Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by mrpg on Monday April 15 2019, @12:18AM   Printer-friendly
from the thank-you-jesus! dept.

For the first time "No Religion" has topped a survey of Americans' religious identity, according to a new analysis by a political scientist. The non-religious edged out Catholics and evangelicals in the long-running General Social Survey.

Ryan Burge, a political scientist at Eastern Illinois University and a Baptist pastor, found that 23.1% of Americans now claim no religion.

Catholics came in at 23.0%, and evangelicals were at 22.5%.

The three groups remain within the margin of error of each other though, making it a statistical tie. Over 2,000 people were interviewed in person for the survey.

[...] "We are seeing the rise of a generation of Americans who are hungry for facts and curious about the world," she says.

There are now as many Americans who claim no religion as there are evangelicals and Catholics, a survey finds

-- submitted from IRC


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 5, Informative) by D2 on Monday April 15 2019, @01:53AM (15 children)

    by D2 (5107) on Monday April 15 2019, @01:53AM (#829584)

    False. Disbelief in skydaddy doesn't leave a gap. Atheists have ethics for guidance, a zillion social paradigms from bridge clubs to fan cons for any urge to 'belong', and more cultural opportunities than zealots allow themselves. The examples to look to are europe, china, japan, etc. Not having religion is kind of like not having cufflinks.

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +4  
       Insightful=1, Interesting=1, Informative=2, Total=4
    Extra 'Informative' Modifier   0  

    Total Score:   5  
  • (Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Monday April 15 2019, @02:02AM (10 children)

    by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Monday April 15 2019, @02:02AM (#829587)

    The A/C above is just presenting a sort of strawman for your enjoyment.

    "If you want socialism, then you wind up with Venezuela, if you're not Christian, then you must be Muslim.

    As someone who comes from a country where fewer than 8% of people attend any church regularly, that sort of blinkered thinking seems weird.

    • (Score: 5, Insightful) by Nerdfest on Monday April 15 2019, @03:01AM (9 children)

      by Nerdfest (80) on Monday April 15 2019, @03:01AM (#829609)

      ... and as someone from a socialist country (Canada, but most norther European countries re as well), AC can go fuck themselves. Pretty much all the top-rated countries for all the quality of life categories are socialist. Thanks for the support for the Corporatocracy though, my stock portfolio is doing very well.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 15 2019, @03:05AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 15 2019, @03:05AM (#829611)

        "Quality of life categories" as defined and measured by governments...

      • (Score: 5, Insightful) by PartTimeZombie on Monday April 15 2019, @03:26AM (6 children)

        by PartTimeZombie (4827) on Monday April 15 2019, @03:26AM (#829616)

        Yeah, I come from one of those socialist hell-holes where I am not bankrupted when I get sick or have an accident too.

        I can't understand why those Americans don't demand better.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 15 2019, @04:17AM (3 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 15 2019, @04:17AM (#829629)

          I hear it’s working well for Sweden.

          • (Score: 2, Touché) by The Vocal Minority on Monday April 15 2019, @04:34AM (2 children)

            by The Vocal Minority (2765) on Monday April 15 2019, @04:34AM (#829643) Journal

            Neither Canada nor Sweden are socialist countries.

            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 15 2019, @08:18AM

              by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 15 2019, @08:18AM (#829733)

              Neither Canada nor Sweden are socialist countries.

              By American standards, they sure are socialist. Also, your nick is very telling, hahaha.

            • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 15 2019, @01:40PM

              by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 15 2019, @01:40PM (#829808)

              It's convenient that socialist countries are no longer socialist countries once they start running into serious problems.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 15 2019, @02:09PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 15 2019, @02:09PM (#829819)

          Yeah, I come from one of those socialist hell-holes where I am not bankrupted when I get sick or have an accident too.

          I can't understand why those Americans don't demand better.

          Because ... Abortion!

