Religion Among Americans Hits Low Point, As More People Say They Have No Religious Affiliation

[LiberalFighter]

HuffPost

The number of Americans who claim to have no religious affiliation is the highest it has ever been since data on the subject started being collected in the 1930s, new research has found.

The research also found that men were more likely than women to claim they have no religion -- 24 percent compared to 16 percent -- and that African Americans and Mexican Americans were more likely to associate themselves with a religion than whites.

But perhaps the most telling numbers pertained to the breakdown of the respondents' politics: 40 percent of liberals claim they have no religion, compared to just 9 percent of conservatives.

[Arugula Latte]

1. Maybe there's hope after all ...

Crossing fingers.

[CAG]

2. Yes!!! yet another sneaky cute post indirectly insinuating that us believers

are stupid!

[Gravitycollapse]

3. Actually, it's saying that organized religion is a sham.

Not that any belief is stupid.

[CAG]

4. Absolutely!!! I'm so stupid to be a methodist. I'll come to my

senses and resign my membership tomorrow and become a member of a disorganized religion!

[Gravitycollapse]

5. Are you a literalist?

Like, do you believe that there was a burning bush, and Eden actually existed?

[CAG]

6. First question yes, second question no. See there's some hope for my dim little mind.

[Gravitycollapse]

7. It's funny because the only one in here accusing you of being stupid is you.

Methinks you doth protest too much.

[CAG]

8. Methinks I am finally protesting given the umpteen times a day I read disgusting

threads questioning the intelligence of anyone who believes in a higher power around here. Ten years of it and I finally start spouting off. Once again, stick around here for some time and you learn just how "tolerant" everyone is around here...not. We look as ugly as repukes sometimes.

[Gravitycollapse]

10. There is a difference between mocking organized religion...

And saying any and all religious belief is stupid.

Life is too weird and synchronistic (sp) to discount all religious thought or belief. That goes both ways though. It's also too much of those things to be answered by foundational texts.

If someone claims to have the answers to mysterious life questions, they're probably full of shit.

[CAG]

11. And saying "any and all religious belief is stupid" type statements here

happen basically on a daily basis around here.

[Gravitycollapse]

12. I've been deep in the shit show today and I didn't see that.

I saw a lot of dumping on Catholicism. Which is not the same thing as saying any religious belief is stupid.

But maybe I'm not paying attention.

[CAG]

13. like I said, just stick around a while.

[CAG]

14. here's a good place to start:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2500458

[Javaman]

19. So alert on it.

[demwing]

20. Alert on it?

[Javaman]

21. I know, I know...

I tried. LOL

[demwing]

22. Sorry, you were correct...Alerting is the right thing to try

but I laughed because despite your 40K posts, that comment sounded so new

No offense meant! Cheers!

[Javaman]

23. Naaa, no worries.

First I try the polite route and see what happens. LOL

[longship]

15. The OP said nothing about stupidity.

So where do you get that idea?

I am an atheist. I have many friends who are believers in gods. I would never call them stupid, nor did the original post here.

Just saying that your response may be over the top in this context.

Peace, my friend.

[CAG]

18. I didnt reply to the op

[ChisolmTrailDem]

24. What is it you're a "believer" of? What do you mean by "believer"? eom

[snooper2]

26. There is a difference between being stupid and ignorant...

I know a lot of smart people who are still ignorant when it comes to religion...


Listen to this bull-hockey, but people still soak it up, just amazing when you really think about it---
(thousands of examples are available FYI )

[Deep13]

9. huzzah! nt

[RainDog]

16. A 2012 Pew Poll said 63% of Democrats claim no religion

http://dailycaller.com/2012/10/15/pew-survey-finds-1-in-5-americans-mostly-democrats-have-no-religion/

According to a recent Pew Research Center survey, one in five Americans – the largest percentage in history — have no religious affiliation, and 63 percent of those people are registered Democrats. Pew’s data represent a trend from the last five years.

“This study has huge political meaning,” said Daniel Cox, senior researcher at the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI).

Among those who are moving away from traditional religious labels — Pew calls them the “nones” — only 26 percent self-identify as Republicans or conservatives.

“There is considerable evidence suggesting that the ‘nones’ have actually been caused by politics,” University of Notre Dame professor David Campbell told National Public Radio. “Many people have pulled away from the religious label due to the mingling of religion and conservative politics.”

What's funny about this, historically, is that the traditional view among most religious groups was to stay out of politics because they were afraid politics would compromise their religious traditions.

Instead, conservatives have made many, many people despise organized religion - to the point that they no longer want to associate their identity with religion.

They've done more to harm their own religious institutions than anyone outside of their organizations could ever do. Since Democrats are the majority in this nation, and both Democratic and non-religious identification is growing - this is another indication that Republicans do not represent the will of the American people with their positions on issue after issue, including and especially their attempts to claim religion as a vehicle to power.

Instead, they've just made people despise religion as much as they despise Republican economic policies.

[Quantess]

17. The world would be a lot better off without organized religion, in my opinion.

Religion does more harm than good.

For once, it's good news.

[indepat]

27. Self-professed conservatives piously play the Jesus-card while espousing an agenda totally foreign

and inimical to all Christian doctrine: to wit, they are, imo, the present-day embodiment of the anti-Christ.