Current Events > Religion continues to get kicked to the curb in America. Fading fast.

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://depauliaonline.com/54202/nation/religion-falters-as-more-americans-reject-traditional-institutions/

A recent Gallup poll found that the percentage of Americans with a membership at a house of worship fell under 50 percent for the first time in 80 years.

As a whole, religions influence in the nation has been declining the past several years.

There are several theories as to why religions grip on society is slipping.

Theres the general rise of secularism, which is to say the recognition of non-adherence to religion as a viable option, said Scott Paeth, a DePaul religious studies professor. [Additionally, there] is the general decline in institutional life generally. Religion, insofar as it is housed within institutional forms like churches, synagogues, mosques or temples, is experiencing the same decline as all other institutions as civil society collapses and people become more isolated and insular.

He also said that he sees the decline in religious participation being partly due to the sexual abuse crisis within the Catholic church and, more recently, the backing of former President Donald Trump by a large population of evangelical Christians.

The decline is so bad that Republicans are freaking out. They have no idea what to do about it:

https://www.npr.org/2021/06/04/1002841048/how-is-the-gop-adjusting-to-a-less-religious-america

The key bloc of white evangelicals is shrinking.

This makes religion one key part of a looming, long-term demographic challenge for Republicans, says Whit Ayres, a Republican pollster.

"Republicans clearly have a stronger hold among the religiously affiliated, especially evangelical Protestants. And consequently, any decline in evangelical Protestant affiliation is not good news for the GOP," he said.

https://youtu.be/mzItS5BmUNw

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Religion needs to fade faster im
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The zoomies aren't interested in it. :v Most holy texts don't include tone indicators. /srs

Its hilarious that someone like Donald Trump was considered a moral enough person for Evangelicals to love and worship him like they do.

All he did was taint religion and caused religion to decline.

Excellent
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Captain Jean Luc Picard detested religion so much he broke the Prime Directive a dozen different ways to prevent a society from resurrecting their religious beliefs and worshipping him. Be like Jean Luc.

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I've always found it funny that when church attendance numbers drop, it makes large swathes of the remaining faithful double-down on their evangelical craziness which, uh, doesn't help them.

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Xavier_On_High posted...

I've always found it funny that when church attendance numbers drop, it makes large swathes of the remaining faithful double-down on their evangelical craziness which, uh, doesn't help them.

Yeah.

MorbidFaithless posted...

Captain Jean Luc Picard detested religion so much he broke the Prime Directive a dozen different ways to prevent a society from resurrecting their religious beliefs and worshipping him. Be like Jean Luc.

I'm okay with it. A lot of people are kicking and screaming though.

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I don't know if it's a net good or a net bad. Like GRRM, I was raised Catholic but am no longer religious. GRRM credits these instilled values as the reason that he believes in forgiveness and redemption. These are values that are frowned upon today, and I wonder if a decline in religion has anything to do with it.

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Sounds like a good thing at first glance.

Thing is though, many people are just replacing traditional religion with goofy new age spiritual mystic beliefs and strange occult practices.

Replace one fairytale with another. The positive is generally less bigotry, but everyone's becoming weird af now. Instead of just talking about last night's hockey game at the bar, some goofball always strays the conversation into chakra alignment and ancient aliens or some shit.

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FUCK Christianity.

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Good.

Religion by itself is fine. How people practice it is another matter.

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Religion is a fantastic thing, it's kind of sad that it's fading. Even as a non believer myself, religion can help people who feel lost and aid in getting past grief. It's a pretty important tool that will get cast aside.

Yeah therapy is ideal, but not people aren't uniform. What works for one doesn't for another. More options are always preferable.

i can hear the dinosaurs having their last roar...

I respect the strength, hope, and inspiration religion can instill in folks and as I come to appreciate the value of dedicated and unified community more, I like religion's ability to foster it. Those things tend to be outweighed by the negatives, so I'm all for the fading of religion but preferably with systems and practices in place to pick up the slack for the good it does, whatever that amounts to.

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I'm actually low key jealous that my son gets to grow up without any religious influence. He's 8 and he's literally never had to sit through a church service.

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Everything points to Republicans circling the drain in the next 20 years.

They got Trump elected by appealing to the angry racist wing of the party, basically having to mobilize the worst of the worst at the expense of alienating all minority groups forever.

These voting laws are the 2nd part of this. Now that they gave up on getting a group of people to vote for them they are going to make it harder for them to vote.

The question now is if it will work in time. The Republicans are clearly trying to take over the country via a coup.

If they ever get the Presidency again they will use it to cement power and trample on the Constitution.

