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7.5 Million Americans Lost Their Religion in the Past Two Years

Sunstone

Sunstone

De Diablo Del Fora
Premium Member
Kirran said:
Makes sense it's coming to the Western world's average, however slowly. My feelings on it are pretty neutral. Mildly positive, I suppose, because from what I hear American religion includes a lot of fundamentalist Christianity.
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It would be interesting to know where these "religious dropouts" are coming from? Are they mostly from mainstream denominations? Fundamentalist denominations? Or somewhere else?
 
Kirran

Kirran

ॐ
Premium Member
Sunstone said:
It would be interesting to know where these "religious dropouts" are coming from? Are they mostly from mainstream denominations? Fundamentalist denominations? Or somewhere else?
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Having thoughtfully chewed on my avocado - I would guess it's mostly from weakly mainstream groups - it'll be a process of shifting from mainstream Christianity to nominal Christianity, and then either switching to agnosticism/atheism, or raising children who never identify with the weakly-held religion. I feel fundamentalists switching to irreligion'll be less significant, numerically.
 
Sunstone

Sunstone

De Diablo Del Fora
Premium Member
Kirran said:
Having thoughtfully chewed on my avocado - I would guess it's mostly from weakly mainstream groups - it'll be a process of shifting from mainstream Christianity to nominal Christianity, and then either switching to agnosticism/atheism, or raising children who never identify with the weakly-held religion. I feel fundamentalists switching to irreligion'll be less significant, numerically.
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I think you're probably right --- unless, of course, fundamentalists are beginning to read their bibles. That tends to make atheists of people.
 
Kirran

Kirran

ॐ
Premium Member
Sunstone said:
I think you're probably right --- unless, of course, fundamentalists are beginning to read their bibles. That tends to make atheists of people.
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I had a talk with a Church of England priest a couple days ago. He, with interest, pointed out how you could see the transition from polytheism to henotheism to monotheism in Isaiah. This is a man who is very happy in Christianity - if you can look at a Bible like that, and still be Christian, and still be a priest, then there's no reason reading the Bible need make one an atheist.
 
Sunstone

Sunstone

De Diablo Del Fora
Premium Member
Kirran said:
I had a talk with a Church of England priest a couple days ago. He, with interest, pointed out how you could see the transition from polytheism to henotheism to monotheism in Isaiah. This is a man who is very happy in Christianity - if you can look at a Bible like that, and still be Christian, and still be a priest, then there's no reason reading the Bible need make one an atheist.
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Yes, but I seem to recall reading somewhere that one of the main reasons given by people for conversion to atheism is having read the bible. Of course, my memory isn't what it used to be, so I could be wrong.
 
Kirran

Kirran

ॐ
Premium Member
Sunstone said:
Yes, but I seem to recall reading somewhere that one of the main reasons given by people for conversion to atheism is having read the bible. Of course, my memory isn't what it used to be, so I could be wrong.
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Interesting.

Of course, your sample's pretty skewed if you're only asking converts from Christianity to atheism :)

Think of the people who've read the Bible who stayed Christian.

As a side note, I think the CoE is wonderful.
 
Marisa

Marisa

Well-Known Member
I think it's only natural. Society naturally progresses, and the more we understand about ourselves and the world we occupy the less many religious tenets have to offer in terms of answers.
 
Kirran

Kirran

ॐ
Premium Member
Marisa said:
I think it's only natural. Society naturally progresses, and the more we understand about ourselves and the world we occupy the less many religious tenets have to offer in terms of answers.
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Important to note on this kind of view, that there are many Muslims and Christians who believe that as society progresses and people understand themselves and the world better, they'll naturally come to Islam or to Christianity. After all, they have the answers.
 
Revoltingest

Revoltingest

Pragmatic Libertarian
Premium Member
Of the heathens I know IRL, their awakening was to see that beliefs they were brought up with were bizarre & in conflict with the larger world.
 
Sunstone

Sunstone

De Diablo Del Fora
Premium Member
Kirran said:
Think of the people who've read the Bible who stayed Christian.
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If I recall, about 20% of American Christians have read the bible according to the Barna Group, which is the foremost Evangelical polling organization in the country. Again, my memory isn't the greatest.
 
Kirran

Kirran

ॐ
Premium Member
I think that Christianity's gonna stabilise out once more mature groups come to the fore. But it'll drop for a while first.

Sunstone said:
If I recall, about 20% of American Christians have read the bible according to the Barna Group, which is the foremost Evangelical polling organization in the country. Again, my memory isn't the greatest.
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Fantastic. That is just fantastic.

I haven't read the Vedas, to be fair.
 
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