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	BlackChampagne -- no longer new; improvement also in question.: Spreading like a rash. Monday, February 25, 2008 Spreading like a rash. A new survey shows that it's not just anecdote and personal experience; there really are a great deal more atheists and agnostics around these days. Even in America. When it comes to religion, more and more U.S. adults either have none or do not identify with a particular church, although the country remains highly religious, a survey said on Monday. ...The survey, based on interviews with more than 36,000 U.S. adults, found 78.4 percent of the population identify themselves as Christian. Of U.S. adults in general, it said 51.3 percent were Protestant, 23.9 percent Catholic, 1.7 percent Mormon, 0.7 percent Jehovah's Witness and less than 0.3 percent each Greek or Russian Orthodox. "The biggest gains due to changes in religious affiliation have been among those who say they are not affiliated with any particular religious group or tradition," the survey found. "Overall 7.3 percent of the adult population says they were unaffiliated with any particular religion as a child. Today, however, 16.1 percent of adults say they are unaffiliated ... sizable numbers of those raised in all religions -- from Catholicism to Protestantism to Judaism -- are currently unaffiliated with any particular religion," it added. The survey did not seek to try to find why people abandon churches or join new ones. Greg Smith, a researcher at the forum, said it may be that younger generations are not reconnecting with religion as they age as previous generations did, a trend that if continued could have a profound impact on American religion. The unaffiliated are now the 4th largest denomination in the US, and when you consider that the US population is around 350m, 14% of that is nearly 50,000,000 people. (Incidentally, that would be the 24th most populous nation on earth.) While not all of those 50,000,000 are actually atheists or agnostics (any more than all of the "affiliated" are actually religious), it's a substantial group, and I think their (our?) growing numbers are largely to blame for the recent and ongoing spate of religious fervor in the nation. The old time faithful (of whatever age) see increasing numbers of "their fellow Americans" who are indifferent to their religious importuning, and turn up their efforts to preserve the dominance/relevance of their fading clan. Hence the hysterical bleating about the "War on Christmas," steady efforts to introduce Creationism into science classes, etc. I've never read about it, but I wonder if there were similar events during Europe's relatively recent ascent into secularism? After all, Europe was entirely superstitious and still full of witch burners in the 1700s. The creation of America's constitution in late 1700s was as remarkable for the enshrinement of democracy and equality as the avoidance of theocracy through the first (and other relevant) amendments. France followed suit not long after, when the Revolution overthrew the monarchy and religious controls, but by no means was the continent in any way secular at that point, or at any time before WW2. Somehow, during the past half century, religions in Europe largely shriveled up and dried out. What caused that? Were there flares of fading passion by the loyal and faithful? I really don't know. Speaking of old time, European-themed religions, note that the survey points out that Catholicism has the highest burn rate of any religion. More people leave the Catholic Church than any other; it's numbers in the US stay high only thanks to a steady influx of immigrants, chiefly from heavily-Catholic South/Central America. Interesting implications there for the immigration debate, and the continuing viability of any religion that stays tied to a strict orthodoxy, rather than adjusting to the (increasingly secular) times and ending in-church discrimination against women, gays, birth control, etc. Labels: religion Posted by: Flux # 1:03 PM Comments: The numbers will probably plummet quickly once all the baby boomers start dropping. #: 3:24 PM posted by Anonymous Or increase (briefly) as they get into their elderly years and hit the typical "cramming for the final" burst of late life religiosity. #: 3:38 PM posted by Flux I'm not sure baby boomers will all hit a "burst of late life religiosity." I may be atypical, but 2 years of Catholic school 58 years ago cured me forever of religion. All religions are man-made baloney! #: 5:20 PM posted by Anonymous i think it ends up swinging back and forth. I've seen some secular families where the it's the kid who is demanding more religious education for whatever reason. Or the kid when they get older end up taking up a religion. But this may also be part of the diminishment of organized institutions in general as groups like the masons, rotary, etc also see their numbers aging and diminishing. Church used to be one of those public arenas for families to climb the social ladder and may still be that for many immigrant families. Once Christmas got commercialized you come to realize you don't have to go to church to throw a party. Hell, you don't have to be Christian. The retention of Hinduism is interesting since it's relatively individualistic in comparison to the other religions that require one god, one way and church once a week. #: 9:18 PM posted by Gura Post a Comment << Home Archives May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007 July 2007 August 2007 September 2007 October 2007 November 2007 December 2007 January 2008 February 2008 March 2008 April 2008 May 2008 June 2008 July 2008 August 2008 September 2008 October 2008 November 2008 December 2008 January 2009 February 2009 March 2009 April 2009 May 2009 June 2009 July 2009 August 2009 September 2009 October 2009 November 2012

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