Journal tomhudson's Journal: 15 more years, atheism will be the #1 belief system in US 31
If you're a "believer", then the rot has already well and truly set in.
So many Americans claim no religion at all (15%, up from 8% in 1990), that this category now outranks every other major U.S. religious group except Catholics and Baptists. In a nation that has long been mostly Christian, "the challenge to Christianity
... does not come from other religions but from a rejection of all forms of organized religion," the report concludes.
The trend will only accelerate, now that atheism is so main-stream that it's #3 on the list. Since the survey was taken in 2008, before the public meltdown of the religious right in the election (thank you White Trash Sarah Palin) atheism is probably already at #2, since there was less than 1% separating atheism and baptists - it would only take a half-percent shift in both, and even without the Palin factor, the trend would make atheism #2 by the end of this year, and #1 in 15 years, as the aging, more religious, demographic starts pushing up daisies in serious numbers.
25 years and the majority are de facto atheists. Maybe this should be tagged "outbreakofcommonsense".
meh (Score:2)
following europe like always. which means those non-religious folks will be part of a shrinking population and the immigrants will mostly be muslim or roman catholic.
what are world trends for religious vs. non-religious? i am guessing - no knowledge so that is an honest question - that birth rates would put religious in the growing category and non-religious in the shrinking category.
You can't change humans into monkeys (Score:1)
You can get rid of the formalisms, but it's harder to get rid of the genetic underpinnings of religiosity. Even people who describe themselves as Atheists often have religious-type thinking. They believe in ghosts and flying saucers, ESP, etc. Many people even experience these things first hand. It doesn't matter what the belief system is, most people have a Religious Mind. They're the people who see the evil in a criminal dependents eyes, and who project their emotions onto literature, politics, etc. Weird
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Well, I'm an atheist and I don't believe in ghosts - and as for flying saucers, I'd rather not - I don't need mismatched dinnerware :-)
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Flying saucers != religious underpinnings. Statistically speaking they're a near-certainty.
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Always called bullshit on this one. Too busy trying to keep myself alive to worry about worship.
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It's not a direct quote. I take it more as a metaphor. People do seem to look for outside help when things look bad. The idea in this case is that under stress a person's real personality comes out. When WW2 first started, Franklin Delano Roosevelt told Douglas MacArthur to bomb the Japanese navy. Instead MacArthur decided to read his bible and pray while the Japanese decimated his forces and enslaved his soldiers into prison camps. And so to many people often do irrational things when under stress. If it i
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...a Religious Mind...
The spiritual brain [didmancreategod.com]
Penfield began a systemic process of electrically stimulating different parts of the brain and recording the verbal responses in conscious subjects.
Yuck!
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Not surprised ...I've been saying that all the evidence shows we created god, and not vice versa.
It explains why religious people are sexually repressed and lack introspection necessary for humour. It's not a defect of nature, but of nuture - they can b
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It explains why religious people are sexually repressed and lack introspection necessary for humour. It's not a defect of nature, but of nuture - they can be "cured" simply by rejecting their religion. They'll get back their sex life AND their sense of humour - AND they'll enjoy life more.
Man, you've got some weird religious people.
I'd love to know what your mindset would be if you hadn't lived your whole life in the land of "rational atheists versus fundamentalist crazy religious people". (OK, you're Canadian, but let's pretend you're not)
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I spent a decade among the fundamentalist crazy religious people. Had to seriously cut back on my repertoire of jokes, because you just can't joke about most subjects with them. And forget about hoisting a few with friends - "drinking is a sin!" And the misinformation and lies and gossip that were spread, from the pulpit on down, shows a serious lac
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They will lose their friends (though if they were really friends, converting to atheism shouldn't interfere, but it does ... big-time :-), their belief system, and their standing within their religious community
In my group of friends we are all "Catholic" (as in, did all the ceremonies and stuff). 2 are actually religious, 1 is an atheist and I am agnostic. Religion has never been a problem between us, except for a certain occasion[1]. The thing is, we have a rather laid-back concept of religion (some call it Cafeteria Christianity [wikipedia.org]) which I don't find entirely convincing. If you're gonna cherry-pick and interpret the rulings of your religion to suit your ideas, you might as well base your morals on logic and just
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Agnostic, what does that mean? Are you a theistic agnostic, meaning you don't know about any specific gods so you choose to believe in some kind of universe spirit maybe? Or are you an atheist agnostic, meaning you don't believe in any gods because there's not evidence for any gods?
