https://www.dailywire.com/news/45655/god-help-us-atheism-becomes-largest-religion-us-michael-j-knowles

Obviously written by a God fearing Christian worried about moral rot in society due to secularization.
IMO, we are a lot better off w/o religion, but results may vary depending upon the individual.
If you need God to be good, you are a bad person.
If you need God to be happy, you need to get a life!

"As religiosity has declined, social ills have abounded."

Maybe religiosity has declined because social ills persist despite all the religiosity they throw at the problems.

Hey, if the supposed faith, good examples, and prayers of three quarters of the population can't counteract the godlessness of a minority, then maybe there's something wrong with the majority.

Atheism is not a religion.

^^^^^

Yup.


Let's go, Anarchists!

I would say most people in the US are agnostic. You have to have faith to be an atheist. You actually have to believe there is no god. Most people are in the "I don't know" category so they are actually an agnostic.

Now how many people going to church because of family and peer pressure really believe? Why church's are losing numbers of members is the social pressure to attend church has declined. Also the pressure to get married has declined. So the church is becoming less of people's lives.

Rubicon Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> You have to have faith to be an atheist.

Right, like it takes faith to disbelieve there's a purple dragon in my pocket that farts rainbows and gold coins.

Rubicon Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> You have to have faith to be an atheist.

Fasle, false, falsity, false, false, false.

+1

"A" added to a word means not or non.

Asexual is not sexual. Asymptomatic means no symptoms. Asymmetry means not symmetrical. Atypical means not typical.

And Atheist simply means not a theist. No faith or belief of any kind are required to be not a theist.

Do I need to have faith in the lack of symmetry to believe in asymmetry? Asking for a friend.

Aloysius Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Do I need to have faith in the lack of symmetry to
> believe in asymmetry? Asking for a friend.

My new favorite Zen Koan

koriwhore Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Aloysius Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Do I need to have faith in the lack of symmetry
> to
> > believe in asymmetry? Asking for a friend.
>
> My new favorite Zen Koan

Do I need faith in Dark Matter to have faith in the Great Attractor?

Does an infant need faith in teeth to disbelieve in the toothfairy?

koriwhore Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> koriwhore Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Aloysius Wrote:
> >
> --------------------------------------------------
>
> > -----
> > > Do I need to have faith in the lack of
> symmetry
> > to
> > > believe in asymmetry? Asking for a friend.
> >
> > My new favorite Zen Koan
>
> Do I need faith in Dark Matter to have faith in
> the Great Attractor?
Do I need faith to believe in the God Particle?
Have you seen one?
Have you seen a ghost particle or whatever gravity is made of?
No.
But I have faith in the scientists who took 50 yrs to build the worlds biggest most expensive science experiment
and it worked.
Now we have pictures of Mother Nature's vagina,
The black hole
Which isn't black
Its super symetry unfolding from singularity.
The Zen Buddhists had it right.
We are all one with the Tao, singularity and super symetry, yin yang.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/09/2019 08:49PM by koriwhore.

Done & Done Wrote:
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> Asexual is not sexual.

And yet you could just not be asexual and not interested in sex.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/lifestyle/voices/what-i-learned-from-being-accidentally-celibate-for-5-years/ar-BBVJ3zq?ocid=spartandhp

" You have to have faith to be an atheist. You actually have to believe there is no god" ... huh ?
A lack of a belief does not constitute a belief.

Nice try at a bogus strawman though.

JMV but I think much of the decline can be attributed to the churches themselves. Many, I think, have done a better job of promoting what they are against than what they are for. As a believer my own personal pet peeve.

If Christianity is in decline, they have no one to blame but themselves. Or God wanted more Atheists.

I don't know how "having no religion" necessarily translates to atheist. The author is making an assumption with that. To me it's like telling people, you must declare for Team A, Team B, or Team C. Which team are you? To which some people respond, "I'm not on a team," or, "I don't follow that sport."

I thought the same.

The author needed a "sledge hammer" to make his point I'd say. "Atheist" is a much scarier word to many than "Agnostic" or "I dunno." So it suits the author's purpose as his main point is to blame all bad things on big scary atheism I would say.

The article is very twisted. He seems to be on the same page as the Mormon gerontocracy when it comes to putting a paragraph or two together.

