Surprise find on fox news.com: PEW study: Why young christians are leaving the church

[lindysalsagal]

Ok. We don't link to fox articles. So, if you want to see it, go to fox and enter this:

opinion/young-christians-are-leaving-the-church-heres-why

and you'll see them quote a new August 8th 2018 pew study right at the top:

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/08/08/why-americas-nones-dont-identify-with-a-religion/

Surprisingly, the fox article goes on to state that people leave the religion because they no longer believe it's true.

What???This on fox??? They claimed to lose their belief after going to college or just looking for truth on their own.

Here's a few paragraphs from the pew study:

AUGUST 8, 2018
Why America’s ‘nones’ don’t identify with a religion
BY BECKA ALPER

A growing share of Americans are religiously unaffiliated. We recently asked a representative sample of more than 1,300 of these “nones” why they choose not to identify with a religion. Out of several options included in the survey, the most common reason they give is that they question a lot of religious teachings.

Six-in-ten religiously unaffiliated Americans – adults who describe their religious identity as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular” – say the questioning of religious teachings is a very important reason for their lack of affiliation. The second-most-common reason is opposition to the positions taken by churches on social and political issues, cited by 49% of respondents (the survey asked about each of the six options separately). Smaller, but still substantial, shares say they dislike religious organizations (41%), don’t believe in God (37%), consider religion irrelevant to them (36%) or dislike religious leaders (34%).

Among self-described agnostics, the most important reason cited for being agnostic is the questioning of a lot of religious teachings (38%).

People who identify as “nothing in particular” give a variety of responses when asked about their most important reason for not affiliating with a religion – and no single reason predominates. A quarter say the most important reason is that they question a lot of religious teachings, 21% say they dislike the positions churches take on social and political issues, and 28% say none of the reasons offered are very important.

[RKP5637]

1. Greatest hoax ever perpetuated on humanity IMO. It's all about power, control, domination and money.

And was used to keep people in line.

[GoCubsGo]

6. Yep. Wasn't it Napoleon Bonaparte who said something to the effect of

"Religion exists to keep the poor people from killing the rich people"? Whoever said it was right.

[RKP5637]

8. Yep, exactly! ... always used for power and control to keep the masses in check.

Be good meaning follow our orders ... otherwise you go to hell.

[dalton99a]

11. +1. Heaven as equalization

I do not see in religion the mystery of the incarnation so much as the mystery of the social order. It introduces into the thought of heaven an idea of equalization, which saves the rich from being massacred by the poor.

[eppur_se_muova]

24. Napoleon ?? Who reputedly said "Mais ou est Dieu dans tout cela?"/'But where is God in all this?'

Last edited Sat Oct 6, 2018, 03:43 PM - Edit history (1)

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Pierre-Simon_Laplace#Disputed

[k2qb3]

14. Sure, but it's important to remember religion grew when people didn't know anything.

If you read the Torah with an open mind it's pretty obvious they're talking about natural forces and events they didn't understand, like wind, or even air, as supernatural.

The internet is going to kill religion, it serves basically the same purpose the Bible did before science.

Going to take a few generations though, people don't tend to deconvert past a certain age, too much sunk cost. If you look at the stats though it isn't age that's the factor it's when you were born, once the pre-internet generations die off so will the dogmatic religions, at least in the west.

[RKP5637]

30. Definitely! It must have been extremely frightening and difficult in eons past to try to grasp what

was going on, life, planets, stars and all plus disease. People IMO needed something to believe in, to hold onto to show them the way.

[Blue_true]

19. Yes, religion came about to control populations and make them feel special. nt

[RKP5637]

31. And especially the "make them feel special" part. n/t

[bitterross]

21. Totally Correct. It's Complete evil BS.

Religion has brought out the absolute worst in people. It has caused genocides. It still does.

I have to laugh at every person who uses the argument of free will to explain all the horrors we do to one another.

[standingtall]

2. I do not see where in this article displays where young Christians are leaving their church

being religiously unaffiliated and leaving a church are two different things.

[alfredo]

3. Ever wonder why Republicans and conservative Christians are unfriendly to higher education?

Which party cuts student loans, grants, and protection from predatory credit cards?

