Pew: 20% of Americans Are Now Atheist, Agnostic or Unaffiliated With a Religion
Back in July, some readers might have been surprised when TheBlaze reported that one in five Americans now consider themselves atheists, agnostics or “nones.” While some may have dismissed the figure then or questioned its accuracy, a new analysis from the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life confirms a growth in secular world-views — and a decline in religious adherence — among U.S. adults.
This morning, Pew announced its new findings that show a rapid increase in individuals who claim they are unaffiliated with a faith or religious structure. While approximately 20 percent of the nation’s adults fall into this category (19.6 percent, to be exact), the new proportions also show a startling result among America’s young people: One-third of those individuals under the age of 30 are unaffiliated.
This latter number is a record for Pew, finding that young people are the most irreligious they’ve been in the firm’s polling history. It’s important to note, though, that unaffiliated doesn’t necessarily mean “atheist.” Currently, about six percent of the U.S. public calls itself atheist or agnostic. An additional 14 percent simply claims to have no religious affiliation.
Of course, it is this latter group — the unaffiliated or “nones” — that non-believers and believers, alike, are concerned with. For the faithful, it is disheartening to see so many individuals, particularly the young, disassociate themselves from faith. Contrarily, some non-believers likely see this disconnect with organized religion as beneficial to society and to atheism as a whole.
The unaffiliated are less trusting of churches and religious organizations than the general public overall. In particular, they claim that these groups are “too concerned with money and power, too focused on rules, and too involved in politics.” That being said, a majority believe that faith and religion can be a positive force in society and that religious organizations bring people together and help strengthen community bonds.
Pew has more about the attributes associated with “nones”:
This large and growing group of Americans is less religious than the public at large on many conventional measures, including frequency of attendance at religious services and the degree of importance they attach to religion in their lives. However, many of the country’s 46 million unaffiliated adults [33 percent of Americans are simply unaffiliated and 13 percent are atheist/agnostic] are religious or spiritual in some way. Two-thirds of them say they believe in God (68%). More than half say they often feel a deep connection with nature and the earth (58%), more than a third classify themselves as “spiritual” but not “religious” (37%), and one-in-five say they pray every day (21%).
The growth in the number of religiously unaffiliated Americans – sometimes called the rise of the “nones” – is largely driven by generational replacement, the gradual supplanting of older generations by newer ones. A third of adults under 30 have no religious affiliation (32%), compared with just one-in-ten among those who are 65 and older (9%). And young adults today are much more likely to be unaffiliated than previous generations were at a similar stage in their lives.
While there has been a rise in “nones,” there’s also an important change among Protestants to note. In yet another first in Pew polling, Protestants now account for less than half of the U.S. population (48 percent); in 2007, this proportion was 53 percent. The overall Christian umbrella has declined as well from 78 percent in 2007 to 73 percent in 2012 (see table above).
You can read the entire study from the Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion and Public Life.
–
Related:
In CONTROL, Glenn Beck presents a passionate, fact-based case for guns that reveals why gun control isn’t really about controlling guns at all; it’s about controlling us. Find out more HERE.
Popular Stories
Obama Doesn’t Return Marine’s Salute, Shakes Hand Instead — Is This a Protocol Misstep? 433 Comments
Game-Changing Bombshell? There’s a Major Twist in the Story About a High School Student’s Lesbian Relationship With a Minor 379 Comments
Is the Boy Scouts’ Gay Amendment the ‘Beginning of the End’ for the Group? (Plus: Tell Us Where You Stand) 353 Comments
Church vs. State Complaint Leads City to Remove Christian Crosses on Water Tower — Now See What They’ve Been Replaced With 311 Comments
‘We Ain’t Scared of Nobody!’: New Documentary Claims to Show the KKK Thriving in Deep South 302 Comments
Faith
-
Priest Gunned Down by Italian Mobsters Now Beatified
Read More
-
Game-Changing Bombshell? There’s a Major Twist in the Story About a High School Student’s Lesbian Relationship With a Minor
379 Comments
- Is the Boy Scouts’ Gay Amendment the ‘Beginning of the End’ for the Group? (Plus: Tell Us Where You Stand) 353 Comments
-
MSNBC Hosts Martin Bashir and Chris Hayes Claim London Machete Killers Aren’t Terrorists: ‘These Are Just Murderers’
159 Comments
-
Did You Catch the Possibly Policy-Changing Ft. Hood Reference in Obama’s Terror Speech?
102 Comments
Business
-
Have You Had Scotch at a NJ TGI Friday’s Lately? You Might Have Been Drinking Rubbing Alcohol
Read More
-
Venezuelan President Blames Toilet Paper Shortage on the Rich
Read More
-
This Terrible Chart Shows the Change in Food Stamp Participation Over the Last 10 Years
Read More
- Disney Makes Absolutely Mortifying Photoshop Mistake Read More
-
Trey Gowdy at It Again — This Time with a Jack Bauer Reference!
119 Comments
Technology
-
LOOK: Woman Claims to Have Photographed UFO in California
111 Comments
-
Lion Named ‘Bonedigger’ and Small Dog Make Most Unlikely Companions
Read More
-
Rocket Bike Sets Land Speed Record — and Uses a Fuel You Wouldn’t Expect
Read More
-
How 3D Printing Technology Created a Special Part for Baby’s Windpipe and Saved His Life
Read More
-
6 Fascinating Spy Gadgets You’ll Probably Want (and Can Have) After Seeing
Read More
Submitting your tip... please wait!
Comments (185)
NewLife24
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 10:44amVAMAN show me a society in history that was without God that was the better for it? Satan loves religion and will give you a million forms of it to distract from the fact that the God who created you gave His Son to die for you.
Report this comment
acidovorax
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 12:56pmNEW, tell me how the Middle Ages were BETTER for having religion in all parts of their life?
Report this comment
davecorkery
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 1:31pmHow about China? Buddhists have no god per se. You can have one if you want, but it is not necessary. They have had it no better or worse than any other culture. And unlike early europeans, roman or greeks, would not murder you if you did not share their opinion that there is a god. During the second world war, we found many tribes in remote areas or islands that did not worship any gods, and they did fine until we showed up. I am as ethical and moral as anyone, because it is the human thing to do, not because I;m scared of some blue eyed, bearded, sky god holy thunderer. Ethics and morality evolved from humans living together, long before some one decided to frighten the little people and control them.No one knows if there is a god. Think about it: every word you know about your “god” came from another human’s mind. Not one word was written by a deity. Zero.
Report this comment
DeavonReye
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 5:00pmDave . . . . I find it interesting that the character “Jesus” never took the time to write his OWN “gospel”. You would think that, . . . if he was actually “god incarnate”, he could have written a LOT on various topics. . . . things that would have actually benefitted man. . . . things that would have lasted over the centuries intact [because he was god]. It could have had many “mysteries” that todays science would have been unable to deny that it was known at that time. Instead, all texts was left up to men in a superstitious, and mostly illiterate, part of the world, with people looking to increase their power and influence. What better way than to have a “scary god” to get people in line.
