Religiosity in the US on the decline

[Odin2005]

http://www.humaniststudies.org/enews/?id=281&article=0

Bad news for the Religious Right and the Pukes

A new survey in the U.S. shows that the number of 18-25 year olds who are atheist, agnostic or nonreligious has increased from 11 percent in 1986 to 20 percent today. Meanwhile a survey of the United States and the five largest countries in Western Europe reveals that religious belief continues to plummet in Europe, with Italy being the only country with a majority believing in any form of God or supreme being. And even in these overwhelmingly godless countries, the young are still significantly less religious than their elders.

A survey of young people ages 18-25 by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press includes encouraging news about the growth of humanist beliefs among the so-called "Generation Next." Among the findings:

* One-in-five members of "Generation Next" say they have no religious affiliation or are atheist or agnostic, nearly double the proportion of young people who said that in the late 1980s.
* Nexters are among the least likely to attend church regularly: 32 percent attend at least once a week compared with 40 percent of those over age 25.
* Nearly two-thirds of Nexters (63 percent) believe humans and other living things evolved over time. By contrast, Americans over the age of 40 favor Creationist accounts over evolutionary theory.
* Nexters are the most tolerant of any generation on social issues such as immigration, race and homosexuality.
* Nexters are among the most likely to say the will of the American people, not the Bible, should be a more important influence on U.S. laws.
* And just 4 percent of Gen Nexters say people in their generation view becoming more spiritual as their most important goal in life.

Looking at similar surveys over the past few decades, religious belief is in decline and humanist values are on the rise in all Western nations. The general pattern is that there is a small decline in religious adherence as people age, but that skepticism about religion -- and other humanist values -- increases markedly with each rising generation. In other words, the big changes in religious belief do not come from people changing their beliefs as they age, they come from new generations having different beliefs.

[Goblinmonger]

1. ..

:woohoo:

[Warpy]

8. Your glee may be premature, I'm afraid

I watched friend after friend shed their wild ways and join churches when they had kids.

Just as people get more conservative when they have kids, they get more in tune with organized religion. I think this may be a statistical norm, although it's by no means universal.

In other words, expect them to get more godly as they get older if they've produced children.

[charlie]

12. Yeah, just follow the arc of the boomers

as they pass through recent history like a lump in a gorged snake. The hard-right, religious-soaked tilt of the land wouldn't be possible if so many of them weren't on board with it.

[KansDem]

2. Thank God for this development!

;)

[Fridays Child]

3. I second that.

:woohoo: :woohoo:

[hlthe2b]

4. By contrast, Americans over the age of 40 favor Creationist ....

accounts over evolutionary theory.

I REFUSE to believe this...Come ON....I'd love to see how the question was asked. :mad:

I call BS on this one...

[muriel_volestrangler]

10. Here's the wording:

"Humans and other living things...
Have evolved over time
Have existed in their present form since the beginning of time
Don’t know"

full report

It's a close run thing: for the age group 41-60, 47% pick evolution, 46% pick "since the beginning of time", while those 61+ split 42% and 45% respectively. So the figures are effectively even, allowing for survey error.

[hlthe2b]

11. thanks mvs....

I'm still surpised it is that close...

[trotsky]

5. God Bless the Internets

I don't think this would be possible without them.

[SCantiGOP]

6. obvious

I can see this easily. I'm 56, with a 27 year old daughter and 22 year old son. When I was a teenager, not only would being 'queer' get you beaten up, but not saying filthy, hateful things about queers would make you an oddity. It's simply not an issue for my kids. They have known gay kids since they were in high school, and everybody takes a 'live and let live' attitude. From a second marriage I have a 9 year old daughter who is totally color-blind. She understands about racism as an historical concept because of studying slavery, MLK and the civil rights movement, but it never enters into her decisions about who she likes or dislikes. Interestingly, she developed an interest in going to church, since we have never gone and a lot of her friends talk about it. We let her go with friends and my wife took her several times, but after a month or two she quit bringing it up. Twenty years from now gay marriage, abortion, stem cell research and the other GOP hot issues will be historical artifacts.

[Warpy]

9. If we survive

future generations are going to wonder how this country managed to fall off its rocker to completely and in such a short time.

[redqueen]

7. Now that is some wonderful news!

:woohoo:

[kiahzero]

13. There's a rather large conflation there

* One-in-five members of "Generation Next" say they have no religious affiliation or are atheist or agnostic, nearly double the proportion of young people who said that in the late 1980s.

"No religious affiliation" <> "atheist or agnostic"

[muriel_volestrangler]

14. The exact questionnaire wording for the answer was:

"No religion, not a believer, atheist, agnostic"

http://people-press.org/reports/questionnaires/300.pdf

[kiahzero]

15. Again, "no religion" doesn't really fit there, in my mind.

It would depend on how one defined "religion."

[muriel_volestrangler]

16. That would be up to the responder, wouldn't it?

They also had the option of "Don't know/refused" or "other religion". Yes, surveys asking about religion do depend on how one defines 'religion'. You can't avoid that.