[lindysalsagal]

5. Same reason they hate public education. They can't control it.

[alfredo]

15. Republicanism and religion are authoritarian philosophies.

They appeal to those who need stern daddies. Lyndsey Graham, Sarah Sanders, and others seem to have found their stern daddy in 45.

[Downtown Hound]

4. Fox viewers will use this as a rallying cry to not send their children to

"liberal brainwashing centers" also known as colleges or institutions of higher learning.

[ooky]

7. Well, there is the hypocrisy.

White evangelical church preachers living in 10 million dollar homes telling their members to vote for politicians who don't heal the sick or feed the poor. That should turn off more than a few people.

[MineralMan]

9. Religion has less and less relevance to young people who

now know much, much more about things than even their parents did. Organized religion is dying off worldwide, except in Muslim countries, where education is not as readily available.

[RKP5637]

10. I think the internet, far better communications, also allows one to have a far greater

perspective on life, religion, etc. ... and one sees the fallacies of organized religion.

[lindysalsagal]

17. You're right. On an online video, a woman reported that when her husband went to china, and saw so m

many people in the huge cities who would all go to hell for not believing in jesus, it all fell away. The ability to hold to fundamentalism requires an extremely controlled perspective without dissent.

[moriah]

12. Wish "Bad early religious experience" was a reason polled.

They talk about the "faith of a child" a lot, but kids question things that don't make sense to them at their operational level. They might accept Santa and the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy, but would question or opt out a lot earlier if the Tooth Fairy gave them a new chore to do every time they lost a tooth.

Just as kids will realize a church is treating members of their flock unfairly, particularly if kids of church leaders talk about how they know your family doesn't make much because "your family doesn't tithe" and the church doesn't support the family with prayer requests when asked for.

[milestogo]

13. Conservative religion has become so politicized its hardly about God anymore.

The beliefs people are expected to embrace go far beyond anything derived from the Bible or Christian tradition. Anyone who has learned critical thinking is going to question it sooner or later.

They stuff a lot of crap into Jesus' mouth.

[Downtown Hound]

16. Bingo!

It hasn't been about God or how to live a spiritually harmonious life for some time. Many of these churches are just political action groups in disguise.

[RKP5637]

32. Exactly!!! "political action groups in disguise." n/t

[lindysalsagal]

20. So true. If there were an anti-choice phrase in the bible, they'd all have it tattooed onto their fo

foreheads and cars and houses: But there isn't. It's a political wedge issue and a marketing strategy against other congregations. Fabricated strawman argument. I think abortion has cost them lots of followers.

People eventually do the math and figure it out, given half a chance.

[uponit7771]

27. +1, 2nd biggest reason

[Blue_true]

18. I don't believe the dogma of classical religion.

But I do believe in good and evil, but believe both originate in the heart of a person. While I don't believe in a God that demand that we worship, I also don't believe that we got here by pure chance, nor do I believe that we won't be held to account for the worst choices that we make.

[lindysalsagal]

23. I'm afraid we'll be held to account by the earth, itself, when we've totally spoiled it and

rendered it uninhabitable.

[Blue_true]

29. Yes.

As the most intelligent species on earth, we were it's protectors and protectors of everything on it. We failed and likely will perish. But I am convinced that the earth will heal after we are gone and thrive before the Sun consume it in about 4.5 billion years.

[RKP5637]

33. Yep, sadly IMO humans are just another passing species. n/t

[lindysalsagal]

22. I'm just shocked that it was allowed: Their followers will be furious!

I'm wondering if it was a marketing decision? Are they catching on that they're losing the young voters with disposable income?

[msongs]

25. harry potter has 7 books, the creator only has one. nt

[uponit7771]

26. +1, "opposition to the positions taken by churches on social and political issues"

[brooklynite]

28. Actually you can link to Fox; just not for LBN

[Horse with no Name]

35. they are leaving the church because they know the old christians are bigoted assholes

One of my high school classmates died yesterday.
My thought when he died....well at least that old hypocrite christian republican can't vote anymore.
I hate what these people do to our democracy.
I knew these young people...and now? I have nothing in common with them.