Gallup Poll shows the decline continues

[Wertbag]

Belief in God, the devil falls to new low: Gallup – The Hill

 

Religion | Gallup Historical Trends

 

New low score for belief in America.  One interesting stat was that only 85% of Catholics said they believe in God, as opposed to 94% of Protestants.  Maybe more people who are social or in it for tradition but not actual believers.

Also, hard to know if it will accelerate as the numbers decrease (more voices against religion, more media against, less pressure to become religious), or whether you hit a certain point where the people are fixed in their ways, so it slows until generational changes have an impact.

 

I do love the table on belief in the bible.  50 years ago, 38% said it was the word of God, now it's down to 20%.  While people who say it's all legendary went from 13% to 29%.

[older]

It can't happen fast enough. 

[Casualfanboy16]

As someone in a highly Christian area, it doesn't feel like it's declining lmao. 

[☆ DarkBishop ☆]

3 hours ago, Wertbag said:

Belief in God, the devil falls to new low: Gallup – The Hill

 

Religion | Gallup Historical Trends

 

New low score for belief in America.  One interesting stat was that only 85% of Catholics said they believe in God, as opposed to 94% of Protestants.  Maybe more people who are social or in it for tradition but not actual believers.

Also, hard to know if it will accelerate as the numbers decrease (more voices against religion, more media against, less pressure to become religious), or whether you hit a certain point where the people are fixed in their ways, so it slows until generational changes have an impact.

 

I do love the table on belief in the bible.  50 years ago, 38% said it was the word of God, now it's down to 20%.  While people who say it's all legendary went from 13% to 29%.

I've noticed a definite decline. And I'm loving it. 

[Casualfanboy16]

9 hours ago, DarkBishop said:

I've noticed a definite decline. And I'm loving it. 

I wish I noticed a decline here lol

[☆ DarkBishop ☆]

1 hour ago, Casualfanboy16 said:

I wish I noticed a decline here lol

Well honestly your not really old enough to notice a decline.

 

I just know that when I was a kid a church would be filled with people excited about revival. My exs church is having a revival right now with very little attendance thankfully. Pentecostal churches are a different breed of church. And I don't believe I would have cared for them even as a believer. I thought my old church was out there until I saw one of there services.

 

Sundays most people went to church. Even the small churches had a pretty good number of people attending. People I worked with 20 years ago mostly considered themselves Christian. Now I've seen several of the small churches with only a handful of cars in the parking lot. Some are probably close to going under. And people I work with are less religious now. The ones that say they are Christian aren't what I would call practicing Christians. And they certainly aren't fundamentalists. 

 

Maybe it is mostly a fundamentalist decline in the faith right now. Most of those small churches were probably fundy. Especially in my area. 

 

Maybe waiting on Jesus for 2000 years might be about the limit. Lol  

 

DB

[Casualfanboy16]

54 minutes ago, DarkBishop said:

Maybe waiting on Jesus for 2000 years might be about the limit. Lol

Jesus sure loves taking his sweet time lol. 

[TheRedneckProfessor]

It seems to me that there has been somewhat of an ebb and flow during my lifetime.  In the late 70s there was a lot of revival movements centered around former hippies and burnouts embracing the peace and love message of jesus. 

 

Then the early 80s came along and, for a few years, it was all about computers and in-home video games, not so much about religion.  Until the satanic panic caught on and suddenly there were demon-worshippers molesting children in every small town and hamlet.  Big downer for my formative years, because literally everything that was even remotely fun was of the devil. 

 

But this is about the time that the religious right started getting their act together.  Mainly united on the issue of abortion, the religious right started attracting more politically minded conservative christians; and fundamentalists of every extreme fit right in with them.

 

The 90s brought a more sensible reasonableness to christianity.  People wanted more "user friendly" churches.  The old hymnals were thrown away in favor of the rock concert style worship favored by the younger crowd.  Preachers were no longer expected to wear a full suit and tie, and often preached from the comfort of their blue jeans.  Even the message was more watery, with less focus on hell and repentance, and more focus on love and acceptance. 

 

Then 9/11 happened...

 

That changed everything.  Because it wasn't just terrorists who did it.  It was Muslim terrorists.  It wasn't just a political statement made by disenfranchised and marginalized youth from a poverty-stricken nation.  It was jihad. 