I think this was how the Old Testament stories came to be. Think about how they operated. Only a FEW select could enter “the holy of holies” to get orders from god, . . . and no one would be able to question it. A whole army to promote your cause. . . to fight your battles. AND, if you were defeated, or a plague came upon you, . . . you could claim that “someone was sinning in the camp” to further scare everyone into submission. That makes far more sense then “a god who had a choice/select people that ‘he’ wanted to occupy the land of Israel, . . . and commanded to conquer those along the way.
Report this comment
IShovelTeaPartiersOntoMyFlowerbed
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 6:08pm@Acidovorax
Amen brother/sister. Name one society based on a religion that didn’t end up going nuts
Fanaticism on either side is dangerous
Report this comment
binge_thinker
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 10:50pmDave, Organized atheism (or as I call it, capital Anti-theism) is clearly attempting to define itself in the social narrative in one of two ways: Either as a “protected class” much the way we see the LBGT community attempts to position itself, or as a godless religion. This is really their only recourse as most Atheist rhetoric only appeals to other hardcore atheists or juvenile delta bravos — most people, particularly African -Americans and women, reject it on the face of it.
I know this might come as a shock to you, but different polls say much different things.
92% of Americans believe in God. Gallup Poll from June 2011.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/147887/americans-continue-believe-god.aspx
Report this comment
bigwords
Posted on October 10, 2012 at 3:20pmYou will see a better society without God(s) very soon. The Atheist Protocols of the Learned Elders of Earth foretells the future. http://theatheistprotocols.weebly.com
Report this comment
vaman
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 10:35amThe report is logical. As a people or go as far as to say species; as we become more sophisticated and educated, the need for religion (especially hard core fundamentalism) becomes superfluous. So we see people becoming less affiliated with mainstream religion or just turning away from it all-together. Unfettered access to information, provided only recently by the internet, now offers virtually everyone, everywhere the ability to decide and make decisions for themselves. Religion fears free thought and information for all. The church loses the strangle hold on its “flock”. I know articles like this will be make evangelicals and the like believe the devil is at work or the world is ending, but he’s not and it won’t . In fact, the world will become a better place without the destructive forces of religion.
Report this comment
phillyatheist
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 10:52amhere here!
i will say that i think that there will always be a place for religion. at least for the next couple of centuries. if for no other reason than for it’s importance as a societal construct. i would expect many changes to religion over that time period, but it’s essence as a source of morality, ideology, and community would likely remain important for many people world wide.
Report this comment
acidovorax
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 7:09pmDennis Prager was whining about this survey today, stating that this is a terrible sign. So, I guess conservatives don’t favor freedom of choice.
Report this comment
binge_thinker
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 11:12pmSo an article basically stating that 60% of people view religion as “very important” in their lives, where 3 out of every 4 people identify themselves as Christian, and 4 out of 5 people according to this survey still have a belief in God is somehow news that militant atheism is triumphant and the U.S. is going full-blown godless? Lol!!
I think you’re a tad quick on all those fantasies.
More Than 9 in 10 Americans Continue to Believe in God
http://www.gallup.com/poll/147887/americans-continue-believe-god.aspx
Report this comment
wisehiney
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 10:22amMostly democrats, also see percentages that are mentally ill, physically disabled, obese, stupid. These numbers are much higher and they correspond perfectly with the number of oBUMMER supporters. am getting back to work. Someone has to pull the wagon. You weasels will have to get out soon.
Report this comment
PATTY HENRY
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 10:52amSince the early 50′s, Communists sent teachers over to USA (they admitted this last year – we’ve known it for years) to infiltrate our schools, our universities and their several pronged goals were: Kill GOD in our Schools- ridiculed any/all who professed faith;
Rip our country’s morals to shreds;
REwrite our American History Books removing everything good and noble and inserting their pitiful propaganda about the USA. I say this to say that NO WONDER there is a growing number of Atheists/Agnostics. OF course COMMUNISM failed because it is the opposite of what GOD CREATED in Man/with Man and it is of the Devil – who will also be defeated totally soon. GOD created this UNIVERSE to be a training ground for the “companions” He Created to Love and be Loved by- to share with. This magnificent canvas called “THE UNIVERSE” was too much, too good not to want to share, but in order to have REAL FRIENDS, REAL COMPANIONS, these BEINGS created by GOD had to become enough like Him to make it REAL. People were given choice. Satan is a fallen God companion who refused to submit to Him. (Someone has to be the boss). GOD sent His Only Son to die for our (God’s created souls)’s sins. Jesus taught us many things and mainly (now that he was here) that HE, JESUS, was the way to Eternal Life. God will forgive our sins all but one. THE ONE: REFUSAL to BELIEVE HE IS GOD. Those poor souls will never have eternal life. (continued)
Report this comment
NHwinter
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 11:02amThe Progressives have been working on taking religion out of schools, government, and the public square. This, of course, is the results especially amoung the young.
Vaman – you will see God working in dramatic ways in the future. Science will prove the existence of God. Did you see the recent article on the Blaze of a neuro-surgeon who had a life after death experience? Life is richer and more meaningful with the knowledge of a loving God.
Report this comment
PATTY HENRY
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 1:18pmContinued from remarks above: Now, on this blog, you will read comments by very vocal Atheists who seem to love to ridicule the BIBLE, (probably having never actually studied it with someone like SCOTT HAHN) nor do they seem to have any respect for the brilliant minds of brilliant creators for centuries who Love God. They can NOT begin to prove there is NO GOD, and they lean on totally unproven theories like Evolution instead. All men fail, GOD forgives all except one thing: He cannot forgive people who refuse to believe in HIM. we are here to make a choice. IF we choose against Him then the whistle is blown, the time-clock runs out, there are no more innings. There is no “going back”…so you stubborn, self-righteous Atheists may want to at least TRY to see if there is a GOD. HOW? By getting on your knees and asking. IF that fails then you are right. But, from experience i know you are WRONG. I know you have to discover that for yourselves…okay…but I don’t think I should sit idly by and let you spew your horrid disbelief just because that doesn’t agree with you? WhASSSAMATTA? You lonely? You want other non-believers? awwww. NOT here. Not now. Maybe try not being a puppet for the enemies of the USA ???
Report this comment
Popp40
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 1:51pmRemember in order for Communism to take hold and for a one world government then God must be destroyed because the government is God when you are talking about Communism. And what better way then to make everyone atheist.
Report this comment
The_Cabrito_Goat
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 2:59pmPopp40, I think you nailed it.
Report this comment
IShovelTeaPartiersOntoMyFlowerbed
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 6:18pmActually, you see more claims of religious adherence among areas with lower education and higher crime rates, like the Bible Belt.
And to the rest of you, the opposite of Communism is Fascism and Hitler was a promoter of the protestant church and had many, many protestant supporters (whether out of fear or agreement, it doesn’t matter), so there you go.
