http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2015/05/12/Study-Fewer-Americans-identifying-as-Christian/3721431422199/
The study found 7.8 percent fewer people described themselves as Christians in 2014 than in 2007, with an increasing number identifying as agnostic, atheist or say they have no religion.
The shift spreads across all landscapes and cultures across the country, from coast to coast and among all demographic groups, a broad survey from Pew found. The drop is particularly pronounced among young adults and is widespread across all age groups.
…
“Nearly one-third of American adults (31.7 percent) say they were raised Catholic. Among that group, 41 percent no longer identify with Catholicism,” the report said. “This means that 12.9 percent of American adults are former Catholics, while just 2 percent of U.S. adults have converted to Catholicism from another religious tradition. No other religious group in the survey has such a lopsided ratio of losses to gains.”The Evangelical Protestants are the only major Christian group that has gained more members than it lost through conversion. Among race and ethnic groups, some 24 percent of whites say they have no religion, compared to 20 percent of Hispanics and 18 percent of black Americans.
The numbers seem accurate.
I’ve said it before, many “Christian” homes are atheist factories. Some of the most militant atheists I know came from Christian homes, and some of the most dedicated Christian I know were atheists.
Ironically, I find the numbers encouraging. I’ve felt for a long time many identifying themselves as believers were not really believers.
People seem more free today to be forthright and admit they don’t believe rather than keep pretending because of cultural pressure. That is a good thing. When I had the freedom to question and say, “I don’t find that claim believable”, I felt liberated intellectually and it made it possible to believe in something for the right reasons.
I came to believe the creation account more fervently after being an agnostic for a season.
Yes, that would be my guess as to what is behind the drop in numbers.
I think it could cascade. It was never safe in my youth to be a nonbeliever. When I was a kid, a non-churchgoer couldn’t even get a job. It was legal and customary to ask what church you attended on job applications. I had teachers ask.
My personal working hypothesis about the rise of militancy in Islam is that the radicals are most afraid of the decline of religious authority.
Theology has nothing to do with it. They perceive a decline in power.
Moved from a thread at Alan Fox’s suggestion. Thread deleted and posted as a comment here.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0010027715000293
stcordova,
OK, but I would prefer that you had left it to an admin to delete a thread as all associated comments disappear too and this should not be undertaken lightly if at all.
Though I thought it worthy of separate thread, in deference to Alan, I’m posting on the study I mentioned in the above comment. Here is a non-paywalled version, provided, I think, by the author:
http://www.elisajarnefelt.com/s/JarnefeltCanfieldKelemen2015.pdf
Alan Fox,
I thought you were the admin. Sorry. Whatever you guys want, just trying to cooperate.
From the paper on Design tendencies:
I am an admin. I’m also a little twitchy about deleted comments in the light of recent events.
Alan,
I just put the thread in “draft” mode. It still exists, and I presume the comments. I think you can restore them. Let me know if you need anything from me. Sorry again for the trouble.
Sal
stcordova,
Fair enough, Sal. No harm done.
Quick and Dirty – using the numbers somewhat eyeballed from here:
http://www.pewforum.org/2015/05/12/appendix-c-putting-findings-from-the-religious-landscape-study-into-context/pr_15-05-12_rls_append-c-00/
And dropped into a Fisher-Pry adoption diffusion model (essentially a logistic curve)* I give you the godless heathen forecast:
2020 : 26%
2030: 35%
2040: 45%
2050: 56%
(R squared .96)
Waterlooo!
Voodoo Excel spreadsheet available for anyone who wants it.
* We can debate if this really is a “substitutional” thing.
I won’t live long enough to see it, but I am beyond thrilled that religiosity may become the minority position in my children’s lifetime.
The cancer of religion has been incurable far too long. Well, like physical cancer, we may not ever be able to prevent it nor to fully cure it, but it’s such a wonderful hope that we finally may bring it down to a survivable level.
The most convincing argument I’ve seen for religion is that Christianity 3.0 is less venomous than Islam 2.0.
Convincing? As in, only a benevolent (something like Jesus) deity could/would be responsible for (eventually) leading (some) theists out of the hell on Earth they’ve created for their fellow humans? Yeah, I see that’s a possibility.
I do thank god that I didn’t happen to be born in an Islam-dominated country in this lifetime. As much as I despise the evangelical dominionists and the corrupt Catholic schools and hospitals for trying to ruin my country, I’m truly grateful that they aren’t even worse. And praise the lord that they sometimes seem to be fading in the force of secular equality.
If that’s not what you meant, petrushka, then sorry for stepping on your comment.
Richardthughes,
Laughing my ass off.
I have been known to dabble in sarcasm, on rare occasions.
Tom English,
Thanks Tom. I get ‘quant envy’ from being around the heavy-hitters here and feel obligated to go do some math things!
There is no drop but instead probably a rise. It just shows, finally, people are admitting to nlot being Christian. Its always been that so many obviously non Christians still wanted to identify with being Christian. for historical identity reasons or lack of reflection.
In fact it sjould be a much biogger number for non christians.
In fact Christians should only be people who believe the stuff about Jesus being God and being executed in our stead and our believing this gets us saved.
surely that a small percentage as if people believed it they wouldn’t live lives as if its not true and really important.
For once, I have to say that hidden among the general incoherence, Robert has a point. The social cost for not having to identify as a Christian has gone down, so the number of people who were never real believers but only going through the motions has dropped as people no longer feel the need to go through the motions.
And that’s a good thing too.
Yes; although there are still plenty of Christians who regard themselves positively as Christians, yet do not buy into
or at any rate the last part. Most people who call themselves Christians believe that Jesus was God (not all though); many nonetheless reject the notion that “salvation” depends on belief itself, let alone belief in a most bizarre, self-contradictory and post hoc bit of doctrine that theologians have and continue to spend years trying to reconcile with sense.
Substitionary atonement is a theological and philosophical mess.