Irreligion in the United States

Hi ATS.

I thought you'd all like to know something I found rather interesting -

Encompassing atheism, agnosticism, deism, skepticism, freethought, secular humanism or general secularism and even some forms of alternative spirituality such as New Age, various polls have put the population of "non-religious" North Americans at between 20 and 35 million. An American Religious Identification Survey released in March 2009 indicated that 15% of Americans – roughly 45 million – "say they have no religion" (up from 8.2% in 1990), while an estimated 1.6 million self-identify as atheists (up from 900,000 in 2001).

Wikipedia - Irreligion in the United States

Looking at this growth in the rate of religious decay, and taking into account it is only likely to speed up within the next ten years, I think we can safely say that religion is OFFICIALLY a 'dead man walking'.

Bear in mind this survey is an UNALIGNED piece of research - there's no 'evil atheists' behind it.

What a beautiful world we will live in when the below chart turns white.

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How long will it be before an openly ATHEIST president can be elected? How long before the 'special interest' groups are no longer interesting, or treated as special? How long before people realise that when Islam dies out as well, they will find themselves actually hating middle-eastern people because they're middle eastern, rather than Muslims...

What a brave new world we live in.

The Revenant.

People are becoming more educated and evolving beyond that nonsense from the dark ages. Of course there are areas in the U.S. that are still very much deluded by religion, but its hard to ignore that they are also among the least educated states and regions of the country (ie: the bible belt). They just need to be brought up to speed via education like the more educated and intelligent states of the country that know better.

The day will come in the future where everyone will consider religion to be as silly as a flat earth or a bearded man on a cloud spying on your every move and thought every second of everyday.

Then there can be world peace... finally.

I believe there is always going to be some form of religion. How would you define religion is the first place? A belief in God? Spiritualism is becoming very popular yet many people who claim the spiritual tag don't like the religious tag. Still I look for more people who are becoming Atheist and Agnostic.

Originally posted by pplrnuts
a bearded man on a cloud spying on your every move and thought every second of everyday.

Someone has been watching Bill Hicks and / or Bill Mahers' Religulous....

Totally agree with you. It's nice to see a statistic that proves the theists wrong, incontrovertably, for once.

The Revenant.

The day after all religion is erased from America
an Islamic president will be in office and declare sharia law.

You say I'm being alarmist and reactionary, but I say that I'm just making a point.

I'm all for Atheist. But why is it that they are never interested in going to the rest of the world first.
Why are they not interested in teaching literacy to the poor. How many countries have they sent food too.

And why is it that every Atheist group that has actually acheived political power
celebrates by murduring millions of it's own citizens.

Unless one is a post graduate level,
or PhD level academic, this
stuff is emotional
naiveity


David Grouchy

reply to post by Romantic_Rebel


Excellent point - the Wikipedia article deals with that issue nicely. It shows the different demographics in terms of spiritually aligned people, as opposed to proper theists and atheists etc.

Rev.

reply to post by davidgrouchy


Interesting point of view Grouchy.

Islam is a religion as well you know? So I think the possibility of an Islamic president declaring Sharia Law is slim, as Islam will have collapsed soon as well. Just look at the Atheist underground in Iran for that!

Rev.

Let's look at the Atheist underground in Austin TX instead.
These two gentlemen are better educated than their
callers, and they laugh at the emotional angst
they cause. They are particularly pleased
when they make people angry.
This is not educating
or enlightening.

Unless one
is already
smart.


David Grouchy

The day we stop believing in something will be the begining of the end.
Already the world is full of psychos, imagine a world where no believes in an afterlife....total chaos.
I myself am against organized religion but I think that were not as advanced and intellegent as we would like to be.
We've had the internet for a couple of days and already we think we know everything..."what you talking about, just google it"...

I respect everyones view, if they believe in God then so be it, if they dont then so be it.
But I sense an agenda to disconect us spiritually, why do you think these people tried to eliminate the indigenous population from around the world?
The NWO is about dropping all of your traditional values. People say "oh im an atheist, I dont believe in God, im intellegent of course I would know how to run the world".

Have you asked yourself why your are an atheist?
Why, because you saw it on TV?
Or did you meet the scientist in person and he proved to you there is nothing when you die?
Religion is a fraud and the belief in a God or afterlife or something dates back further than the Pope, Rabbis or Immans.

I dont want to live in a Mad Max world.

reply to post by davidgrouchy


They didn't make anyone angry. The man in question chose to respond in anger. That was his choice. Stop blaming it on others. That moron didn''t have to watch the show and he knew it.

reply to post by davidgrouchy


I believe the term you're looking for is no it all. Since I've become an Atheist I enjoy trolling religious people in IRL.

Originally posted by antonia
They didn't make anyone angry. The man in question chose to respond in anger. That was his choice. Stop blaming it on others. That moron didn''t have to watch the show and he knew it.

Maybe he was looking to actually learn something
but all he felt was insulted and derided.
I like Atheism, they make me smarter.
But a panacea they are not.
The word 'moron' is in
the quote above.
Why?