Approximately 75% of Americans self-identify as Christians...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_the_United_States

The source cited in the OP, The Daily Wire, is an internet tabloid founded by Ben Shapiro...

Once again, the Universe put its sense of humor on display when it bestowed those initials on an individual.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/10/2019 03:10PM by SL Cabbie.

When I was on my mission in England, 75% of those who answered their door to us self identified as Church of England.

I suspect they were not telling the truth....

People who "self identify" as belonging to a religion are somehow "less credible" than those who "self identify" as atheists...

One more time, a Cabbie message to the atheists out there:

"As you were, I once was."

Or to borrow from John Prine:

"To believe in this living is just a hard way to go."

Atheism is non-belief. That's all.

The headline is misleading. It should read "a majority of Americans have no religious preference." That's not atheism.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/10/2019 09:57AM by anybody.

APATHEISTS OF THE WORLD!...ugh, nevermind.

Better off without religion?

I used to think that too. After I left the church, and realized I had no good reason to believe in god, I thought all religion was poison and we'd be better off without it.

Over a decade later, I see how immature I was in my thinking.

There is definitely a subset of the population who can lead good, secular lives and prescribe their own meaning (those types of people are most likely to fall into the ex-mormon/ex-whatever category) but I'm glad religion is around to control the rest of us.

If you need religion to keep yourself from doing bad things, please put your butt on a pew as often a possible.

You are saying you are not capable of leading a good life without religious control. Frankly, people like you can't be trusted because if you ever lost your faith, you could be dangerous for the rest of us.

Dagny, when I said "us" I meant us as a species: humans.

I didn't mean that I need religion to keep me in check. But to your point, "If you need religion to keep yourself from doing bad things, please put your butt on a pew as often a possible." I believe the same thing.

justkeepswimming Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Dagny, when I said "us" I meant us as a species:
> humans.
>
> I didn't mean that I need religion to keep me in
> check. But to your point, "If you need religion to
> keep yourself from doing bad things, please put
> your butt on a pew as often a possible." I believe
> the same thing.

It seems like other species get along just fine w/o any kind of a God delusion. We had morality before the Bible codified it, packaged it and convinced us we couldn't have morals without it so religions could sell it back to us, as if they invented morality.

Actually, animals developed extended phenotypes to aid in their evolutionary survival the same way we did.

Beaver dams are an extended phenotype for beavers.

Religion is an extended phenotype for humans.

Of course some beavers can and do survive without dams. Of course some humans can and do survive without religion.

Doesn't change the fact that religion is as much the product of evolution as beaver dams.

I like that one... It's a basically a metaphor, but a useful one.

I catch h*** from a couple of posters for posting on subjects involving psychology, but I do know--from a grad level practicum--that beliefs have "survival value," and that we as a more-or-less "social species" find they are "useful" much of the time. Alas, they can also--when in conflict with the beliefs of others--sew the seeds of discord.

And just a bit more "Cabdriver Philosophy": As far as "controlling the rest of us," I'm far more trusting of secular laws and powers than ecclesiastical ones. I have found, though, that there is power in faith, and the attendant "grace" it offers.

As an old English professor of mine once noted: "Grace empowers the will to act in ways other than ones that were previously used.

To you I am an atheist. To God I am the loyal opposition.

HH =)

I agree it's quite a logical leap to conclude that everybody who identifies as "None of the Above" when asked which religion they identify with, is an atheist.

Also, there's no link to any study the guy is referencing. When I went to search for the study I couldn't find it on the study listed, GSS Data Explorer.

I did find a news article that says "Nones are now as big as Evangelicals, Catholics in the US"

https://religionnews.com/2019/03/21/nones-now-as-big-as-evangelicals-catholics-in-the-us/

From what I've read, NONEs are mostly, "Spiritual But Not Religious"

"Those who claim “no religion” are not inherently atheists or agnostics: A 2017 Pew Research survey found that only 22 percent of “nones” listed not believing in God as the most important reason for their lack of religious affiliation."

It should be noted that “nones” or “religiously unaffiliated” is not a synonym for atheists. Nones may believe in a God but may not be in any formal religion.

https://www.worldreligionnews.com/religion-news/survey-says-religious-nones-now-outnumber-evangelicals