          Christianity, not just the destroyer of nations. The destroyer of civilizations. First Rome, followed by a thousand years of darkness, now the secular west, to be followed by even worse if things keep going the way they are.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 15 2019, @04:52PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 15 2019, @04:52PM (#829927)

          The problem is that "quality of life" isn't well defined. For example, a religious person might think "hrs spent praying per day" should be a component. Wasn't there that one metric for how "democratic" each nation was that put North Korea at the top, so they just dropped that country from the study?

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 15 2019, @06:22PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 15 2019, @06:22PM (#829964)

        these state socialist countries are only doing so well because they have a fairly homogeneous (and Aryan) culture. let your stupid governments keep importing third world dipshits and get back to me in 25-50 years. You are just like well to do american whites who love diversity b/c they don't have to live in the ghettos and the only blacks and browns they have to deal with have been anglicized or are kept at arms length. their children don't have to go to school with central american gangs, retarded monkeys nor muslim rapists. you're on a path to suicide and you're too comfortable to know it.

  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 15 2019, @03:34AM (3 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 15 2019, @03:34AM (#829618)

    Due to radically different culture, put China and Japan aside. The USA will never be Japan and can never be Japan.

    So OK, how about Europe? Islamists are succeeding. How about that Nice truck attack? How about the one in Sweden, ripping a girl in half and smearing her blood all down the street? Package delivery services have stopped going into some of the most Muslim areas due to safety problems. The cops won't even go except as large teams. Sweden has enough grenade attacks that Wikipedia keeps an ever-growing list. German-speaking kids get bullied in Germany for speaking German. Jews in France are no longer safe wearing traditional Jewish garb, such as their hats.

    Who allowed that to happen? Who welcomed the invaders? Who is converting? With the popularity of atheism in Europe, the answer is obvious. Atheism puts up no defense.

    • (Score: 1) by pTamok on Monday April 15 2019, @08:40AM (1 child)

      by pTamok (3042) on Monday April 15 2019, @08:40AM (#829742)

      Atheism puts up no defense.

      Atheism, aka rationality, is playing a long game. As a well-known thinker said: "Nature cannot be fooled", so irrational beliefs will eventually have to acknowledge reality.

      This is of little solace to the individual, however, as just like markets can be irrational for longer than you can remain solvent, so too can irrational beliefs hold sway for longer than an individual human lifetime. This means that small groups of irrational people with power can temporarily impose their thinking on large numbers of people, so that while you as an individual think more rationally than the average, you may not see power structures change or be overthrown in your lifetime.

      The average Muslim's day-to-day behaviour is little different to their non-Muslim neighbours. Most people are not particularly concerned with theological niceties, but a small number of highly visible hard-liners have a disproportionate effect on public perceptions and the tenor of public debates. It is generally young men that cause the problems, egged on by some lunatic greybeards who are careful not to be in the (literal) firing line. Give the young men something better to do that they perceive now as more valuable than the promises of riches after they die, and a significant amount of the problematic behaviour will vanish.

      As a counter to the 'riches after you die', I strongly recommend reading "Pascal's mugging" - Wikipedia article on Pascal's Mugging [wikipedia.org] - Accessible example written by Nick Bostrum (pdf) [nickbostrom.com].

      • (Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 15 2019, @11:50AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 15 2019, @11:50AM (#829761)

        The average Muslim's day-to-day behaviour is little different to their non-Muslim neighbours

        Wrong. Their non-muslim neighbours are unlikely to start their day with a prayer swearing to 'correct' their neighbours, swear and re-affirm allegiance with an incarnation of evil, and reiterate negative deadly thoughts about people not of their kind.

        Perhaps you need to learn more about islam.

    • (Score: 3, Informative) by FatPhil on Monday April 15 2019, @10:57AM

      by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Monday April 15 2019, @10:57AM (#829755) Homepage
      > Who welcomed the invaders?

      Well, purely historically, in southern Europe, it was the Jews who opened the gates to let the Muslims in.

      (Don't get me wrong, this isn't antisemitic, it's history - the Catholics (who were prior invaders) were the chief cunts in this story.)
      --
      Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves