Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Please actually read the whole article before posting. It's not that long.
From The Atlantic magazine:
The Surprising Reason Why More Americans Aren’t Going To Church
The standard narrative of American religious decline goes something like this: A few hundred years ago, European and American intellectuals began doubting the validity of God as an explanatory mechanism for natural life. As science became a more widely accepted method for investigating and understanding the physical world, religion became a less viable way of thinking—not just about medicine and mechanics, but also culture and politics and economics and every other sphere of public life. As the United States became more secular, people slowly began drifting away from faith.
Of course, this tale is not just reductive—it’s arguably inaccurate, in that it seems to capture neither the reasons nor the reality behind contemporary American belief. For one thing, the U.S. is still overwhelmingly religious, despite years of predictions about religion’s demise. A significant number of people who don’t identify with any particular faith group still say they believe in God, and roughly 40 percent pray daily or weekly. While there have been changes in this kind of private belief and practice, the most significant shift has been in the way people publicly practice their faith: Americans, and particularly young Americans, are less likely to attend services or identify with a religious group than they have at any time in recent memory.
If most people haven’t just logicked their way out of believing in God, what’s behind this shift in public religious practice, and what does the shift look like in detail? That’s a big question, one less in search of a straightforward answer than a series of data points and arguments constellated over time. Here’s one: Pew has a new survey out about the way people choose their congregations and attend services. While Americans on the whole are still going to church and other worship services less than they used to, many people are actually going more—and those who are skipping out aren’t necessarily doing it for reasons of belief.
I stopped believing in Christianity when I was 13 because it became clear to me that Christian claims were much too silly to be valid. That was the reason, and no other. I have known hundreds of non believers over the years now, and their reason for not believing has always been the same. They find the claims too silly to believe. This is my direct personal experience talking.
You have to dress up to go, it's boring, it's too long................... and they ask you for money all the time. I certainly didn't want to put that money I earned by clipping grass and taking out the trash into that stupid offering plate.
Well as others have pointed out, when church was the fulcrum of community social life, it was for many the high point of their week to dress up and go through this shared ritual with all your friends. It isn't just because they were killjoys that fundamentalists of the early to mid 20th century decried radio, movies, TV and the like because they were competing shared experiences. As were other things as time went on ... lodges, veterans organizations, and the like, the increasing prevalence and demands of higher education and office-like workplaces as we moved away from being a nation of farmers and shop-keepers, etc., etc.
So sure, the decline of traditional churches is in part a social change that has rendered traditional churches less relevant and appealing.
And I've always reminded people that the "nones" aren't all, or even mostly, atheists.
The question is whether religion is adapting. I don't see that it is, particularly. Or that it can. It is too rigid and changes too slowly, and serves as a poorer and poorer provider of purpose, meaning, and certainty for people's lives.
Um, DISH network have about two dozen channels devoted to religion.
This is a really good point. So vast swaths of Americans could be excessively influenced by far fewer voices beholden only to themselves and those who are willing to fund grand religious gestures like that, as compared to if those viewers were in small, local congregations listening to preachers beholden to community discernment.
Judging by the responses, it's safe to say they didn't bother reading it. Not surprised by that one. Thanks for posting it anyway, Mr5150
What exactly are we missing? The article was saying that people are going to church more because of a community thing, they may still have a religious belief but they don't actually believe in what the church teaches.
We note what they say, though we also note that surveys shows that church attendance is declining sharply, so we have to reserve judgement until one or the other claim is shown to be true.
In the meantime, we talk about the claims of why people give up church or religion or both, and boredom with church or 'Logicking' their way out of religion are both factors known to us. Again, what in the article are we missing? Apart from perhaps a well hidden clue that the article is from yet another person trying to argue that what is apparently happening isn't in fact, happening at all.
P.s checking again the idea seems to be that while the decline is (rather grudgingly) acknowledged, some people (says the article with astonished delight) are actually as individuals, going ore.
It isn't clear why, and there have been suggestions (those who are church -believers are worried by the decline in religion and feel obliged to do more) about why some people may become more devoted. They weren't asked and don't say and probably wouldn't know why, just a vague feeling they should go more ascribed (no doubt) to a personal message from God.
So we can't comment much on that but just mention the community aspect of some who go who maybe sign "None" in actual fact, and mention the factors behind those still being religious bit not going to church so much.
Last edited by TRANSPONDER; 08-29-2016 at 05:12 AM..
Judging by the responses, it's safe to say they didn't bother reading it. Not surprised by that one. Thanks for posting it anyway, Mr5150
I actually read the whole article. For those who didn't, I will paraphrase. It said that not all Americans attend religious services less than they used to. Some actually attend religious services more and find that they need God in their lives, and for those who attend religious services less than they used to, the reason is often not because of disbelief in a deity, but practical concerns, such as working or being too tired. It says that Americans aren't necessarily less religious than they used to be; just less public in their displays of religiosity.
I don't believe the article's premise. I think that Americans go to church less because usually because they are less religious overall. I think that people make the time for for activities that are important to them. They overuse the "too busy" excuse as a way of getting out of doing things they never wanted to do in the first place.
I actually read the whole article. For those who didn't, I will paraphrase. It said that not all Americans attend religious services less than they used to. Some actually attend religious services more and find that they need God in their lives, and for those who attend religious services less than they used to, the reason is often not because of disbelief in a deity, but practical concerns, such as working or being too tired. It says that Americans aren't necessarily less religious than they used to be; just less public in their displays of religiosity.
I don't believe the article's premise. I think that Americans go to church less because usually because they are less religious overall. I think that people make the time for for activities that are important to them. They overuse the "too busy" excuse as a way of getting out of doing things they never wanted to do in the first place.
Did you get the impression that the article was explaining a Pew survey result or merely speculating on the reasons why, despite a decline in church attendance (not in China, as Gldnrule will hurry to point out) some people say they go more?
In fact it doesn't matter why, and my best mate stopped going to church because it was boring. He sorta believed in God and was skeptical of evolution. No doubt because of the usual thing - being exposed to the arguments of Creationists and never hearing the counter arguments. Looing back over the discussions, they were a bit....Eusebian, in that he was always looking for the Flaw in the theory that would bring the whole thing crashing down. In fact while there are Questions, there are no 'Flaws' of that kind and I think he has more or less bought evolution and while still having a residual god -belief (I shall have to ask him) has no time whatsoever for Organized religion or Church, and that is all we need.
This is a really good point. So vast swaths of Americans could be excessively influenced by far fewer voices beholden only to themselves and those who are willing to fund grand religious gestures like that, as compared to if those viewers were in small, local congregations listening to preachers beholden to community discernment.
They are making money for somebody or somebody is putting their own money into putting them on the air. Either way money's the reason.
I think most people are dropping out of church due to something I observed as about a 7 year old.
You have to dress up to go, it's boring, it's too long................... and they ask you for money all the time. I certainly didn't want to put that money I earned by clipping grass and taking out the trash into that stupid offering plate.
Add to that finding out the pastor is whoring around and drinks like a fish. Kind of takes the 'special' out of it.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
It's not that long.