 

The religious right could not have asked for a better opportunity than what those falling towers dropped into their laps.  Now they had vindication for all the years they had been trying to "call our nation back to the lord."  And they had a common enemy upon whom to blame everything. 

 

Oddly enough, about the time I entered my long and brutal 4 year deconversion process, christianity, especially fundamentalist christianity, began to make a slow, but steady progression.  Folks who had been nominally christian were suddenly burning with the kind of religious fervor that can only come as a result of being involved in a holy war against the encroachment of foreign ideas and religions upon our blessed native soil (okay, we took the soil from the natives, but it's the closest thing we got to native soil).

 

The last 20 years, in my opinion, have been a direct result of our politicians and their religious right allies simply capitalizing on that horrific event.  The surge of religious fundamentalism and the seeming takeover of our government by conservative politics can be traced back to that very first airplane crashing into the Tower.

 

At the same time, there is a sharp decline in the actual number of people who profess christianity, or who hold to the finer points of doctrine and practice.  I'd like to think that the current fundamentalist environment is simply the last dying twitch of a wounded beast slowly wasting away, that the rise to power has just been that final spasm of trying to cling to life, and that the majority of people have either already seen through it entirely, or have at least seen enough to know that this is not the future they want.  Time will tell, I reckon. 

 

Of course, this is merely my opinion; and I could be completely wrong. 

[TheRedneckProfessor]

1 hour ago, DarkBishop said:

Maybe waiting on Jesus for 2000 years might be about the limit. Lol  

 

DB

 

29 minutes ago, Casualfanboy16 said:

Jesus sure loves taking his sweet time lol. 

Dude, if I could come for 2,000 years I'd never leave the bed. 

[Casualfanboy16]

28 minutes ago, TheRedneckProfessor said:

 

Dude, if I could come for 2,000 years I'd never leave the bed. 

HAHAHAHA SAME. I mean, sorry Jesus. You aren't the man I'll be getting on my knees for.

 

Edit: WAIT I'VE GOT MORE!!

 

Jesus isn't the only thing rising after 3 days.

 

Jesus isn't the only thing getting nailed.

 

(I'm going to hell lol)

[Casualfanboy16]

1 hour ago, Casualfanboy16 said:

(I'm going to hell lol)

Me after typing this:

 

[Casualfanboy16]

2 hours ago, Casualfanboy16 said:

HAHAHAHA SAME. I mean, sorry Jesus. You aren't the man I'll be getting on my knees for.

 

Edit: WAIT I'VE GOT MORE!!

 

Jesus isn't the only thing rising after 3 days.

 

Jesus isn't the only thing getting nailed.

 

(I'm going to hell lol)

Adding one more:

 

Call me the Red Sea because I want to be split apart.

 

(I am going too far with these hgfdddggfs)

[Casualfanboy16]

Okay enough crude jokes from me lol. I'm just kinda like "Oh, it's dying. Oh well." I mean, I'm not suprised at all by the decline. Times change, usually religion doesn't all that much.

 

As a gay guy, I personally find the decline to be for the better. I've seen heard far too many religious people call people like me mentally ill or pedos or worse. If anything, the decline makes me feel a bit more hopeful for the future for people like me.

 

Still though, I don't want to spite religious people and celebrate the decline even though Christianity fucked me up so hard though. Is that weird? On one hand, religion messed me up and I want it to go down in numbers. On the other hand, I feel like that doesn't make me any better than religious people that would people like me to drop in numbers. I feel guilty for being sorta happy about it despite the religious right's continuous attempts to make my life hell.

 

[TheRedneckProfessor]

I don't have a problem with people being religious.  My problem, or rather, problems, are a. when they indoctrinate susceptible children before they reach the age of reason, and b. when they attempt to control others through legislative and political means based on their religion.

 

Do what thou wilt; and treat me likewise. 

[Wertbag]

I think churches are actively harmful, so the more that go away the better.  At the current rate it will be another 30 years before its no longer the majority, but I have hope that the rate will accelerate as the older, more devout generation passes away.  Still should be something most of us will see within our life time.

[Casualfanboy16]

19 minutes ago, TheRedneckProfessor said:

a. when they indoctrinate susceptible children before they reach the age of reason, and b. when they attempt to control others through legislative and political means based on their religion.

