Is America more or less religious?

[It Aint Necessarily So]

Less religious, but more moral.

Really? America? Trump still enjoys a popularity of over 40%. What does that say about the moral state of America?

surveys have shown a steady rise in "No religion" and a steady rise in non-belief as such. Compared to other first-world countries, this rise is from a very low base, but the trend is clear. As to why, the best I can do is wave my arm generally in the direction of a few factors which are often referred to.

A variety of factors contribute.

• More people have higher educations - education is the enemy of belief by faith.

• More people are financially secure and have a degree of control over their lives - desperate people turn to gods for comfort and protection.

• Atheism is less stigmatized - it's easier to reject religion today.

• Scientific advances - they keep showing that religion is just guessing about how things actually are. As Dawkins noted, "Although atheism might have been logically tenable before Darwin, Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist"

• News media - it has lifted the rock and exposed religion to the light of day. Consider the parade of bad hombres paraded through the media in the last few decades: In recent memory, we have seen countless televangelist scandals like Jim Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart, and Ted Haggard, the Catholic priest pedophilia and cover-up scandals, bigots like Tony Perkins, James Dobson, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, Christian cults like those of Jim Jones and David Koresh, Westboro Baptist Church, Chick-fil-A, Hobby Lobby, the war on anything-not-Christmas, the duck dynasty guy, the Oregon wedding cake couple, Kim Davis, the Duggar and Palin families and their public hypocrisies, years of abortion clinic terrorism including physician assassinations, arsons, and bombings icluding the Planned Parenthood smears culminating in Christian zealot Robert Lewis Dear shooting up a clinic, the transgenders and public bathrooms outcry

• The rise of and popularity of best-selling atheists such as Dawkins, Hitchens, and Harris.

• The Internet - it has given a platform and voice to atheists, who formerly, could be intimidated into silence. Today, anybody interested has access to atheist arguments.

By identity, yes, overall the United States is becoming more religious.

The data contradict that (see below)

would love to see some research if anyone could provide.

American Religious Identification Survey from https://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1013&context=facpub

Adult population, total
1990: 175,440,000
2008: 228,182,000

Total Christian
1990: 151,225,000 (86.2%)
2008: 173,402,000 (76.0%)

None/ No religion, total
1990: 14,331,000 (8.2%)
2008: 34,169,000 (15.0%)

Also: From Pew: “One-in-Five Adults Have No Religious Affiliation” Oct 9, 2012 “In the last five years alone, the unaffiliated have increased from just over 15% to just under 20% of all U.S. adults. Their ranks now include more than 13 million self-described atheists and agnostics (nearly 6% of the U.S. public), as well as nearly 33 million people who say they have no particular religious affiliation (14%).” https://www.pewforum.org/2012/10/09/nones-on-the-rise/

There is more data from Pew since this, and the trend continues. Christians should be a minority by about 2036.

 

[firedragon]

Really? America? Trump still enjoys a popularity of over 40%. What does that say about the moral state of America?



A variety of factors contribute.

• More people have higher educations - education is the enemy of belief by faith.

• More people are financially secure and have a degree of control over their lives - desperate people turn to gods for comfort and protection.

• Atheism is less stigmatized - it's easier to reject religion today.

• Scientific advances - they keep showing that religion is just guessing about how things actually are. As Dawkins noted, "Although atheism might have been logically tenable before Darwin, Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist"

• News media - it has lifted the rock and exposed religion to the light of day. Consider the parade of bad hombres paraded through the media in the last few decades: In recent memory, we have seen countless televangelist scandals like Jim Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart, and Ted Haggard, the Catholic priest pedophilia and cover-up scandals, bigots like Tony Perkins, James Dobson, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, Christian cults like those of Jim Jones and David Koresh, Westboro Baptist Church, Chick-fil-A, Hobby Lobby, the war on anything-not-Christmas, the duck dynasty guy, the Oregon wedding cake couple, Kim Davis, the Duggar and Palin families and their public hypocrisies, years of abortion clinic terrorism including physician assassinations, arsons, and bombings icluding the Planned Parenthood smears culminating in Christian zealot Robert Lewis Dear shooting up a clinic, the transgenders and public bathrooms outcry

• The rise of and popularity of best-selling atheists such as Dawkins, Hitchens, and Harris.