And CAPS LOCK or ALL CAPS doesn’t make you right, it just makes you annoying (I realize the irony in that I too used it, but I’ll accept the charges of hypocrisy that are inevitably heading my way).
Report this comment
binge_thinker
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 11:14pmLook at the intolerance and bigotry displayed by the self-professed PC crowd when they booed God and Israel at the DNC.
That is the future of a once-proud but now ever-darkening Dem party and it is scary.
Report this comment
binge_thinker
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 11:18pmActually, Hitler was really more of a pagan. He simply identified as Christian when it suited him politically, but in reality he believed in all kinds of goofy stuff. However, in the case of other murderous dictators like Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot — those jolly fellows were atheists through and through.
“Christianity had declined severely in Germany at the time the Nazis came to power, which is why the Nazis were able to come to power. In his book, The Dictators, Richard Overy states that in the decades preceding the First World War Germany was becoming increasingly secular, and that after that war, from 1918 to 1931, 2.4 million Evangelical Christians formally renounced their faith as well as almost half a million Catholics. In Prussia, only 21% of the population took communion and in Hamburg only five percent of the population took communion. Before Hitler, German religious leaders were publicly condemning the rise of moral relativism and decline of traditional religious values.”
http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/11/the_nazis_and_christianity.html
Report this comment
IMCHRISTIAN
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 10:21amGod is always with all of us, so when you need help look up and talk He will be there for you. There will come a time when you will need Him. Love not Hate…Life is short and Eternity is forever.
Report this comment
mbriz
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 10:21amIt’s because of people on this site, that I would never affiliate myself with any religion. The intolerance, the hate. God is love, and the Golden Rule is all you need to practice, but very few do. You only need a heart, and a brain to have a relationship with God, not a religion that seeks power over others.
Report this comment
NewLife24
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 10:19amHow can anything be true if there is no truth to know. All statements are equal and equally relevant. However I can never be you and you can never be me which equates to that has to be true. Down can never be up left can never be right. So if there is a truth to know what is it? Jesus said I am the way the truth and the light.
Sin is the problem in the world, only the Bible addresses the truth of sin and separation from God and the reconciliation process. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. But God commended His love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. That if you will confess with your mouth the LORD Jesus and believe in your heart God raised Him from the dead you will be saved. Is it so hard to believe that whatever force created this universe and brought forth life to begin with could in fact bring it alive again in the resurrection?
Report this comment
davecorkery
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 1:41pmYour cliches are boring. I’ve heard those exact words many, many times before.We do not know if jesus said that. That comes from the gospel of john. He said that jesus said that. Huge difference. He had quite the imagination, that john, since his gospel was way more explicit than the others. BTW, he didn’t write his gospel. It was told and re-told over campfires for almost a hundred years before it was anonymously written down, as were all the gospels. And we have no originals of anything from the bible, just bad copies of bad copies. But if you want to be comforted by words of men, knock yourself out.
Report this comment
binge_thinker
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 11:25pmJesus taught that the teachings of the disciples would be his teaching (John 13:20). It was part of the tradition of the Jews (and Jesus was fully in accord with this tradition) that the Word of God should be written, and studied. Christ said that the story of the woman’s love for him in breaking the expensive perfume over his feet right before his death would be told throughout the world as a memorial. Similarly, he said that the gospel, the story of his life and work, would be proclaimed to all ethnic groups before he returned. Telling the story of his life–the four Gospels–is part of that proclaiming. Jesus particularly chose the disciples to be his witnesses, to be with him for the duration of his ministry, to witness his miracles and hear all his teaching. He said that the Holy Spirit would bring to their memories all his teachings (John 14:26).
John was specifically told to write down the Book of Revelation (Rev. 1:11).
Come on, Dave. Get better propaganda or take your dog and pony show down the road.
Report this comment
ilevy57
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 10:07amMODERATIONATBEST- Seem pretty extreme voicing your opinion to tell other people to stop voicing theirs. Go to D.C and look at the monument inscriptions a lot of them have God on them. We have freedom of religion no one is trying to force anyone to their views except some atheists. Stop telling people what they should do. Live your life and leave everybody else alone.
Report this comment
Tractorboy
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 10:58amIlevy57…..DC has God all over it, from the top of Washington monument, to the layout of the buildings in the shape of a cross. Here is a link to “a walk for the president” http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=FKhVnAgt0EY
Report this comment
davecorkery
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 1:48pmWe are. But when you try to get my tax dollars to reinforce your particular fantasy, expect some push back.
Report this comment
ModerationIsBest
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 8:33pmWhere did I tell people to stop voicing their opinion?
I’m fine with you people being religious. I”m fine if you stuff your personal property FULL of nativity scenes or whatever the hell you want.
Stop putting these things on government property and stop trying to pass legislation based around your unholy book.
I’m trying to make sure all viewpoints are selected and you can’t have that when you have government putting “In God We Trust” as our motto and, passing “the year of the Bible” “national days of prayers” and any other nonsense. I can’t go one damn Christmas season without seeing boycotts for stores who choose to wish people happy holidays instead of Merry Christmas.
Christians obviously see their strength diminishing and they are sad they are getting less and less special treatment.
I can’t hear a politician speak without hearing how much they love Jesus.
Report this comment
binge_thinker
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 11:27pmThe main problem the militant atheist has is a cultural one. Government is of the people, it reflects culture, and America has been and still is a predominantly Christian culture. For the atheists attempting to litigate culture out of Government, it’s akin to playing a game of Whack-A-Mole. Our currency, our pledge, inscriptions in our government buildings, crosses at our military cemeteries, the list goes on and on and it drives the godless fringe absolutely bonkers.
Report this comment
mike_trivisonno
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 9:50amYou are witnessing the process of Jihad. Make no mistake about it. This is the same jihad process used to pry Europe away from the religious institutions that have sustained them for generations and replaces them first with godless communism and then with Islam and Sharia. Look around Western Europe and witness the ascendancy of the new Western European Islam. So, while Europeans consider themselves a secular culture, the muslims hordes that have quietly built altars to a new god.
This is now happening in America. The process of Jihad in America will follow the same trajectory. Kill our culture, our God, and replace it with Allah and Islam. It took centuries for the muslims to retake northern Africa. They will not stop until we stop them or they win.
You are not seeing an evolution of Western Civilization, or Americans. You are witnessing the killing of our cultural, political, economic, and religious institutions and the injection of Islam and Sharia through massive immigrations and corruption of our leaders, our history, and our religion.
Evolution, indeed. Looks more like Jihad.
Report this comment
PATTY HENRY
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 1:09pmI agree MIKE: Islam is the religion of Satan, evil to the core and has -0- to do with the GOD of ABRAHAM, ISAAC and JACOB…so it figures that since Satan’s only goal is to destroy what GOD has created, he would be roaming around trying to destroy Christianity and Jews. Why else? Arabs/Muslims have lived side by side with Jews and Christians for centuries…Satan – always on the move – come crawling out and is attempting to Kill Christianity and uses pseudo intellectual – self-centered, stubborn and disobedient humans to do it. So, what you say makes sense!