I agree with both of these. I wish instead of raising kids up in the faith from a young age and trying to instill their religious beliefs onto their children, instead they should wait until they're older and then they can decide for themselves what to follow and not rope them in from birth like my parents did sending me straight to a Christian school and essentially wasting all that money because they expected me to come out Christian and instead I came out the gayest agnostic mf alive lol.

 

Also, since religion very much often intertwines with politics and makes people like me go through hell on earth to try and prevent conservative Christians (or just conservatives in general because here it doesn't matter Christian or not most people lean towards the right) from screwing our lives over, that's another thing that grinds my gears. I don't want to screw over people's religious freedoms and stuff, but when the religious right continually fucks us over I just get so angry. Gay marriage wasn't even legal in all 50 states until 2015. Now trans people and drag queens are getting their shit rocked. I kinda have to feel pissed at the injustices tbh. Why can't we just be left alone instead of being seen as a political issue?

[Casualfanboy16]

16 minutes ago, Wertbag said:

I think churches are actively harmful, so the more that go away the better.  At the current rate it will be another 30 years before its no longer the majority, but I have hope that the rate will accelerate as the older, more devout generation passes away.  Still should be something most of us will see within our life time.

Couldn't agree more. I just want to be able to hold hands on the street with a future partner without religious people hurling slurs at me or trying to take the rights of people like me away, or just in general treating people like me like trash. Hell, even people that go "love the sinner, hate the sin" don't want that attitude around either. At this point, I should be pissed off. In fact, I am angry. It's hard not to be when my own parents don't support me being gay because of their religious beliefs. Honestly, screw feeling guilty I'm gonna at least take a bit of joy out of this.

[Aries256]

On 7/25/2023 at 6:20 PM, Casualfanboy16 said:

Okay enough crude jokes from me lol. I'm just kinda like "Oh, it's dying. Oh well." I mean, I'm not suprised at all by the decline. Times change, usually religion doesn't all that much.

 

As a gay guy, I personally find the decline to be for the better. I've seen heard far too many religious people call people like me mentally ill or pedos or worse. If anything, the decline makes me feel a bit more hopeful for the future for people like me.

 

Still though, I don't want to spite religious people and celebrate the decline even though Christianity fucked me up so hard though. Is that weird? On one hand, religion messed me up and I want it to go down in numbers. On the other hand, I feel like that doesn't make me any better than religious people that would people like me to drop in numbers. I feel guilty for being sorta happy about it despite the religious right's continuous attempts to make my life hell.

 

As a gay guy I def would celebrate the collapse of one of the worst diseases to ever infect the world and mind. But that’s just me. 

[Casualfanboy16]

1 minute ago, Aries256 said:

As a gay guy I def would celebrate the collapse of one of the worst diseases to ever infect the world and mind. But that’s just me. 

Yay! Another gay guy here! Honestly, over these past few days, sometimes I don't even feel guilty celebrating the decline anymore because recently my family and I got into an argument over vacation and they wanted me to come back to God and try to essentially make me an ex-gay. Hard pass, obviously. I'm not erasing years worth of progress with accepting myself just to make my family and "god" happy. It was a whole thing. I didn't want to celebrate initially, but after that I'm throwing a party. Here, have some cake lmfaooooo

[Aries256]

4 hours ago, Casualfanboy16 said:

Yay! Another gay guy here! Honestly, over these past few days, sometimes I don't even feel guilty celebrating the decline anymore because recently my family and I got into an argument over vacation and they wanted me to come back to God and try to essentially make me an ex-gay. Hard pass, obviously. I'm not erasing years worth of progress with accepting myself just to make my family and "god" happy. It was a whole thing. I didn't want to celebrate initially, but after that I'm throwing a party. Here, have some cake lmfaooooo

Gladly I’ve always said, if “god” has a problem with me being gay:

1: then why did he make me as such?

2: if he has a problem with it, then he can gather up the cajones to come down from his “heaven”, and tell me to my face, and be expected to explain his sick and demented reasonings. So far no one has shown up. 

[Casualfanboy16]

On 8/3/2023 at 1:18 AM, Aries256 said:

Gladly I’ve always said, if “god” has a problem with me being gay:

1: then why did he make me as such?

