Do you think this is problematic?

https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/13/us/no-religion-largest-group-first-time-usa-trnd/index.html

The highest percentage of people in recorded history now claim no religious affiliation. I wonder what spearheaded the charge starting in the early 90's? Internet?

I tend to think that alot of other things have spiraled down the drain since then as well. I've noticed that with the rejection of spirituality so has gone marriage/birth rates, family values, along with an explosion of vanity, selfishness/self-importance, insane entitlement etc. I don't see these numbers reversing, I predict a further rejecting of spirituality as time goes on.....and I honestly can't envision that that will coincide with an improvement in values and behaviors.

 

A man who believes in nothing will believe in anything.

Man invented God for a reason.
Men have a need to believe in something greater than themselves.
Without God to fill that need they turn to things like climate change
and deify scientists or practice atheism with religious fervor.

 

Reverend Lovejoy: This new so-called religion is nothing but a pack of weird rituals and chants designed to take away the money of fools. Now let's say the Lord's Prayer 40 times, but first let's pass the collection plate.

 

So what do you believe in?, IIRC you've said in the past that you don't believe in God.

 

I'm not religious but appreciate the value of faith and the crucial role it plays in acting as the mortar of the building blocks of our society. Without it, society crumbles.
Those that desire power over their fellow man, would happily replace religion with the state and actively attempt this very thing. Based on these numbers, one might have the hypothesis that they are accomplishing this goal.

 

If asked I say I have no religious affiliation, don't mean I don't consider myself a member of a religion.

It's the best way to get rid of the door knockers, the snooping survey takers and the just plain nosey. F@ck them, they don't need to know.

I also love messing up the surveys and data gathering when I do feel like taking one. Facegores I answered as few of their questions correctly as possible when I signed up.

 

Claiming no religious affiliation is not the same as a rejection of spirituality.

 

I used to be flat out anti-religion. These days I still don't believe that any sort of organized religion is really more correct than the others, but I do believe that one should have values and faith in something. If you can't build that framework and have faith in yourself, then as long as you aren't cramming it down the throats of others and using your religion as justification for hindering the lives of others, do your thing. I look at my father as an example of this. He's an elder in his congregation and very devout. In day to day activity outside of the church you would never know unless you asked him though. The only time he's even asked me about church was the ceremony when he became an elder, which I gladly attended since I knew it was important to him.

It's my opinion that it's not so much a decline in devotion to a religion as much as a decline in strong values and morals as time goes on. There are tons of people doing heinous acts under the guise that it is due to their religious beliefs.

 

Humans are naturally tribal, possessive, reactionary, and angry. If we abandon the Judeo-Christian/natural law values then we could revert back to tribalism, hedonism, and a rule of passion. To be honest, for the most part, these christian values or morals are still engrained into the atheist/agnostics/nihilists even though they deny it.

 

I think that organized religion is a crock of shit, but the last six of the the Ten Commandments are mostly reasonable rules for living. Same with the Golden Rule.

 

Just because someone doesn't walk the old, worn, Christian path doesn't mean they are living a bad life. One can be mindful, peaceable, and good, without strict adherence to dogma of The Church.

 

100% think it most certainly helped worsen things. I mean how coincidental is that decline??? I don't think so.

What are the Golden Rule origins?

 

That is true, and just because someone was raised by a single mother doesn't mean that they are automatically/definitely going to be more prone to crime, drugs and other problems.....but the overarching numbers and statistics do support it. I don't tend to look at the anecdotal examples and the "just because ABC doesn't mean XYZ" scenarios. It also doesn't mean that I look at a percentage and immediately damn the individual, I judge individuals based on their individual merit.....but I'm not judging any one person here, I'm looking at the world at large.

In the bigger picture I don't foresee religion going down the tubes resulting in a more moral, just and kind society at large.

 

Christianity doesn't have a lock on how to be a good person. It just recorded what everyone already knew. Same as many other religions. That's really what the graph and discussion is about, Christianity. As for the commandments look at Shintoism, Buddhism, Jainism, Native American religions. They all teach how to live a righteous life. Jainism doesn't even want you to kill a bug.

Islam is doing just fine and still growing faster than anything despite what one Baptist professor on twitter says. Probably what he and the rest of Christianity is really scared about.

 

From the time I was a young teen frequenting my local church's youth center, it was known then that the Muslim faith was the fastest growing religion worldwide, so that's nothing new.

Does the idea of that faith picking up speed in this country concern you at all?


BTW- I think most rational believers do NOT believe "Christianity" has a lockdown on anything. I also think many other forms of religion were created/spun off BY the Judeo/Christian faiths.

 

What Native American religions? From my readings, they were superstitious and very tribal and killed anyone outside the tribe. Once they learned about the value of the horse other than meat, they wiped out most of the other tribes.

 

If we could get religion out of .gov that would be the best.

100% agree with above that you can be a good person and not be religious. There are many...many...MANY...religious people who are complete and utter shitbags.

The day that children stop getting cancer is the day that I start believing there is a "god".

 

Except many in the youngest generation think socialism is good via indoctrination. What is ingrained into their kids (other than they are neither a boy or girl)?

 

Possibly the ancient philosophy of Stoicism:
“Happiness and freedom begin with a clear understanding of one principle: Some things are within our control, and some things are not. It is only after you have faced up to this fundamental rule and learned to distinguish between what you can and can’t control that inner tranquility and outer effectiveness become possible.” – Epictetus

 

There's something very very wrong here...