Report this comment
IShovelTeaPartiersOntoMyFlowerbed
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 6:28pmThere is very little difference between the God of Islam and the God of Christianity and Judaism. I don’t know if you’ve ever read the Old Testament, but Yahweh was a bully and, by most accounts, a childish scoundrel with a Him complex. He ‘gave’ his creations free will, then murdered the crap out of all but a handful when they acted on it.
If he/she/it is omnipotent, then he knew what would happen ahead of time and created Man for the pleasure of sentencing X amount of them to Hell for eternity (incidentally, that’s a really, really long time and a really disproportionate sentence for ANY crime).
If he/she/it is omnipotent, then he could have given humans free will without allowing them to ‘sin’/being offended by anything that they did.
If he/she/it was all loving, then he wouldn’t sentence anyone to an eternity of suffering – he’d give them multiple chances until they got it right (reincarnation or what-have-you)
If he/she/it is not all of those things, there is no reason to worship him/her/it.
Report this comment
binge_thinker
Posted on October 10, 2012 at 12:12amShoveler,
The most interesting part about this discussion has been how narrow minded you actually view God. You have him all figured out and colored with crayons and sitting on clouds with the white beard and harp. The whole fantasy in front of you. That is how you see most believers, but most are so far ahead of you in their intellectual pursuits that you can never catch up to them.
Jesus made every effort to help people understand God. Most were just like you in their juvenile understanding trying to put a body and face on him.
God is personal to each and every person that approaches him. The only way to reach him is through prayer and faith, and the only way to understand the individual destiny is by reading the Bible with an open mind. So simple a concept yet so confusing to intellects when they try to mix reason and logic with faith. No magic and no smoke and mirrors. A personal understanding that is crystal clear in direct proportion to the faith of the believer. A true beginning to life and that is all.
Report this comment
Carol1955
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 9:48amWhen liberal churches remake God in man’s image, when people are taught life is a scale where you just want more good deeds to outweigh your bad deeds, when people are taught that God is love so anything goes in the name of love. . . you have a discontect between God and His People. Combine that with the most self-centered people on the planet who have no clue as to what it means to die to self. Combine that with people totally enslaved to “trendy’ behavior and “cool”. Then you can start to understand this. However, Christ’s Church is being nurtured and the truth is being taught and shared throughout the world.
Report this comment
binge_thinker
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 11:29pmThe late Francis Schaeffer said in A Christian Manifesto that liberal theology is nothing more than secular humanism in religious terms. No matter what the issue, the liberal theologian will ALWAYS come down on the side of the secular humanist. Whether it be no-fault abortion, same-sex marriage, social justice, the environment, Occupy Wall Street, sexual immorailty, the liberal theologian will follow secular humanism rather than the Bible. Therefore, liberal theology is a dangerous and divisive cult.
Report this comment
LibertarianYankee
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 9:47amisn’t necessarily a bad thing. not all non-believers support liberalism and socialism.
in fact, i tend to think that for liberal socialists god is an inconvenience to them and therefore should not exists.
as opposed to people who have first come to their religious beliefs (or lack thereof).
Report this comment
ilevy57
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 9:43amPeople are entitled to their beliefs and non beliefs. the 20% seems to be trying to impose their views on the rest of us. If something offends them it is their right to be offended not their right to impose on our rights. The interpretation of Separation of Church and State is being used to silence religious expression
and we should not stand for the bullying tactic when it occurs. Don’t back down.
Report this comment
ModerationIsBest
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 9:53amWe’re forcing our viewpoints on others?
Nothing like our congress putting “In God We Trust” as our official national motto in the 50s
Nothing like putting “Under God” in the pledge in the 50s
Nothing like passing a law declaring 2012 “The Year of the Bible”
Nothing like boycott stores who choose to say “Happy Holidays” over “Merry Christmas”
For how much you want government out of your religion, and for how “personal” you say your “relationship” is, you people sure do love government endorsements of your religion.
Report this comment
mbriz
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 10:06amThanks Mod, at least one person of common sense,
Report this comment
QuincySmith
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 10:20amModeration;
If I’m not mistaken, 80% is greater than 20%. If a 20% belief system is trying to impose it’s views on the remaining 80%, I’d say you are simply calling ‘sour grapes’.
Report this comment
djsGA
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 10:49amMODERATIONISBEST – let’s not forget the Capital building being used as a church right after it was built. How is that for separation of church and state, which, by the way, is NOT part of the Constitution.
Report this comment
The_Cabrito_Goat
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 3:07pmIt’s not up to the government to uphold the teachings of Christ. That’s OUR responsibility. So yes, I do agree that Dwight’s decision to add “under God” was not exactly lock step with the founders
(but the founders were hard-core puritans compared to anybody today. My proof? They went to church 14 times a week.)
I say this because countries whose government support the church, like France (and recently Germany) by subsidizing them result in lower attendence, lazy clergy, and apathy towards religion,
resulting in a 4% church attendance in France. Yup. And that stat was in the margin of error of 3%, so it could be as low as ZERO even.
The founders didn’t want the state to prop up the church on the sole reason that government is corrupting, and would rot the church. Eventually denegrating the entire nation, and spoiling their entire project experiment that was America.
The responsibility to uphold the church falls to WE THE PEOPLE alone.
Responsibility is the key word above, because it’s not necessary for you to wake up and elect people with proper morals, but you’re gonna eventually screw over your posterity if you don’t.
Report this comment
ModerationIsBest
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 8:26pm@QUINCYSMITH
Atheism isn’t a “Belief” system and I’m not asking you to not be a Christian.
If you want my help putting a nativity scene up on your private property, I’d be more then happy to help.
However, all I hear religious people cry about is “freedom of religion” while they force others to live under legislation that people their think unholy book approves of.
I hear people say “freedom of religion” and then they boycott stores who choose to say happy holidays.
Again, if you want government to stay out of your religion, then keep your religion out of government. Stop trying to force others to live by your unholy book.
This is a republic, it doesn’t matter if the majority wants something that if it’s unconstitutional, then it’s unconsitutional.
Report this comment
QuincySmith
Posted on October 10, 2012 at 1:08ammoderation;
You said it: ‘freedom of religion’, not ‘freedom FROM religion’.
Report this comment
DimmuBorgir
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 9:39amWHO CARES!!!!
Screw the non believers :)
Report this comment
Wango
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 9:54amJust for that we’re going to start a War on Christmas.
Report this comment
mbriz
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 10:07amVery Christian of you. You don’t need religion to believe in God.
Report this comment
phillyatheist
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 10:08amWANGO – lol.
Report this comment
The_Cabrito_Goat
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 3:12pmHold up to your values then, Wango and et cetera. Don’t show up to your family’s Christmas dinner. That’ll show those theocratic bronze age goat herders who is the better idealist!