David Grouchy

reply to post by davidgrouchy


Because only a moron would read the bible and then proclaim they were going to "punch you for Jesus". Jesus makes it pretty clear you would be sinning.


Honestly, he was just trolling anyway.

Well let's look at what a Vatican Astronomer
said about his experience in going to Texas.
Does he insult, or show more understanding of the other persons perspective.

I find it, particularly what he actually says about genesis,
is nothing like what Atheist would have you think we believe.


David Grouchy

So you're claiming Atheist are ignorant of other's beliefs? You're sounding more like a hypocrite with your comments in this thread.

Originally posted by davidgrouchy
The day after all religion is erased from America
an Islamic president will be in office and declare sharia law.

But if there is no religion, how is there going to be a Muslim in America?
And how would that President be able to declare Sharia law in a nation that would not follow it?

You say I'm being alarmist and reactionary, but I say that I'm just making a point.

A very silly one.

I'm all for Atheist. But why is it that they are never interested in going to the rest of the world first.
Why are they not interested in teaching literacy to the poor. How many countries have they sent food too.

Um...I don't tend to send food, though I do make direct donations to charities.

Thank you for stereotyping atheists as immoral people though.

And why is it that every Atheist group that has actually acheived political power
celebrates by murduring millions of it's own citizens.

...um...what? When?
'Atheist groups' don't murder people, political parties do.
The Soviet Union didn't kill religious people because it was atheist, it did it because the state could have possibly been challenged by religious authority. It was a ridiculously stupid bloodthirsty move.

And let me guess, the Nazis, the group of people with "God is with us" emblazoned on their belt-buckles and whose leader regularly expressed love for his 'creator' were atheists too?

I'm sorry, but atheists may have achieved political power, but they didn't do what they did because they didn't believe in a deity.

Unless one is a post graduate level,
or PhD level academic, this
stuff is emotional
naiveity

And this is brilliant until you realize that it's all a load of bull-hockey.

Originally posted by Dr Cosma
The day we stop believing in something will be the begining of the end.

Oh, we'll keep believing things, just not supernatural things.

Already the world is full of psychos, imagine a world where no believes in an afterlife....total chaos.

...why do we need a belief in the afterlife to function? And haven't there always been psychos?

I myself am against organized religion but I think that were not as advanced and intellegent as we would like to be.

Of course we're not that intelligent, but we're trying to get there.

We've had the internet for a couple of days and already we think we know everything..."what you talking about, just google it"...

Well, that's sort of a silly way to characterize things. The internet has been a consumer product for over 15 years and it is the greatest repository of human knowledge known in the world. It's also the easiest to access. So if you don't know something, you can google it and learn it.

I respect everyones view, if they believe in God then so be it, if they dont then so be it.

Except that you think everything will be chaos if there isn't a belief in a supernatural deity.

But I sense an agenda to disconect us spiritually, why do you think these people tried to eliminate the indigenous population from around the world?

...what do you mean 'these people'?
Atheists weren't responsible for the destruction of indigenous populations.
One of the most famous atheists in history, Charles Darwin, regularly expressed his respect for indigenous populations and his disheartening at their horrid treatment by colonial Britain.

The NWO is about dropping all of your traditional values. People say "oh im an atheist, I dont believe in God, im intellegent of course I would know how to run the world".

...wow, so it has to be a conspiracy?
How about this...religion has been getting weaker for decades and centuries. It's just a logical step.
And isn't it better for people to think that they know what they're doing than think they have a divine mandate?

Have you asked yourself why your are an atheist?

Because there is an entire lack of evidence for the existence of any deity.

Why, because you saw it on TV?

...the majority of depictions of atheism in television are entirely horrible. Whenever I see a show deal with atheism I am always disheartened.

Or did you meet the scientist in person and he proved to you there is nothing when you die?

Um...no, that's not how scientists work.
You're clearly deluded if you think that's what scientists go around doing.

...and "meet a scientist in person"? What are they, mythic beings? My father is a scientist. I see plenty of other scientists when I attend classes at my University.

Here's the crazy thing: There's no proof that there is something after we die.
Why should we believe it?
Why should we be forced to disprove it?

Religion is a fraud and the belief in a God or afterlife or something dates back further than the Pope, Rabbis or Immans.

...and atheism predates that.

I dont want to live in a Mad Max world.

Good, than don't support the sort of irrationality that fosters religion.

reply to post by davidgrouchy


I will admit, that alot of atheists are very 'illiberal' with their views. Whilst I await the day that religion disappears, I don't wish for people's rghts to be repressed.

Rev.

This is addressed to MadnessInMySoul,
who did a detailed autopsy of my posts in two responses above.

Have you seen this clip of Professor Dawkins before?
You may be surprised to find that he is
actually on my side in this one.


David Grouchy

reply to post by davidgrouchy


Are you a Christian? I'm curious. Seems you're trying to prove something with these youtube videos here. Yet I just here someone moaning.