushes gods then

how did you find out that lack of faith means less kids loss of faith in the future doubts about your culture( that seems healthy ) and slow economic growth?

No, Non Believers Are Not Increasing in America

LowDown

Curmudgeon

blarg