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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.
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Survey: As Many Americans Claim No Religion as there are Evangelicals, Catholics
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Remember Darwin; building a better mousetrap merely results in smarter mice.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 15 2019, @03:34AM (3 children)
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)
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
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
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