The
results of a very large survey into the religious attitudes of Americans is in the news today, and the results are, I think, encouraging.
Fifteen percent of respondents said they had no religion, an increase from 14.2 percent in 2001 and 8.2 percent in 1990, according to the American Religious Identification Survey.
Northern New England surpassed the Pacific Northwest as the least religious region, with Vermont reporting the highest share of those claiming no religion, at 34 percent. Still, the study found that the numbers of Americans with no religion rose in every state. "No other religious bloc has kept such a pace in every state," the study's authors said.
The article also says that fewer people are having religious weddings or funerals; more than a third say they did not marry that way and don't want to be disposed of in that fashion. I think that's more telling than the self-reported religiosity; most people say they're religious when it costs them nothing, (such as on the phone to a survey taker) but when the proverbial rubber hits the road, and it's time to get a priest or not for some major life (or death) event, more and more are choosing not.
As many people have argued, self-reported religious surveys are highly suspect, since most Americans were brought up religious, and as Daniel Dennett says, people have faith in faith. They don't really believe it anymore, for fairly obvious reasons, but they want to believe it, or they think they should believe it. So they say they do, which is why actual church attendance figures run far below reported church attendance on surveys. (Like this one.)
Interestingly and unsurprisingly, it's the moderately religious who are gaining the strength to drop out entirely (or who get ritually dunked and double down into fanaticism). The ranks of mild religions are being gutted, with all of those people becoming non-religious, or else going fundie.
Evangelical or born-again Americans make up 34 percent of all American adults and 45 percent of all Christians and Catholics, the study found. Researchers found that 18 percent of Catholics consider themselves born-again or evangelical, and nearly 39 percent of mainline Protestants prefer those labels. Many mainline Protestant groups are riven by conflict over how they should interpret what the Bible says about gay relationships, salvation and other issues.
Mormon numbers also held steady over the period at 1.4 percent of the population, while the number of Jews who described themselves as religiously observant continued to drop, from 1.8 percent in 1990 to 1.2 percent, or 2.7 million people, last year. Researchers plan a broader survey on people who consider themselves culturally Jewish but aren't religious.
The study found that the percentage of Americans who identified themselves as Muslim grew to 0.6 percent of the population, while growth in Eastern religions such as Buddhism slightly slowed.
The continuing influence of various religious blocks on US politics and cultural issues is another interesting issue. Atheists and the non-religious are essentially ignored in US national issues. There aren't any major non-religious lobbying groups, there's exactly 1 US senator or congressman who admits to being irreligious, and failing to strongly and repeatedly profess your faith is a disqualifier for anyone seeking national office in the US. Yet the non-religious population is at least 16%, and certainly far higher, since people under report their own lack of belief in these surveys.
Our culture's outward professions of belief and the very organized and noisy protest blocks from the various major (but fading) religious groups ensure that state of affairs, but I think another factor is that (admitting that you don't) believe in any God or Gods doesn't give any insight into what you want politically. Plenty of Catholics don't actually oppose abortion or birth control (or capitol punishment), as common scriptural interpretations say they should, but self-appointed Catholic leaders can (and do) act as though the tens of millions of Catholics agree with those points, and that supposed voting bloc gives the leaders power. Not to mention how handy it is to be able to claim a religious affiliation or inspiration when fund raising.
Not only do Atheists not give money to any unified Athiest political cause, nor have any such organization to give to if they wanted to, there's no real agreement amongst them (us) about which political positions to push for. There's not even any general opposition to government funding of faith-based initiatives, or ending tax breaks for politically active churches. The non-religious are liberal, conservative, and everything in between, and while many former conservatives were driven away by the fundie Bible-thumping wing that's come to dominate the Republican party on a national level, plenty of others hold their nose and vote Republican for economic or cultural or foreign policy reasons. Plus there are lots more non-religious who are drawn to pseudo-right wing ideologies, such as the me-firstism of Libertarianism. Enough to equal or exceed the non-religious liberals voting Democrat, for lack of any actually liberal option in the US? I have no idea, but probably not. After all, people under 30 are the least religious and most Democratic of any demographic group.
Another interesting aspect is that they apparently counted the Mormon 1.4% of the population as non-Christian. That might be technically accurate, but the Book of Mormon is just an updated plagiarism of the New Testament, and the beliefs of Mormons are actually closer to fundie Catholics and Protestants than those of any liberal Methodist or Episcopalian sect. True, they'd engage in some fairly amusing arguments about doctrinal beliefs, the Angel Maroni and Joseph Smith being a prophet and all that, but by cultural behavior and voting patterns Mormons might as well be lumped in with the 30-odd% of the population who are born again Southern-style Baptists.
Finally, the enormous size of the cultural and political footprint swung by the tiny sliver of the population who are Jewish, (ethnically or religiously) is amazing. There are half as many Muslims as Jews in the US, and with the Muslim numbers rapidly increasing from birth rate, immigration, and evangelism, and Jewish numbers continuing to fall, their relative ranks in the population will likely be reversed in the not too distant future. Yet the Jewish lobby and Jews in positions of power must outstrip US Muslims by what, 1000%? 10,000%? More? The US is really the only nation on earth that supports (financially and politically) Israel in every dispute with various of their Muslim/Arab neighbors, and whether you agree with that support, and/or Israel's actions on the world stage, you've got to be impressed by the level of support, as well as the prominence of Jews in the entertainment, finance, political, and other influential fields in the US.
Clearly (unless you subscribe to various conspiracy theories) the Jewish race/religion/culture pushes an amazing level of over achievement in US culture. The irony is that the religion itself is continually shrinking, in the US, worldwide, and even in Israel. The numbers keep shrinking since (generally speaking) Jews don't have large families and don't evangelize and convert others to their faith. Judaism has obviously been a very successful faith, to have persisted so long in the face of such persecution (chiefly by adherents of Christianity and Islam, two religions that were ironically spun off from the Hebraic origin). But it seems like it might be on the way out, in the foreseeable future. Not entirely, not with one nation largely devoted to its preservation, but given current demographic trends, the % of people worldwide, and in every nation but Israel and maybe the US, who consider themselves religiously Jewish is going to be down around cult levels in another few decades.
Whether this leads to a rebirth, a "the few and proud" stasis, or an eventual disappearance remains to be seen, but I find it fascinating to observe how religions evolve and transform, rise and fall.
Zoroastrianism is in the same boat, but they're taking on water ever faster. There are no more than a couple of hundred thousand left, scattered through pockets around the world. They've got no real homeland or stronghold anymore (Islam out-competed the religion in Mesopotamia) and that monotheism, which greatly predates Christianity and Islam, might vanish from the earth (in numbers significant enough to distinguish it from vanity religions like oh, Egpytology or Scientology) in our lifetimes.
Labels: religion
