While the Christianists disseminate hate and discord against gays, immigrants, non-whites and non-Christians among others and the Catholic Church leadership continues to demonstrate that it is morally bankrupt, younger Americans are watching and drawing their own conclusions about religion. And increasingly, that conclusion is that they don't need or want religion and all of its poisonous attributes. The chart above from Talking Points Memo that reflects new Pew Research findings shows clearly who belief in God and religion is plummeting among the under 30 set. I'm sure the self-congratulatory professional Christians and the Catholic bishops will blame the situation on "secular society" but I suspect the real reason is because the Christians in America are killing Christianity. Given the hate and violence that seem to be the principal hallmarks of Christianity nowadays, that's probably a good thing. Here are highlights from the TPM article:
The younger generation is abandoning God in droves. A new survey by the Pew Research Center finds that belief in the existence of God has dropped 15 points in the last five years among Americans 30 and under. Pew, which has been studying the trend for 25 years, finds that just 68 percent of millennials in 2012 agree with the statement “I never doubt the existence of God.” That’s down from 76 percent in 2009 and 83 percent in 2007. Among other generations, belief in God is high and has seen few changes in recent decades.
The trend was also reflected in declining numbers of millennials who agreed with the statements “Prayer is an important part of my daily life” and “We all will be called before God at the Judgment Day to answer for our sins.” Answers to those questions also didn’t change much among older generations.
1 comment:
I happen to agree with you that Christians (of the Fundamentalist hating class) are killing belief in God. With friends like those, who, in their right minds would want to be friends with God?
However, I disagree with the pollster's statement that young people are no longer believing in God as indicated by the polls data that show 30% of them have questioned the existence of God.
I've been a Christian for 54 years. I frequently question the existence of God. At other times, I have called God every profane name I could think of. None of that means I don't believe in God.
As my current pastor says, if one has never been angry with God and expressed that anger to Him directly, he had better check his relationship with God.
As human beings, we get angry with people we love, with people who are important to us. We question their judgement and their actions.
People who mean nothing to us, we don't usually question at all.
It's the 70% of so called Christians in the poll who say they have never doubted God's existence that worry me. If those people were being honest in their report to the pollsters, and I doubt they were, it is them that exhibit a drop in belief in God.
Jack Scott
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