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The Fastest Growing Group Of USAians: The Non-Religious

posted by CoolHand on Thursday May 14 2015, @02:05AM   
from the touched-by-his-noodly-appendage dept.

"gewg_" writes:

Washington's Blog reports

The Pew Research Center on Religion & Public Life is reporting, in their poll of 35,000 Americans, that during the seven years from 2007 to 2014, the numbers of religiously "Unaffiliated" were soaring, the numbers of Christians were plunging, and the numbers of adherents to non-Christian faiths were rising substantially but not nearly as much as were the numbers of "Unaffiliated".

This report, issued on May 12th, is headlined, "America's Changing Religious Landscape: Christians Decline Sharply as Share of Population; Unaffiliated and Other Faiths Continue to Grow".

It shows that: the percentage of Americans who are unaffiliated rose from 16.1% in 2007 up to 22.8% today.

[...][The USA] is becoming a less [religious], and a more religiously diverse, country.

• Re:Perspective Re:Perspective (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 14 2015, @07:47AM

  by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 14 2015, @07:47AM (#182830)

  No it doesnt.

  You might be able to pick one or two things off my list for the things you mention but you cant tick all the boxes like buddhism does. For instance since when did capitalism or marx promise reincarnation?

  Also, I note you dont refute any of the things on the list wrt buddhism.

  Parent

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• Re:Perspective Re:Perspective (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 14 2015, @10:20PM

  by Anonymous Coward on Thursday May 14 2015, @10:20PM (#183149)

  I'll give you the afterlife part, but the rest apply:

  church: pro-capitalist schooling
  priests: economists who advocate for it
  holy texts: Wealth of Nations
  rules: oh yes
  idols: money, celebrities, the wealthy (especially "new money")

  Also, I note you dont refute any of the things on the list wrt buddhism.

  Because the argument is that those aren't a valid criteria.

  Parent

  • Re:Perspective (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 15 2015, @08:47PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday May 15 2015, @08:47PM (#183479)

    If those aren't valid criteria, then there's no such thing as religion at all. Money isn't an idol, and celebrities needn't be worshiped as god. There's no One True Holy Book, and the thing you cite as a "holy book" is anything but. Usually religions ask you to follow arbitrary moral rules, rather than describing how economics works. It simply doesn't fit.

    And I wouldn't say all indoctrination (pro-capitalist schooling, which we do have) is equivalent to church.

    Parent