https://news.gallup.com/poll/341963/church-membership-falls-below-majority-first-time.aspx

Gallup poll shows church membership in US is at 47%
Nones are at all time high of 21%.

See, ghawd is no longer the great attractor. . .

elderolddog Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> See, ghawd is no longer the great attractor. . .

I never said the Great Attractor was god.
I do believe that what we call god, for lack of a better word, is simply, nature, in the same sense that Einstein used the word, among other geniuses.

> I do believe . . . among other geniuses.

The heart of the matter.

If you redefine god then he exists.

I'm pretty sure that ghawd is a genius.

The pieces of the puzzle come together, no?

death to all organized religion!

viva democracy and reason!

This story is a year and a half old. Stephen Colbert is in reruns this week too. ‘Tis the season, ;)

Has there ever been a U.S. president who has been non-religious? I don't remember one. It seems that every president that I remember has had at least a nominal church membership. I think it will be real progress in tolerance when we have our first non-religious president.

Lincoln was an atheist. He never said so and he spoke in the accepted language although every reference was God as providence rather than as a volitional being.

Many presidents were deists, which comes close to atheism. In his famous bible Jefferson excised all the supernatural events and comments, leaving only the teachings of an itinerant teacher.

Nixon called himself a "bad Quacker," but the only evidence that he ever prayed was when on the eve of his resignation he bizarrely asked Kissinger to kneel with him one evening.

There were many more.

Thanks for your response. I knew about the deists, but was not intimately familiar with their beliefs. Lincoln's closet atheism is new to me.

Quakers are HUGE believers in honesty. Him calling himself a bad quaker is pretty laughable. In fact, that's the first thing I did when I heard he was one...

I knew a guy who worked for Nixon. He said Dick cussed like a sailor.

That's clear to anyone who's ever listened to any of the audio tapes or read the transcripts. The language among power brokers was exactly what one would expect, very much like the transcripts we see emerging from the presidential criminal investigations.

"bad Quacker"

Now I'm hearing Daffy Duck saying "I am not a crook"

"I've decided that DT worships a false prophet: himself."

--Judic West, speaking off-the-cuff at Gladys Lot's self-engagement party.

"Jesus, though, needs no false prophet as mouthpiece."

--Esmerelda of Escondido, personal secretary to the Prince of Persiflage, answering the phone while His Eminence speaks uncomfortably to Dr. Goldfinger about the aging process

Wait....so you're saying that clearing peaceful protesters with tear gas for an upside down bible photo op doesn't prove he's as religious as he say's he is?

But he loves Cheesus...lots of people are saying he is Cheezus!

Behold, I am Cheezus. He who produces and packages and ships to the ends of the earth all manner of dairy products.

Well, he's one who has always maintained nominal church membership. And having attended one of his former NYC churches with some frequency back in the 1980s, I can say that I never saw him attend the sole Sunday service there.

Yes.

There is the strange alliance between the atheistic and sociopathic Trump on the one hand and Christian nationalists on the other hand. The Christians know he's not a believer; it's a relationship based on mutual cynicism and dishonesty.

Over time that alliance may prove as devastating to American Christianity as the Mormons' pact with the devil regarding child abuse will harm them.

The thing about claiming to be moral is it makes immorality more awkward.

They don't worship Jesus or follow or even read the New Testament, their god is Football. Don't believe me? Live in the south for one season of college and highschool football.

Evangelical and Right Wing Catholic Christians have become a tribe, the winning of their team is all that matters.

That is exactly right. Those people have abandoned political conservatism in favor of cultural conservatism, meaning the maintenance of white Christian dominance in the face of changing demographics and religiosity. Even more upsetting, they have added to their disdain for constitutional norms and the rule of law a willingness to employ racial scapegoating and even violence in the pursuit of their goals.

What political movement's name is frequently used as a thoughtless epithet but becomes apposite when a group exhibits a populist disregard for law, xenophobia/racism, and some level of sanctioned violence?

We've seen this before.

The great majority of "nones" are religious.

According to Wiki, ‘According to a 2018 Pew report, 72% of the "Nones" have belief in God, a higher power, or spiritual force.’

So if that’s what you count as ‘religious’ then sure, but if you count going to church to pay your idiot tax, I doubt it’s the majority.

Not too many people who believe in a ‘higher power’ or ‘spiritual force’ pay $ to a kiddie raping priest.

Nothing ever operates in a vacuum, at least with regard to human behavior. Churches have been noticing this trend for quite some time. Why do you think they are trying to hold on to, or even gain, power over the political establishment?

blindguy Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Nothing ever operates in a vacuum, at least with
> regard to human behavior. Churches have been
> noticing this trend for quite some time. Why do
> you think they are trying to hold on to, or even
> gain, power over the political establishment?


Politically, they won the CULTural War by playing the long game, and getting disproportionately all religious true believers on the SCOTUS.

Hopefully this all motivates women and my kids generation to vote.