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Good point. Atheism is fine, but I want rationalism too. We need an evidence base mindset to dominate our world.
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"that their internal morals don't become antisocial. I am pro choice, but I'm also pro life."
A big part of the rejection of religion is that it encourages anti-social, intolerant behaviour. Look at the involvement of religion in war. From "The Troubles" in Ireland to the "Arabs vs Jews" in the middle east, and throughout history, religion has been right up there in the thick of it.
Then there's the intolerance taught against other religions, against alternate lifestyles, against gays, lesbians, and th
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I was going to give a similar response, but the statement was so vague I couldn't be bothered. When the AC talks about "their internal morals" for example, it's hard to know who is being referred to. Implicit understanding and assumptions are often not satisfactory for an intelligent discussion. I could easily presume prejudice on the part of the poster towards atheists and non-believers, but I shall not drink that Kool-Aid.
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The question is which comes first in modern society. The cause-effect relationship is clear - religion breeds intolerance, not intolerant people flocking to religion.
People seek religion during times of personal crisis, then find that they have to conform to the artificial standards that particular religion holds to, or be rejected. Being at a vulnerable point in their life, and believing that it is "the will of god", they adopt the broken moral compass of their new-found belief. This takes many forms
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atheism != no beliefs (Score:2)
I mention this because the survey you mention said was describing the fraction of people who responded by saying they have "no belief system", which strictly (though not neces
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Atheists believe that there is no god.
I'm an atheist, and I don't believe that.
Check the terms agnostic atheist and agnostic theist. Agnostic just describes what you know, not what you believe.
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From the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary [merriam-webster.com]:
atheist
Function:
noun
Date:
1551
: one who believes that there is no deity
Their definition includes beliefs. Other definitions of course may be equally valid or even better suited to describe the philosophies of modern atheists.
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The dictionary is not necessarily the most complete description of a thing. For another example, check the dictionary definition of socialism. It's as rough as you can get. It's notoriously incomplete.
In the case of the dictionary, they get the meaning completely wrong with respect to current usage.
Atheism means that you don't have any believe in any gods. It doesn't mean that you make the claim that there are no gods. This is an important distinction, and understanding it will save you some embarrassment i
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Sorry, but have to disagree.
Atheists == "There is no god." The refusal to believe in the existence of any god is the same as saying "there is no god", and that is what atheists do - they reject the possibility of any sort of god existing. It's not about saying "I won't form any belief one way or the other" - that's agnosticism.
"Theits" or "Deists" believe in the existence of a god. A-theists reject the existence of god. "Gnostics" - knowledge - believe you can know - A-gnostics don't believe it is p
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You can disagree if you like, but you're wrong. If you think about it a bit, you'll see that one can fail to have a belief in something without making the statement that it doesn't exist.
Let me demonstrate:
1) I have no belief in any gods.
2) I have not been shown any gods, nor any evidence of any gods.
3) I do not say that gods do not exist, just that I haven't seen any evidence.
4) I now state that it is completely possible that you have in your possession evidence for a god which I would find persuasive, but
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And there's the problem - atheists flat-out deny such a possibility exists. What you have described is an agnostic - someone who is willing to believe that the existence of god is possible.
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I already described the problem with the word agnostic. And, I have already told you that atheists do NOT flat-out deny such a possibility exists. Atheist is a word that is broader than the term "strong atheist". A strong atheist is someone who denies that any gods exist. A weak atheist is someone who lacks a belief in a god. Similar terms are implicit atheist, and explicit atheist. And yet more similar terms are gnostic atheist and agnostic atheist.
Check these:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnostic_atheism [wikipedia.org]
h [about.com]
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"Weak atheist" ... "a little bit pregnant" ... neither term makes sense.
Ultimately, there are only 3 states - god exists (believer), god might exist but we don't know one way or another (agnostic), or god does not exist (atheist - which as your wiki link points out meant "godless" as far back as 5 BC).
Someone who says "god does not exist - but I'm not sure" is not an atheist, but an agnostic. The simple question is "do you believe in the existence of one or more gods?" ultimately results in one of these
#3 on a list by a very specific breakdown... (Score:2)
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Baptists (#1) mostly don't consider catholics to be "real" christians. Catholicism states that there is only one church - the catholic church - and only one head honcho - the pope. So you can't lump them together any more than you can paint and shoe polish, or oil and water. They don't mix in large amounts.
The rest of the protestants thing the baptists are way too pushy, and the catholics are too dogmatic.
Then you have the simple fact that most of the people who say that they belong to any one of the