(btw i <3 goats)
Report this comment
Verceofreason
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 3:21pmNice to know we have a more educated young population.
Report this comment
Verceofreason
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 3:23pm:Let there be light was not god’s first words.
His first word was OOPS!, when he pulled a 50 ton rabbit out of a volcano.
Report this comment
BCanook
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 9:32amI believe the churches have a lot to do with the unaffiliated part of it. I believe PEW asked the wrong questions. I believe the church uses the bible. I believe atheists are scared – deep down in their soul.
Faith doesn’t come from a church.
Report this comment
ModerationIsBest
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 9:56amYup, blame the churches and not the backwards and hateful mentality towards mankind.
I’m not going to read much into these numbers because they fluctuate but I do hope more people stop with this “God is Love” nonsense and actually take a deeper look at how they actually view the world.
In order to be a Christian you have to be willing to accept that every human being is born worthy of an eternal torture, and only by accepting a human sacrifice can they be “saved” from such torture.
That is not moral preachment.
Frankly, I think the idea of “worship” is evil no matter what the object of that worship is.
Report this comment
QuincySmith
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 10:04amModeration;
I wish I could remember where I heard it, but Pew’s results are suspect, because they differ so much from other polling services. I’d like to see more results, or the internals, before believing this one poll.
Report this comment
The_Cabrito_Goat
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 3:13pmYou’d think if Mod was correct, you’d hear this spewed from every commentator on MSNBC. But you don’t. I’m not sure why.
Report this comment
ModerationIsBest
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 10:51pm@QUINCYSMITH
As I said, I’m not going to read too much into these polls.
Report this comment
binge_thinker
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 11:35pmIt would be nice if the militant atheists could keep their story straight. They claim that children should not be exposed to religious views, but nonreligious (or even anti-religious) ones are welcome. When fellow students and private ministries share their religious beliefs after school, the atheists call it “passive-aggressive proselytizing” and “indoctrination.” But when government officials promote anti-Christian dogma during the school day, everything is just fine. So while atheists talk about giving children “all the facts,” they really seek to advance their distored sense of values ( whatever they are) and silence all others. Again, the Constitution allows them to advocate their lack of faith, but it also allows Christians to do the same. This is what the First Amendment’s Free Exercise Clause is all about which they so willfully ignore most of the time.
Report this comment
ModerationIsBest
Posted on October 10, 2012 at 12:47am@BINGE_THINKER
The Republican party of Texas because of an “accident” put on their official platform that they are against critical thinking skills because
“We oppose the teaching of Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) (values clarification), critical thinking skills and similar programs that are simply a relabeling of Outcome-Based Education (OBE) (mastery learning) which focus on behavior modification and have the purpose of challenging the student’s fixed beliefs and undermining parental authority.”
Who is the one involved with indoctrination?
Religious people train their kids from horribly early ages that they’re born worthy of an eternal torture and only by accepting a human sacrifice can they be “saved”
When children go to school and learn oh….I don’t know, science, math and critical thinking skills, religious parents call it “INDOCTRINATION!”
Give me a break. I went through public education, a community college and a university and never once heard a teacher saying when teaching ANYTHING “God doesn’t exist” “Christianity is nonsense.”
What I did see was a lot of religious people using their religion in presentations to justify their position when is of course, idiotic.
Report this comment
binge_thinker
Posted on October 11, 2012 at 4:47pmMod,
You cherry pick ONE Republican organization to justify all Christian cultures you despise rather than being truthful about them. You then delight in twisting them to form a convoluted opinion to demean.
There is nothing new in your statements: just plenty of the predictably tired and weak argumentation.
Report this comment
Moment of Clarity
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 9:29amCarl Sagan said upon seeing the image of Earth from 4 billion miles away … “Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity — in all this vastness — there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. … To my mind, there is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world.”
Report this comment
hyjyljyj
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 10:21amCarl Sagan, hardcore atheist. Seen him discuss it live on TV, likes to project the smug, elitist certainty about it that is galling to any non-atheist, as if those who can’t see there’s NO intelligent design aren’t very intelligent themselves. I always chuckle to myself in the presence of these people, “Yeah…like you’ve scoured every corner of the universe, and didn’t “find” anything. Maybe He was someplace else when you were checking the Andromeda Galaxy, bozo.”
For fun, ask the next atheist you meet where our OWN consciousness and intelligent design capacity came from. Watch ‘em squirm as you back ‘em into the corner of saying consciousness and the ability to apply intelligence in designing things just come “out of nowhere”. They don’t KNOW where.
This 20% stuff is nonsense; 100% of us are agnostic (Greek for DON’T KNOW). It’s OK! You can believe without knowing (faith); you can suspect an intelligent creator based on God-given reason & observing the natural world (deism); you can choose to believe this or that holy book that swears it’s written by God Himself when men actually wrote it (theism); you can imagine in your mind you know Jesus on a personal level; or admit no one really KNOWS there’s a God, any more than anyone else who’s ever lived or will ever live. The lot of humans is to be born, live and die without ever really knowing how or why, who or what is behind it. Ben Franklin said, we can trust whatever put us here to take care of us af
Report this comment
DeavonReye
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 10:34am“For fun, ask the next atheist you meet where our OWN consciousness and intelligent design capacity came from. Watch ‘em squirm as you back ’em into the corner of saying consciousness and the ability to apply intelligence in designing things just come “out of nowhere”. They don’t KNOW where.”
You mean the “intelligent” eye with a bundle of nerves that form a blindspot, with a brain that has to figure out what the eye is seeing by flipping the image? Or the severe choke hazard of the respiratory system? Or the growing number of people with back problems? Our susceptability to airborn pathogens?
Of those systems that we are not fully aware of yet? No one who actually is credible will be “backed into a corner” with your silly ID promotions. And “out of nowhere” is YOUR misinterpretation. Not that of those who study evolution.
Are you having fun yet?
Report this comment
themachinist239
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 11:59amCarl Sagan: “An atheist is someone who is certain that God does not exist, someone who has compelling evidence against the existence of God. I know of no such compelling evidence. Because God can be relegated to remote times and places and to ultimate causes, we would have to know a great deal more about the universe than we do now to be sure that no such God exists. To be certain of the existence of God and to be certain of the nonexistence of God seem to me to be the confident extremes in a subject so riddled with doubt and uncertainty as to inspire very little confidence indeed”
So much for “smug, elitist certainty” huh? Sagan, like many atheists know there are varying degrees of beliefs. As a scientist he rejected the view of complete certainty when there wasn’t adequate evidence to confirm that certainty. The burden of proof is to the maker of a claim. I nor anyone can disprove the existence of a deity, nor can we confirm or deny the existence of the the tooth fairy. What we CAN say is that there is inadequate evidence and to live life under the absolute premise that a God or the tooth fairy exists, and would be the biggest, most depressing, unproductive wastes of time I can imagine. Atheists can be non-scientific, applying the fallacy of absolute certainty while defying the scientific method, but the two are neither mutually exclusive nor interchangeable.
