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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
 Posted - 03/09/2009 : 12:00:47
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Hat tip to PZ Myers' Pharyngula for this one. (Happy Birthday, PZ!)
This just in from Fox, so you know it's both Fair and Balanced: Monday, March 09, 2009
A wide-ranging study on American religious life found that the Roman Catholic population has been shifting out of the Northeast to the Southwest, the percentage of Christians in the nation has declined and more people say they have no religion at all.
Fifteen percent of respondents said they had no religion, an increase from 14.2 percent in 2001 and 8.2 percent in 1990, according to the American Religious Identification Survey.
Northern New England surpassed the Pacific Northwest as the least religious region, with Vermont reporting the highest share of those claiming no religion, at 34 percent. Still, the study found that the numbers of Americans with no religion rose in every state.
"No other religious bloc has kept such a pace in every state," the study's authors said.
In the Northeast, self-identified Catholics made up 36 percent of adults last year, down from 43 percent in 1990. At the same time, however, Catholics grew to about one-third of the adult population in California and Texas, and one-quarter of Floridians, largely due to Latino immigration, according to the research.
Nationally, Catholics remain the largest religious group, with 57 million people saying they belong to the church. The tradition gained 11 million followers since 1990, but its share of the population fell by about a percentage point to 25 percent.
Christians who aren't Catholic also are a declining segment of the country. |
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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Gorgo
SFN Die Hard
USA
5310 Posts |
Posted - 03/09/2009 : 12:44:21 [Permalink]
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http://www.americanreligionsurvey-aris.org/
Only1.6 percent of Americans call themselves atheist or agnostic. But based on stated beliefs, 12 percent are atheist (no God) or agnostic (unsure), while 12 percent more are deistic (believe in a higher power but not a personal God). The number of outright atheists has nearly doubled since 2001, from 900 thousand to 1.6 million. Twenty-seven percent of Americans do not expect a religious funeral at their death.
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I think a lot of agnostics are also atheists, while some are theists. I'm not sure that it just means that they're not sure. |
I know the rent is in arrears
The dog has not been fed in years
It's even worse than it appears
But it's alright-
Jerry Garcia
Robert Hunter
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| Edited by - Gorgo on 03/09/2009 15:12:24 |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 03/09/2009 : 13:17:01 [Permalink]
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Thanks for the new link, Gorgo.
As I was telling my brother last night, I personally expect the godless trend in the US to accelerate, as social pressure to be part of the dominant Christian majority evaporates and is replaced by social networks in which being god-free is not only acceptable, but encouraged.
The route taken in Western Europe will probably be the one taken, belatedly, in the US.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
| Edited by - HalfMooner on 03/09/2009 13:18:12 |
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Zebra
Skeptic Friend
USA
354 Posts |
Posted - 03/09/2009 : 22:58:50 [Permalink]
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34% of people in Vermont responded "none"? Saddle up the bags, darlin' - we're moving.
There are links to more of their data at the end of the page gordo linked to. The geographical data (in table form) is here.
Lowest % of "nones": Mississippi at 5%
2nd lowest: North Dakota at 7%
then the rest of the South
All but 6 states' percentage of "nones" hit double digits
Woo hoo!
[Edited to add the link & info on geographic data]
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I think, you know, freedom means freedom for everyone* -Dick Cheney
*some restrictions may apply |
| Edited by - Zebra on 03/09/2009 23:05:09 |
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Gorgo
SFN Die Hard
USA
5310 Posts |
Posted - 03/10/2009 : 01:40:21 [Permalink]
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I'll have to read this in more detail. I'm not sure how I'd answer this question. There is no such thing as a god? There is no Jehovah, or Thor, but God? I doubt it seriously, but can I say there is no such thing? Define it first? Is that what they think an atheist is?
Beliefs about God among U.S. Adult Population 2008
Regarding the existence of God, do you think . . . ?
There is no such thing 2.3%
There is no way to know 4.3%
I'm not sure 5.7%
There is a higher power but no personal God 12.1%
There is definitely a personal God 69.5%
Refused 6.1%
n = 1,000 100%
A new belief question was introduced into ARIS in 2008. Table 4 shows that when asked about the existence of God less than 70 percent of Americans now believe in the traditional theological concept of a personal God. This question was not asked in 1990 and 2001. A surprisingly large proportion of contemporary Americans, just over 12 percent, believe in a deist or paganistic concept of the Divine as a higher power. Whereas Table 3 showed that only one percent of Americans actually self-identify as agnostics, Table 4 reveals that 10 percent hold agnostic beliefs (5.7% a “softer” form and 4.3% a “harder form” of agnosticism). These findings about the “belief” aspect of religiosity tend to complicate our interpretation of some of the trends and findings in the earlier tables relating to “belonging.” If 76 percent of Americans self-identify with Christianity and 80 percent with a religion then many millions do not subscribe fully to the theology of the groups with which they identify. |
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I know the rent is in arrears
The dog has not been fed in years
It's even worse than it appears
But it's alright-
Jerry Garcia
Robert Hunter
|
| Edited by - Gorgo on 03/10/2009 01:42:10 |
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Gorgo
SFN Die Hard
USA
5310 Posts |
Posted - 03/10/2009 : 01:43:49 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Zebra
34% of people in Vermont responded "none"? Saddle up the bags, darlin' - we're moving.
There are links to more of their data at the end of the page gordo linked to. The geographical data (in table form) is here.
Lowest % of "nones": Mississippi at 5%
2nd lowest: North Dakota at 7%
then the rest of the South
All but 6 states' percentage of "nones" hit double digits
Woo hoo!
[Edited to add the link & info on geographic data]
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A quick skim isn't helping me here. Are they saying "NONE" means no organized religious group? That doesn't mean someone who thinks there is likely no supernatural, does it? |
I know the rent is in arrears
The dog has not been fed in years
It's even worse than it appears
But it's alright-
Jerry Garcia
Robert Hunter
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On fire for Christ
SFN Regular
Norway
1273 Posts |
Posted - 03/10/2009 : 03:01:08 [Permalink]
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| Does it mention anywhere how large the data set for this is? It claims 57 million are catholics, is this taken from census info or is this just a projection based on survey? |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 03/10/2009 : 03:09:55 [Permalink]
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Completly unrelated to the OP, well, maybe slightly related, is this: Our Hail Mary Pass
Why We Ran the "Godless" Ad—And What I'd Do Differently
By Marty Ryall
In the #64257;nal week of the 2008 election, Sen. Elizabeth Dole's campaign aired a television ad that would be one of the most controversial of the year. The ad criticized our opponent, Kay Hagan, for attending a fundraising event in her honor at the home of two well-known atheists. One was a founding member of the Godless Americans PAC. |
Cry me a river, scumbag; cry me a fucking river. As I saw it from a less lofty position, that add pissed off not a few of our local believers, who thought it was not only uncalled for but petty. I myself, think that it drove the final, rusty nail in Dole's campaign coffin.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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More Americans Say They Have No Religion