2024 is going to be critical

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KiwiTerraRizing posted...

2024 is going to be critical

Bump

As long as people take up politics in it's absence, I think think we'll be just fine

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Hot take- all this is going to do is drive people to find new things to become their religion and community "binding" element which religion once used to act as. It's pretty clear that politics is becoming more and more of a thing that's filling the void for people in place of religion and in some cases, looking on history, can be scary (Stalin, Mao, Hitler, ect...)

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excellent

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Society is getting a little more intelligent.

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Fantastic. I hate religion, because those people insist on trying to insert it into our laws. We shouldnt have to follow your religions rules.



Essentially this. You people overstep boundaries and that is why your group is dying.

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TC has a strange fixation on recycling this topic ad naseum.

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ForsakenHermit posted...

TC has a strange fixation on recycling this topic ad naseum.

This is like the 4th topic i've seen from Zannol this year alone about this, from statistics that haven't changed over the course of said year, that's why i don't bother with them much anymore

Just bring up the ever rising depression rate and watch the excuses fly

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Flockaveli posted...

FUCK Christianity.

Hey, so, fuck Islam too, right?

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KiwiTerraRizing posted...

If they ever get the Presidency again they will use it to cement power and trample on the Constitution.

2024 is going to be critical

Found the r/politics user. You DEFINITELY have that UK article in mind, don't you?

Anyways, Repubs actually condemned the thing at the Capitol, there was a small minority who didn't agree.

I'd actually state a certain thing that is a core American belief, but that WILL get called "terrorism", without realizing what the "T-T-TERRORIST" people are okay with.

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bubbascal posted...

Hey, so, fuck Islam too, right?

Yes, F em all. This isnt the Gotcha you think it is.

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Fuck fanaticism. I wish space or ocean colonization was a thing so that people who think that everyone in society should think like them could take a cue from the Pilgrims and fuck off to their own little colonies where dissent is banned and their life is the only way to live. Except this time there won't be the problem of conquering land from people that were there first.

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bubbascal posted...

Found the r/politics user. You DEFINITELY have that UK article in mind, don't you?

Anyways, Repubs actually condemned the thing at the Capitol, there was a small minority who didn't agree.

I'd actually state a certain thing that is a core American belief, but that WILL get called "terrorism", without realizing what the "T-T-TERRORIST" people are okay with.

if they condemned it then why are they voting against every effort to actually investigate the roots of it? :v

Ardbert posted...

if they condemned it then why are they voting against every effort to actually investigate the roots of it? :v

Because the calls are coming from inside the party.

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SSJPurple posted...

Yes, F em all. This isnt the Gotcha you think it is.

I figured it would be because people aren't consistent on this regard, and defend Islam as being a "religion of peace" or "their culture". Thank you for being consistent!

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Well yeah. When you have an entire generation of Christians that use their religion to justify treating people like shit, you're going to turn people off.

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Read this on Gamefaqs a few years ago and feel its still relevant:

"I think the decline of religion is positive for societal progress but there are a lot of things associated with religion that are going away and not being replaced with anything meaningful. community, shared values, charity, etc."

I still relate to this statement. Wish more people would be less afraid and actually socialized with each other. Society seems so closed off nowadays. No one has empathy anymore.

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Ardbert posted...

if they condemned it then why are they voting against every effort to actually investigate the roots of it? :v

You mean, a minority?

Not to mention that, given how politicians work, it probably isn't just "investigate".

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I think if people are dropping their religion because of things people do, they never really believed in that religion to begin with; it was more of a social thing for them.

Not saying there's anything wrong with that necessarily, but IMO there isn't enough theology in religion today especially from regular followers.

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Maybe we can finally get some morals in this country if this continues

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hockeybub89 posted...

Maybe we can finally get some morals in this country if this continues

"Morals" being things you agree with, specifically?

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A recent Gallup poll found that the percentage of Americans with a membership at a house of worship fell under 50 percent for the first time in 80 years.

Not regularly going to a church doesn't mean non-religious.

bubbascal posted...

I figured it would be because people aren't consistent on this regard, and defend Islam as being a "religion of peace" or "their culture". Thank you for being consistent!

Yeah unfortunately a lot of people are inconsistent.

Islam nor Judaism get a pass from me.

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Religion is problematic and toxic towards modern day issues like sexuality and gender.

All religions against gay marriage should be cancelled faster than JK Rowling.

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bubbascal posted...

You mean, a minority?

Not to mention that, given how politicians work, it probably isn't just "investigate".

no... not a minority, every single one of them voted against it. :v