Report this comment
acidovorax
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 7:07pmHYJ wrote: “Seen him discuss it live on TV, likes to project the smug, elitist certainty about it that is galling to any non-atheist, as if those who can‘t see there’s NO intelligent design aren’t very intelligent themselves.”
But of course, the smug certainty of the religious believer is OK, huh?
Report this comment
binge_thinker
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 11:41pmAtheists contend that the entire Universe, estimated to be 20 billion light years across (the distance light could travel in 20 billion years at the rate of 186,000 miles per second) accidentally derived from a submicroscopic particle of matter. As one writer expresses it: “Astonishingly, scientists now calculate that everything in this vast universe grew out of a region many billions of times smaller than a single proton, one of the atom’s basic particles” This is totally nonsensical to sane minds.
Atheism contends that the marvelously ordered Universe, designated as Cosmos by the Greeks because of its intricate design, is merely the result of an ancient explosion with no definite explanation of why that explosion happened in the first place
Does a contractor pile lumber, brick, wire, pipe, etc., on a building site, blast it with dynamite, and expect a fine dwelling to result? Is that the way atheists build their houses? Maybe you do though, Deavon?
Having fun yet?
Report this comment
DeavonReye
Posted on October 10, 2012 at 9:12amBinge, . . . I don’t happen to agree with that model of the Big Bang. Mathmatically it may work, but I [also] don’t see it working in reality. But what if we don’t know? It would be intellectually dishonest to say, “because we can’t see how it could have happened, a god is the answer”. That is a dualistic way of thinking. There may very well BE a natural cause that we haven’t considered yet. Cosmologists agree with The Big Bang based upon what they see from red/blue shifts [as well as other inputs].
It sounds like you are promoting the Way Of The Master style of “tornado in a junk yard producing a 747″ argument. Physical forces of the early universe [in the open space it was in] play a HUGELY different role than “exploading materials to make a house”.
That is my response to your statement towards me. I’m still having plenty of fun.
Report this comment
binge_thinker
Posted on October 11, 2012 at 4:32pmDeavon, the more you talk the more confused you seem to get.
Let’s just sort thru the Atheist’s points of view:
#1 In the beginning there was nothing. Then BANG! Nothing blew up and created everything!
From nothing, came Laws and order. (Laws: physics, natural, logic etc.).
Or
#2 The universe always existed. NO “Science” proved it had beginning as galaxies move apart.
Back to statement #1.
Or
#3 According to Hawkins. Gravity fields created the Universe. What created gravity in the first place?
Back to #1.
Or
#4 Lots of Time and lots of chances: 10 x 10 to the 1,000,000,000,000,000 power chances + billions upon billion of years created all that is seen. Mathamatically impossible. Even if there were the most remote chance of being true, then why hasn’t anyting else suddenly appeared? Time and chance still marches on. Darn Back to #1.
Or
#5 They must be intellictually honest with themselves (and they’re not) how does one go from non-life to life?
There were no scientists around to witness creation, it cannot be measured or recreated in a lab. So you have
Theory, Conjecture, Extrapulation you know down right good home made science a/k/a guess work.
Or
They really hate this one:
In the beginning, GOD created the heavens and the earth Genisis 1:1.
It is too much fun, indeed.
Report this comment
DeavonReye
Posted on October 12, 2012 at 8:49amBinge, I’m not confused about it. I simply reject the ideology of “it seems impossible, therefore an all powerful and magical being did it”. THAT is where the intellectual dishonesty lies. It says, “I don’t know, therefore magic”. It is the same mentality of the ancients who were unaware of what made the lightning, therefore Zeus.
I don’t know how the universe got its start, . . . . even if it HAD “a start”. I don’t care. What I DO care about is plausibility . . . . and I’m sorry, but “an infinitely omniscient super being” just isn’t. I realize that your belief MUST have this. Fine. But please do not put words in my mouth about me “not being honest”.
As for “no one was there”, . . . absolutely agree with that. Neither was anyone there for your silly 6 day creation account either, no matter WHAT “holy text” it came from. The actual evidence just doesn’t support it!
Report this comment
binge_thinker
Posted on October 19, 2012 at 6:53pmDeavon, If you don’t like being called a dishonest , then my only suggestion to you would be is try harder to tell the truth.
There are some other ill-informed people like yourself who choose not to believe in a god-like supernatural being.
Everyone has to make these kinds of decisions for himself.
However, I will contend that people who refuse to believe in God or in “a” god, always believe in magic. When you examine science with the assumption that no one designed anything, you HAVE to believe in magic.
What else would you call the evolutionist’s theory that the first life was created when a bolt of lightning struck a pile of mud?
What else would you call it when you realize how perfectly the solar system and the rest of the galaxies around us move in perfect synchronized patterns year after year, century after century?
What else would you call it when one microscopic cell from a male and one microscopic cell from a female join together, re-shuffle thousands, if not millions, of pieces of genetic information, and a new organism is created? The new organism shares characteristics of both parents.
You may choose not to believe in God, but your only real alternative then, is to believe in magic.
Good luck with all that.
Report this comment
Buddynoel
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 9:23am“It’s important to note, though, that unaffiliated doesn’t necessarily mean “atheist.” ”
No, but it could help explain the drift toward communism. Regardless of religion, these people are going to eventually find their savior. Lately that messiah has been the State and its perceived good through power to control. Without the religious element, they lack the checks and balances against arrogance, narcicism and societal decay.
Report this comment
BCanook
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 9:59amI think the drift towards communism/anti-capitalism/extreme environmentalism and any other ism that seeks to take freedoms can be placed squarely on the education system in this country.
Report this comment
acidovorax
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 7:15pmBUDDY, sorry to burst your bubble, but religious individuals have been worshipping the State for over a century now. The early Progressive movement was filled with religious individuals who were going to use the State to solve the ills of society. And today’s variance of statism is not the ideology of Marxism, but more a pragmatic view of the State as a tool for pushing one’s agenda. No principled ideology, just “let’s pass a law to do x”.
Report this comment
BlackCrow
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 9:22amHere I am. The church ran me off with their support of liberal causes, calls for me to turn in my guns and they are now in bed with the Communist Party of North America. Then the “conservative” churches want me to believe the universe is 8000 years old? Excuse me I’m not that gullible 8000 years is not enough time for the light from many stars in the sky to have gotten here and I can clearly see them with my own eyes. Don’t beat your chests about evolution when it is an observed process not a “theory”. Face it the bible is a fine book of morality but it is not a science text book. It is not literal and it is not infalible.
Report this comment
wvernon1981
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 9:34amThe Bible is only a good source of morality if you pick and choose moral principles from it. To do this, you have to appeal to an outside system of morality thus negating the worth of the Bible as a moral guide.
Report this comment
hi
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 9:46amGo to ICR.org or answersingenesis.com, if interested, in scientific evidence that supports everything the Bible says.
