latest Pew poll shows big drops in religious affiliation in USA

[RussBLib]

Lots of interesting things in this latest Pew poll

Assume a US population of 330 million

"Unaffiliated" up to 22.8% from 16.1% in 2007. (over 75 million)
"Atheist" up to 3.1% from 1.6% in 2007. (that seems too low to me) (over 10 million)
"Agnostic" up to 4.0% from 2.4% in 2007 (also seems too low) (over 13 million)

"Christians" down from 78.4% in 2007 to 70.6% in 2014. (that is still far too high for comfort) (over 230 million)
"Catholics" down from 23.9% to 20.8% (over 68 million)
"Muslims" up to 0.9% from 0.4% (more than doubled) (almost 3 million)

More unaffiliated than Catholics!

another interesting fact: Nearly one-in-five people surveyed who got married since 2010 are either religiously unaffiliated respondents who married a Christian spouse or Christians who married an unaffiliated spouse. By contrast, just 5% of people who got married before 1960 fit this profile. (trouble ahead)

There is a LOT of data. Haven't grokked it all yet. Full results are here.

[truebrit71]

1. Excellent news!

Maybe there's a chance for this country after all...

[beam me up scottie]

2. Very bad news for christians.

They'll never be a minority but hopefully their influence will decrease along with their numbers.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

3. their empty pews told them this some years ago.

They know that their sheeple have fled. When megachurches go broke, or when they start economizing, you know something is up.

Actually, that 22% is extremely conservative. Many non-believers or "nones" are so afraid of the abuse and attacks that their religious family and friends would give them, that they lie about religion and pretend to be faithful. I know many people who privately admit that they are with me on religion.


Then again, I was walking with my Village Atheist tshirt into some box store, accompanied by my wife.
This woman, dragging an unhappy 7 year old boy behind a huge pile of soft drinks, potato shits, and other fatty, lard-ridden snack food was walking towards us. The lady saw my t-shirt, did a double take, then had this look of horror spread across her face. She grabbed her kid and pulled him to the other side of the cart until we passed. Another couple nearby wondered Wa Da Fa? until they saw my shirt. They nodded, smiled and gave me a thumbs up.

That woman's reaction is precisely why the 22% is not accurate. It is much higher, and would measure higher but for the hatred that we seem to attract.

[onager]

4. Weird reaction from that woman.

It's not like you were a Catholic priest or something...

[ChairmanAgnostic]

5. I had mixed feelings. At least she could read.

But I felt for the kid. Imagine the bad lessons he learns on a daily basis.

[RussBLib]

6. ignorance and fear runs deep in many believers

which is not surprising, considering the mind-blasting and brain-washing they have undergone.

I know many believers who never go to church or get involved in any church functions at all, nor ever read the Babble. They still default to calling themselves "Christians", however, but it's almost an afterthought these days.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

7. i believe that is the equation for faith and religious beliefs -

ignorance and fear.

Hey, it has worked for centuries. I am still amazed at how rational and progressive the founding fathers were in the 1760s-1770s. Can you imagine the presence of tea baggers back then?

[beam me up scottie]

12. I wouldn't dare wear that t-shirt down here.

The torch and pitchfork crowd is a little too eager in the bible belt.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

16. Where is "down here?"

Texas? Alley-Bama? South Carolina? Misery?

[beam me up scottie]

18. The bible belt.

I was wrong about hell, it does exist.

[trotsky]

8. The most frustrating part for many folks here on DU...

is that the biggest drops are occurring in liberal churches. The narrative that many have chosen to believe (right-wing churches are turning people off with their hatred, people are still believers just not in a church, etc.) is proving to be completely wrong, and for those folks it's a bitter pill to swallow. They've built up a whole persona based on bashing people for pointing out what is now clearly shown to be happening.

I suspect we will see much more wailing and gnashing of teeth - they won't disappear quietly. Their hatred and their overwhelming desire to cling to their narrative will lead to more and more desperation.

[onager]

9. As long as we all admit...

We wouldn't want to live in a nation with no religion. Another Greatest Hit from the past.

Back when I was more active in The Other Group, I used to frequently point out that the "narrative" was wrong. And has been wrong for many years, certainly since the rise of Falwell in 1980.

Fundie Xian churches are not only growing in the mainland US, but in places like Central/South America and Africa. Where they are kicking the butts of the traditional missionary groups like the Catholics and mainstream Protestant churches. Study after study has been done on that, from secular pollsters like Pew as well as religious-leaning researchers like the Barna Group. (Barna Group founder George Barna is a Fundamentalist Xian himself.)

But posts pointing that out were usually ignored. So it got pretty tiresome. As much as I enjoy making boring and repetitive posts...

Here in East Jesus where I live now, there's an interesting corollary to that. Younger people are flocking to the big non-denominational megachurches led by charismatic cult lead...er, preachers.
Those churches have Xian rock bands and kewl multi-media sermons.

The older Baptist, Methodist etc. people hate that stuff. But many are complaining that their kids and grandkids literally will NOT go to church otherwise. So they go to the megachurches.

One megachurch preacher, in his Sunday sermon, referred to Jesus as a "BAMF" (Bad Ass Motherfucker). Heads must have been exploding all over the county when the older folks learned the translation of BAMF.

[trotsky]

10. LOL - BAMF

You just can't help but live in areas populated by religious fundies, can you? I mean apart from your stint in LA!

[AlbertCat]

15. BAMF

Well, Jesus is god's son.... and is god too.... so....

[Act_of_Reparation]

11. Bumper sticker liberals want bumper sticker solutions to bumper sticker problems.

"Right wing Christians are driving young people away from religion with their craziness" makes for a more compelling bumper sticker than reality: that the interaction of complex social forces -- education, connectedness, income, secular support services -- have primed a fair fraction of an entire generation to be less religious than their forebears.

We really don't want to admit that people are finding less and less use for religion because religion has become less and less useful.

[cdogzilla]

17. I'd seen these results mentioned, but this bit is the scary part.

I'm an atheist. My wife is "spirtual but not religious," and we've attended our local Unitarian Universalist church, but it's more than a half hour drive, and I didn't enjoy it *that* much, so our attendance has fallen off. But, I still meet up with the Dad's group for beers and enjoyed meeting UUs. If their was a sector of the religious affiliation spectrum I'd like to see grow, that'd be it. If they're falling off while megachurches prosper, then the news is even more depressing.

[onager]

13. Tiny Minority of Fundie A-holes doing quite well...

More from that Pew poll, as reported in Christianity Today.

The headline says it all: Evangelicals Stay Strong As Christianity Crumbles

I'm sure the surge back to traditional mainstream Xianity is coming any day now. ..



I personally wish it would, since liberal Xians are usually easier to deal with than the Fundies. But I'm a grumpy verminous non-believer who prefers fact to fantasy, so I'd rather try to deal with things as they are. Not as I wish them to be.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/gleanings/2015/may/pew-evangelicals-stay-strong-us-religious-landscape-study.html

[nil desperandum]

14. Indeed

the surly curmudgeons who make better neighbors are the types I prefer!