• The Internet - it has given a platform and voice to atheists, who formerly, could be intimidated into silence. Today, anybody interested has access to atheist arguments.

The data contradict that (see below)



American Religious Identification Survey from https://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1013&context=facpub

Adult population, total
1990: 175,440,000
2008: 228,182,000

Total Christian
1990: 151,225,000 (86.2%)
2008: 173,402,000 (76.0%)

None/ No religion, total
1990: 14,331,000 (8.2%)
2008: 34,169,000 (15.0%)

Also: From Pew: “One-in-Five Adults Have No Religious Affiliation” Oct 9, 2012 “In the last five years alone, the unaffiliated have increased from just over 15% to just under 20% of all U.S. adults. Their ranks now include more than 13 million self-described atheists and agnostics (nearly 6% of the U.S. public), as well as nearly 33 million people who say they have no particular religious affiliation (14%).” https://www.pewforum.org/2012/10/09/nones-on-the-rise/

There is more data from Pew since this, and the trend continues. Christians should be a minority by about 2036.

Think of america since a 100 years. And think of all religions. Also think of counting the percentage of non-affiliated who are actually believing in a God. That's shown in pew research. Also, compare america with the growth and decline of affiliations with the rest of the world. Make a relative study.

You did a good job though and I really appreciate it.

 

[metis]

Is America becoming mor or less religious? And why?

Definitely less. I believe part of this at least is due to the fact that decades ago there was more social pressure to be religiously affiliated and attend services.

 

[Milton Platt]

Is America becoming mor or less religious? And why?

Less religious:
In U.S., Decline of Christianity Continues at Rapid Pace

Religion

 

[lukethethird]

The States couldn't be more religious, living next to the States is like living next to Iran.

 

[blü 2]

News media - it has lifted the rock and exposed religion to the light of day. Consider the parade of bad hombres paraded through the media in the last few decades: In recent memory, we have seen countless televangelist scandals like Jim Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart, and Ted Haggard, the Catholic priest pedophilia and cover-up scandals, bigots like Tony Perkins, James Dobson, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, Christian cults like those of Jim Jones and David Koresh, Westboro Baptist Church, Chick-fil-A, Hobby Lobby, the war on anything-not-Christmas, the duck dynasty guy, the Oregon wedding cake couple, Kim Davis, the Duggar and Palin families and their public hypocrisies, years of abortion clinic terrorism including physician assassinations, arsons, and bombings icluding the Planned Parenthood smears culminating in Christian zealot Robert Lewis Dear shooting up a clinic, the transgenders and public bathrooms outcry

Yes, I should have mentioned the appalling loss of credibility which the RCC in particular, but in general all religious groups, have brought on themselves in the past two decades as enquiries into clerical child abuse got under way in country after country around the world ─ Ireland, Belgium, UK, Canada, US, Australia, on and on. Wojtyła's total refusal to engage with the problem in the 90s (with Ratzinger his loyal chief lieutenant in that department) set the scene up, and as we now know, he was merely representative of the views of church leaders in general.

(Enquiries and maneuvers regarding certain bishops in Chile are ongoing. Cardinal George Pell was Borgoglio's chief of Vatican finances. His final appeal against his conviction for oral rape of a choirboy will be heard in Australia some time this year. And so on ─ the negative publicity for the churches hasn't gone away even now.)

 

[sojourner]

Very interesting. Are you trying to say that secular morality has rised , and religious values are lower?

Take a look at how conservative Xy blindly supports Trump in all his immorality, and how the irreligious oppose him because of his moral actions. Does that answer the question?