The most important thing is that one asks Jesus into his heart and knows He died on the cross for His sins. God doesn’t want us arguing over the evolution/starlight. However, when you see the scientific arguments supporting the Bible, it just lifts one’s faith to a higher level.
The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel “Proves” the Bible is true in legalese. (the historicity and events and miracles)
Report this comment
ModerationIsBest
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 9:51amI love how HI appeals to outside sources to “prove” the Bible’s authenticity.
Suddenly the Bible is no longer good enough.
Lee Strobel’s book does nothing to help the case for Christianity.
Report this comment
QuincySmith
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 10:01amBlackCrow;
From your comment, I take it that you only believe things you can see (apparently with the naked eye). I therefore suspect that you have some source for your evolution comment. It is called a THEORY because that is what it is. If there were EVIDENCE, it wouldn’t be called THEORY! I suggest that you provide one example where a species ‘evolved’ into a higher species, after all that is evolution’s basis. Oh, and I won’t hold my breath till you provide that one, solitary example.
Report this comment
God_Is_Not
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 1:52pmWow, Quincy. I feel bad for your children.
Report this comment
The_Cabrito_Goat
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 3:19pmI like godandscience.org for helping translate the words of the bible (and the application to today) without losing the inherent meaning within. Give it a look, you’ll enjoy it no matter what denomination you are.
Report this comment
IShovelTeaPartiersOntoMyFlowerbed
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 6:40pmActually, Qunicy, a theory is basically a hypothesis that has substantial/overwhelming evidence behind it, to explain witnessed and observed phenomena, like the Theory of Gravity, or Germ Theory.
So…before you mock science, try to at least understand it. Most of us have studied or at least familiarized ourselves with religions before we dismissed them. I myself spent 22 indoctrinated in fundamental Christianity before realizing that there was no legitimate evidence to support it – books of the bible were forged, written hundreds of years after they were claimed to have been written, chosen from a huge pools of writings at the Nicene council (google it, or go to your local library and do some research if you don’t believe me).
The bible (and most religious texts) are filled with inconsistencies and contradictions and written by men (and a handful of women, maybe) who thought that they were doing some good.
Report this comment
binge_thinker
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 11:50pmI get a kick out of how the atheist will make a blanket statement labeling the Bible as inconsistent or whatever but never actually give you any proof of what they say.
It’s all just vague and empty generalities meant to end the debate without much effort on their part to ever prove the asinine claims that they assert.
I have no idea what “inconsistencies” were talked about but here are some good sites to help you sort through what you clearly do not know.
http://gotquestions.org/
http://www.str.org/site/PageServer
http://www.reasons.org/
Report this comment
QuincySmith
Posted on October 10, 2012 at 1:12amnot;
I have no idea why you think I have children, or why you would feel sorry for them.
IShovelTeaPartiersOntoMyFlowerbed;
You failed to give ONE example of the observed evolution you claim. I’m still waiting.
Report this comment
TheEndIsComing
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 9:20amThe evolution AWAY from God and religion parallels the decline in America. The whole creation declares a Creator – the amazing order, complexity, beauty, and simplicity. It takes true ignorance to deny God. I find it amazing that those that proclaim that there is no God usually ally themselves with the Democratic Party; the party that embraces abortion, homosexuality, Occupy, etc.
We are headed towards a collision of momentous proportions. The divide between the two sides is getting more defined and wider. Get your families ready for really bad times! Get out of the cities.
Report this comment
The_Knower
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 9:29amAre allergies a part of this amazing, complex, necessary order? What about SIDS, or the appendix?
Report this comment
wvernon1981
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 9:38amThe whole creation declares a Creator – the amazing order, complexity, beauty, and simplicity. It takes true ignorance to deny God.”
This is an argument from ignorance and no rational reason for anyone to believe in a god. What you are saying essentially is that you are incredulous or you don’t understand how reality works, therefore god. Your conclusion does not logically follow from your premise.
Report this comment
golfer8805
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 9:42amWisdom teeth?
Report this comment
wvernon1981
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 9:47amBack pain from our evolutionary past as four legged animals.
Report this comment
ModerationIsBest
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 9:49amComplexity and simplicity?
rofl
Report this comment
DeavonReye
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 9:51amThe chaos of a star that blows itself to pieces in a supernova?
Deadly diseases?
Lava that bursts through the earth’s crust from time to time?
Report this comment
Chet Hempstead
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 2:34pmNot believing in God and not believing in religion aren’t the same thing. Even if there is a God, that doesn’t mean that He talked to a few people in one part of the world a long time ago and gave them a book of rules for all people everywhere forever, even though some of the rules only seem to make sense for the people of the time and place where it was written, and it leaves out some things that you would think would be really important rules that should be in such a book, like not keeping other people as slaves, and that if people from another time or place wrote a book that says a lot of the same things but isn’t exactly the same and they also said it came from God, then they are lying or crazy just like people today who claim that God talks to them.
Report this comment
The_Cabrito_Goat
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 3:15pmThat’s because Jesus was the final prophet, Chet. Anybody who thinks they hear God is crazy, because God said he wouldn’t come back yet until all the signs of His prophecy are fulfilled.
As of now, very few signs have been fulfilled, and anybody who chomps at the bit, waiting for the rapture to come is foolish. Because we are not ready as a human species for tribulation and judgement.
We must get many more people (including Chet) on board with us BEFORE Christ returns, otherwise we are screwing them over. I fight for you daily, Chet. Please recognize that.
Report this comment
BerettaM9
Posted on October 10, 2012 at 12:17amMore like get off the planet. When America goes so goes the World.Good thing believing Christians can only die once. Cause I believe the followers of the Divine Free Money are going to be more courageous by fulfilling there vile and violent desires to try to eliminate any enemy of what they call there freedom to be themselves and not have to pay any consequences.Or in other words a completely lawless society.May the Lord protect your loved ones.
Report this comment
kinggrain
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 9:20am2 Thessalonians 2:3-4 applies
Report this comment
Mattsbay18
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 9:16amTo each their own
Report this comment
KeenIncite
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 9:12amAnd about twice as many more are “functional atheists….”
Report this comment
hi
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 9:41amExactly. Hopefully they will try to get rid of Muslim footbaths and prayer rooms at school instead of wasting their time attacking cross symbols that even Madonna wears.
Report this comment
Waterlyly
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 9:12amPersonally I think it’s just trendy right now. I do think that unbelief is legitimately on the rise, but I think this number is inflated by what my kids call “the trendies”, the people who do something because they think it’s cool.
Report this comment
golfer8805
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 9:30amor people just coming out of the closet
Report this comment
Cavallo
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 9:35amIt has also been shown that “atheists” and “agnostics” and “unaffiliated” tend to believe in such things as tarot, fortune telling, UFOs, ghosts or other such supernatural occurrences to a far greater degree than other segments of society. Protestants tend to be the group that believes in such stuff the lowest. The anti-theists also tend to be centrally controlled government activists, replacing God with the State. Many studies have shown that mankind naturally needs some form of worship, or spiritual focus. Lacking any structural religion, will invent a focus, be that sex, drugs, State Fascism, or Pop pseudo-spiritualism. The true atheist is a very rare bird, so rare as to be an abnormality of nature.
