More Americans Say They Have No Religion

UPDATE: One aspect of this story that I did not specifically address is that the increasing number of people choosing no religion underscores the fact that religion is not an immutable characteristic than cannot be changed. Thus, applying the choice argument used by the Christianists against gay rights, non-discrimination protections based on religion should be repealed since religion is not an immutable characteristic.

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A new survey reveals that more and more Americans are saying that they have no religion. While many reasons for this phenomenon can be cited, personally I suspect that a significant part of this trend is due to the fact that religion - particularly Christianity as preached by the Christianists and professional Christians - is increasingly a negative influence that incites hatred and intolerance rather than good. Be it the constant message of anti-gay hate disseminated by the Christian Right, the hate of Islamic extremist groups or the brutality of Israel's forces in the Gaza Strip, religion all too frequently has an increasing malevolent image in the minds of many. Instead of disseminating a message of love, the message is one of hate and intolerance. To further compound matters, religion is showing itself to be increasingly at odds with scientific fact and rational thought. Why is it a surprise to find that people are simply washing their hands of the whole sorry mess? Here are some highlights from Yahoo News:

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A wide-ranging study on American religious life found that the Roman Catholic population has been shifting out o 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.

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The report from The Program on Public Values at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., surveyed 54,461 adults in English or Spanish from February through November of last year. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 0.5 percentage points. The findings are part of a series of studies on American religion by the program that will later look more closely at reasons behind the trends.

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The current survey, being released Monday, found traditional organized religion playing less of a role in many lives. Thirty percent of married couples did not have a religious wedding ceremony and 27 percent of respondents said they did not want a religious funeral.

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In 2008, Christians comprised 76 percent of U.S. adults, compared to about 77 percent in 2001 and about 86 percent in 1990. . . . Many mainline Protestant groups are riven by conflict over how they should interpret what the Bible says about gay relationships, salvation and other issues.