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Survey: As Many Americans Claim No Religion as there are Evangelicals, Catholics

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

"exec" writes:

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

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  • (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.