Report this comment
wvernon1981
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 9:41amCavalo,
Could you post se research to back up any of those claims?
Report this comment
Wango
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 9:59amCAVEFELLOW . . . It has been shown that religious adherents in the U.S. tend to indulge in more promiscuity, commit suicide more often, are arrested for drug offense at a higher rate than non-believers, enter into more divorces, consume more porn, commit more adultery, are convicted of more misdemeanors and felonies, and fail to uphold their financial obligations at rates far higher than non-beleivers. Many studies have shown this. Lots of them. Lots and lots of studies.
Report this comment
phillyatheist
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 10:12am“It has also been shown that “atheists” and “agnostics” and “unaffiliated” tend to believe in such things as tarot, fortune telling, UFOs, ghosts or other such supernatural occurrences to a far greater degree than other segments of society. ”
you are out of your freaking gourd. non-believers tend to nearly unanimously reject such superstitious nonsense. that’s the whole point – we don’t believe in anything supernatural. i’d love to know where you get your info from.
Report this comment
themachinist239
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 10:25am@Cavallo, Because there’s nothing supernatural and silly about exorcism, walking on water, talking snakes, virgin births, self-replicating bread, living in a whale stomach for days, and an authoritarian celestial dictator who condemns you for your thoughts under threat of torture and expects you to LOVE it for this bargain. Nothing supernatural about any of that stuff…
Report this comment
The_Cabrito_Goat
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 3:18pmLet’s reason together and use EMPIRICAL evidence rather than trading barbs.
http://www.godandscience.org/apologetics/atheists_theists_morality.html
This article compares the ‘morality’ between atheists and theists. I hope you find it helpful, I did.
Report this comment
Pontiaku
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 4:49pmAtheist in prison, less than 1%.
Far from the 20% of the population in this study.
Theist may believe they have a second chance and will spend eternity in bliss, atheist do not. Which is all the more reason to stay out of jail and have little patients for supernatural nonsense.
http://www.rationalresponders.com/forum/sapient/atheist_vs_theist/4149
“Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.” –Steven Weinberg, an American physicist:
Report this comment
binge_thinker
Posted on October 10, 2012 at 12:06amPhilly,
Scandanavia has a high rate of atheism and they have the highest suicide rate in the world. Coincidence?
Per capita atheists and agnostics in America give significantly less to charity than theists even when church giving is not counted for theists. It isn’t about praise, it’s about doing the right thing. You have a deep bigotry against what you don’t even understand and that’s troubling.
A comprehensive study by Harvard University professor Robert Putnam found that religious people are more charitable than their irreligious counterparts. The study revealed that forty percent of worship service attending Americans volunteer regularly to help the poor and elderly as opposed to 15% of Americans who never attend services.Moreover, religious individuals are more likely than non-religious individuals to volunteer for school and youth programs (36% vs. 15%), a neighborhood or civic group (26% vs. 13%), and for health care (21% vs. 13%).
Report this comment
binge_thinker
Posted on October 10, 2012 at 12:22amI will assume for the sake of argument that this claim is correct and that it refers to prisons in America, and not, say, in China (where various religions are criminalized but atheism is not). I do not claim that any and every religion is better than atheism. I Nor do I claim that being religious makes a person better necessarily than all atheists. As for your statistics, in America atheists tend to be white, middle-class people, whereas prisoners in America are disproportionately non-white and lower-class. So I am not sure if this statistical claim is significant, even assuming for sake of argument that it is true.
If you mean to imply by your question that atheism leads to a more peaceful, moral, law-abiding, and socially beneficial life, then I have a few questions: Why, according to reports, did Columbine High School killers Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris ask their classmates why they believed in God just prior to blowing their brains out? Why did mass murderer/cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer explain his awful acts to Stone Phillips by saying, “When you don’t believe in God there are no rules”? And finally, why do I see hospitals, orphanages, homeless shelters, alcoholic treatment programs, and all sorts of other socially productive and redemptive institutions with names like “St. Jude’s,” “Good Shepherd,” “Our Lady of Peace,” “Baptist Memorial,” etc. but none named “No God”? It is hard to imagine what this world would be like if Jesus had never bee
Report this comment
HKS
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 9:09amMaybe that would explain the shape we are in.
Report this comment
badswing
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 9:15amread about the frankfurt group and their tenets. from columbia unit to us. delivered by the like of the dewey decimal system creator and his ilk. a central tenet is to wipr out a belief in God.
Report this comment
golfer8805
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 9:17amThe 80% might explain why we are lagging so far behind in science scores…
Report this comment
justangry
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 9:26amYes that would explain the shape we’re in. Put aside this agnostic has been arguing tirelessly for turning the other cheek, loving our enemies and the Just War theory of Christianity to a bunch of blood thirsty zealots. I’ve shared stuff I really didn’t want to with you folks because I see evil in what we’re doing, but have been called every name in the book by genocidal holy crusaders. And never mind that I’ve also been arguing for God’s law to people that obviously think little of it based on who they’re supporting for president. Sure… it’s the agnostics fault. Billy is a propagandist for hatred.
Report this comment
Individualism
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 11:54amreligion makes people dependent on authority and submissive to it. it teachers them to have false hope when society false apart. it also leads to decline in critical thinking and IQ. if most of the country was non religous there would be protests over standard of living by now.
Report this comment
Beachbaby
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 9:04amYou do not need religion, you need Jesus Christ.
Report this comment
DeavonReye
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 4:14pmI “need” someone who is never there?. . . . . or am expected to “feel his presence” somehow [never could do that]. Tell you what, . . . you talk to Jesus and tell him I’ll be home tonight if he wants to talk.
Report this comment
mavsfan75
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 9:03amFinally! it looks like Americans are evolving.
Report this comment
The Jewish Avenger
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 9:18amFrom a “metling pot” into a cesspool perhaps…
What were you referring to? Oh right..
Evolving into “nothing”….
Yeah, we can see the strength in that (not)
Report this comment
binge_thinker
Posted on October 10, 2012 at 12:08amFrom the primordial stew that was cooking for 13 billion years give or take a few , right?
Report this comment
beebacksoon
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 9:01amWe’ll pray for all of them.
Report this comment
The_Cabrito_Goat
Posted on October 9, 2012 at 3:20pmIndeed bro
Report this comment
Pontiaku
Posted on October 11, 2012 at 12:26pm“~because it’s totally passive aggressive and will hopefully piss them off.”
You can pray till your blue in the face for all I care. Unless dementia sets in with old age I can assure you I will never believe in superstitious nonsense.
Report this comment
The_Cabrito_Goat
Posted on October 11, 2012 at 3:17pmThat’s okay, because Halloween only comes once a year, and black cats and ladders have been proven false when it comes to extolling bad ‘luck’.
Report this comment