2: if he has a problem with it, then he can gather up the cajones to come down from his “heaven”, and tell me to my face, and be expected to explain his sick and demented reasonings. So far no one has shown up. 

I replied to this a bit late. Whoops. Oh well. But yeah. Like, he makes me into something he supposedly detests and deems "sinful" and is something that makes him not want to invite me into his eternal home in hEavEn? Why? You can flood the whole earth and kill almost everyone on it, send people to a realm of eternal punishment if we don't believe, do a whole bunch of other horrible shit...but I like men and I'm the wicked one?? Okay, motherfucker. That's completely reasonable and totally not insane at all. His reasonings are sick and demented. And illogical, and wild, and all sorts of adjectives that I don't have the brainpower to come up with right now. He's so fucked lmao.

[♦ Fuego ♦]

On 7/25/2023 at 7:54 AM, TheRedneckProfessor said:

The last 20 years, in my opinion, have been a direct result of our politicians and their religious right allies simply capitalizing on that horrific event.  The surge of religious fundamentalism and the seeming takeover of our government by conservative politics can be traced back to that very first airplane crashing into the Tower.

 

At the same time, there is a sharp decline in the actual number of people who profess christianity, or who hold to the finer points of doctrine and practice.

 

From what I saw, I think the conservative invasion of government began in the 80s during the devil scare that swept the churches. We also saw a huge "patriotic" upswing with the Olympics in 1984. I saw church become much more militant about threats from anything they labeled demons. You mentioned the fake conspiracies of demon worshiping molesters and such, and my little Nazarene church ate that up. Mental illness became clear evidence of demonic attack and possession, and one lady that was mentally ill and had led a life of poor choices suddenly had someone else to blame, so she acted the part pretty convincingly of someone possessed. Not surprisingly, prayer and taking authority over the demons didn't do much, but medication did. Same with the pastor's wife that went into a bipolar phase and did some horrific things, and they still see that as evidence that the invisible war is all real. But again, medication is what sorted her out. 

 

Increasingly I saw whole sections of the church emphasize that they HAD to get into politics and start creating the kingdom of god and fighting the demonic forces that were "taking over" the country. The military began pushing Christianity and punishing those that wouldn't attend their meetings. That has become a legal battle repeatedly. 9/11 created a new "patriotic" fervor and hatred directed at those from the Middle East that weren't Jews. That played nicely into us battling the historic enemies of God. On and on it steamrolled. But at the same time, some of us believers were soured on the idea of politics establishing the kingdom of god instead of personal transformation from within. Others simply didn't buy into the whole demonic thing being real at all. Then we saw how many pastors and youth pastors and priests were guilty of molesting and raping IN the church, and how the churches often would blame the victims and cover up for "the man of God". So we got increasingly fed up with impostors and liars, and many of us left the churches for a small group or solitary path with Jesus. If I hadn't become involved with another sub-cult in Christianity, I may never have seen through the cult of Christianity.

 

Now I mostly see a shell of religion being used like a bumper sticker or icon that is added to the many flags waved by the political right. God-Guns-Guts is one flag I've seen in the rural areas here, essentially macho Jesus with a machine gun. Still there are the normal believers trying to do good. Sadly some of them are also convinced of conspiracies that aren't real. Belief displaces fact. 

 

 

[◊ Weezer ◊]

I don't think the people who want God in government have thought past the end of their nose.  They want the christian God.  But which version of that God would wind up in control??  And what happens when Muslims outnumber Christians??

[☆ moxieflux66 ☆]

On 7/25/2023 at 7:25 AM, Casualfanboy16 said:

Jesus sure loves taking his sweet time lol. 

Amirite? 

[☆ moxieflux66 ☆]

On 7/25/2023 at 6:43 PM, Casualfanboy16 said:

they should wait until they're older and then they can decide for themselves what to follow

Yes! What's wrong with that??? Pretty much how I raised my own kids. And they're mature, tax paying union job working MORAL CITIZENS! In fact, they're largely unaware of all this crap because of it. 

Unfortunately, my grandson wants to 'explore' the 'holy spirit' by going to a pentacostal church. THIS worries me. He's a couple years older than you Casual. What do I say to him??