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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.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Thexalon on Thursday May 14 2015, @11:28AM
There are at least 2 good reasons for that:
1. When you look at the very public Ayn Rand acolytes out there (e.g. Rand Paul, Paul Ryan), they're proudly trumpeting their Christianity. What I'm not entirely clear on is whether they actually believe it or are merely using it as a strategy to gain power.
2. Both conservative Christianity and objectivism have as part of their mindset the "just world hypothesis", which states more or less that everybody gets what they deserve. In the conservative Christian worldview, you're supposed to walk by somebody begging for food because their condition must be caused by their own moral failings and starvation might help them rethink their lives and get right with God. In the objectivist worldview, you are to walk by somebody begging for food without helping them, because objectively they've failed in their basic mission to provide for themselves and are therefor a worthless human being. So these are two different philosophies, but they arrive at the same moral conclusions so many who believe the one also claim to believe the other.
Of course, those who don't follow those philosophies just see really complicated excuses for being a complete jerk.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Sir Finkus on Thursday May 14 2015, @12:17PM
I suspect the Pauls aren't as religious as they claim to be. It's very difficult to be elected to political office without making clear some kind of religious affiliation, especially when you're going for Republican votes.
I'm not saying they aren't religious, just that everybody kind of has to play up the "Christian" bit to win voters.
Join our Folding@Home team! [stanford.edu]
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Thursday May 14 2015, @06:48PM
It's clear to me that they want power. Nothing in the bible backs up their twisted views and most of it is 100% against them.
Why do right wing so-called "Christians" bitch about taxes when Jesus said "render unto Caesar that which is Ceasar's"? The bible itself says to pay your taxes!
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