40 Million Nonbelievers in America? The Secret Is Almost Out

[marmar]

via AlterNet:



40 Million Nonbelievers in America? The Secret Is Almost Out

By Ronald Aronson, Religion Dispatches. Posted May 5, 2009.

Secularists have very quietly become one of America’s largest minorities -- how long before they use their power?


As reported recently in the New York Times, a South Carolina chapter of Habitat for Humanity prohibited a group of Secular Humanist volunteers from wearing their “Non-Prophet Organization” T-shirts; a Charleston-area teacher “came out” as a nonbeliever after years of church dinners and demurrals; and Humanist Loretta Haskell struggled over her role as a church musician. While such stories remain commonplace, a related story with a substantial bearing on these anecdotes is one of America’s best-kept secrets.

A recent Newsweek cover—in a bid to (finally) match the celebrated 1966 “Is God Dead?” cover of Time—read, in the shape of a cross: “The Decline and Fall of Christian America.” Editor Jon Meacham’s story highlights Newsweek’s latest poll results showing that 10% fewer Americans identify as Christian today than twenty years ago. But more importantly, and mentioned only in passing, is the growth among atheists and secularists of all stripes.

According to the latest American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS) of more than 54,000 adults, between 2001 and 2008 the number willing to identify themselves as atheist and agnostic has gone from under 2 million to 3.6 million. Small numbers compared to the whole, of course, but most notably it’s a rise of 85% of those willing to describe themselves as living without God during the years of our most overtly religious presidency!

Even more newsworthy, when the widely-scorned labels “atheist” and “agnostic” are replaced with specifics about beliefs (“There is no such thing” as God, “There is no way to know,” or “I’m not sure,” and added to those who refused to answer) it turns out that over eighteen percent of Americans do not profess belief in a God or a higher power.

According to ARIS, then, there could be as many as 40 million adult nonbelievers in the United States! .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/rights/139788/40_million_nonbelievers_in_america_the_secret_is_almost_out/

[Rebubula]

1. I will never understand...

...how otherwise intelligent adults can still muster up belief in a being that has not made an appearance on this planet (according to the faithful, the only planet in the universe) in 100 generations. Jesus said 'I am coming soon' - well....2000 years later, he is still absent.

Atheist for 25 years...and counting

[pokercat999]

3. At the age of 8 or 9 while in "Sunday School" I asked

myself what was the difference between the fables they were pushing and the Santa/Easter Bunny myths I had been fed. Since I couldn't find any real difference I asked myself what could be their motivation? The only answer that came was control and power. Of course this was in a child's perspective but the thought process was the same as any THINKING adult. That, and I simply wasn't afraid of ghosts.

[Stellabella]

15. Wow, you really had a developed logical reasoning ability for an 8 year old.

Smart!

[Quantess]

25. I bet you got some dirty looks.....

[pokercat999]

28. My Aunt and Uncle (my parents didn't go to church)

stopped taking me.

A few years later when I was about 14 I was helping a friend of the family deliver a tractor trailer load of goods to NYC (from PA). He took me along and paid me to help unload but I think it was more to keep him company and he knew we were poor and could use the money. Anyway on the way to NYC he started to talk about Jesus and being "saved" but in a low key manner. I asked him one question. If you have heard about Jesus but you have another religion and don't accept him can you still get into heaven? He said, "no you have to accept JC as your savior". I said "you mean that in all the world there isn't one Jew, one Muslim, one person of any other religion that is good enough for your heaven?" "No" he said, "you must accept JC". Then your god is not good enough for me I told him, and we rode in silence for the next hour. Everything went well and about a week later he told my dad about the discussion we had, he said I really got him thinking. My dad just laughed knowing what he had to put up with from me.

We never spoke about it again and I haven't seen him since I was about 16 when my dad died, that was 42 years ago.

This was in the mid 60's so at the time young people were questioning EVERYTHING and "adults" were mostly just trying to hold on.

[KansDem]

6. "Jesus said 'I am coming soon' ..."

And Bush said, "Get Osama bin Laden...!"

Old myths die hard...

[Rebubula]

9. Uhhh...

LOLWUT?

[pipi_k]

10. What's really scary is when

otherwise intelligent people trade one addiction in for another.

Mr Pip and I have some friends...a married couple...who are recovering alcoholics. The husband is quite intelligent...the wife...ehhhh....she sort of follows along what her husband believes. Anyway, they call themselves Catholics although they wear a Star of David along with a cross.

They are, to put it mildly, fanatics.

And when we all get together (a few times a year) they never seem to miss a chance to try and convert us...or at least inject references to GOD into some conversation...usually it involves stories about people whose lives have been changed/saved by Faith and God. Gays who have been "turned around" and gone straight because "God talked to them"...that sort of nonsense.

So this past weekend we're sitting around talking about the Swine Flu and this, apparently, is just the opening needed for a lesson on God's power. The story involves a bum who is a drunk and he steals a bottle of booze from some other bum and he knows he's going to be in big trouble and maybe even killed. But lo and behold, he has a revelation!!!!! In the darkness of his crappy little hovel in the bowels of the city, he has a vision.... It's GOD...in the form of one of those 4th of July sparkler type lights, only instead of a white light, it's GOLD. He throws away the bottle and vows never to drink again.

they call this "spirituality"

I call it bullshit.


these people honestly believe all of this crap, and they believe that God is a great big Santa Claus in the sky that they pray to and POOF!!! they get needed money or whatever.

And God plays practical jokes on people by leaving a few dinosaur bones around so we can find them and "test our faith"

etc., etc.


Otherwise intelligent people believe this stuff and it scares the hell out of me

:scared:



Atheist/agnostic/heathen for so long I can't even remember

[Syntheto]

21. There is no god...

...and it's one thing for people to stand up to Christian tyranny. However, why are people so circumspect about Islam? It's as bogus as Christianity, Wicca or any other nonsense that purports to "communicate" with supernatural entities or forces. So many are brave when they talk about how they dismiss Christianity, yet they won't say jack shit about Islam. Why? Something to do with Theo van Gough being butchered? Or the fatwah against Rushdie? Christianity and Judaism are laughable, but I haven't heard too much about Christians or Jews going out and killing people or threatening to because of 'art' like the Piss Christ or movies about the 'God who never was', and so on. People show a frigging cartoon of Mohammed, though, and look out. Let's all stand up and denounce all this garbage, irrespective of their culture of origin. Otherwise, it just looks like people taking cheap shots in relative safety, and aren't so much secular thinkers as anti-christian. There's no place at the table for chicken-shits like that. All religions are bad because they're based on the original scam elites pulled on the rest of the tribe to secure more food and sex; namely, that there are supernatural forces at work, which only the initiated can communicate with.

[rapturedbyrobots]

27. because that's the power we confront here

we speak about christianity because that's the bludgeon that's been used on the great majority of the u.s. population. and to be fair denouncing the basic structure of christianity is just as well as denouncing judaism or islam because all three share a foundation in the old testament.

[Rebubula]

29. Fear not Syntheto...

...the followers of the cult of islam are the same to me as the christians. In fact, I consider them more dangerous due to the lack of education that most of the these folks receive in the Middle East and North Africa. Learning only a 1400 year old text is a path to mind control.

The next 200 years should be interesting...assuming that civilization makes it that far....

[ejpoeta]

22. think about santa claus and the easter bunny.....

they start you early. teaching you how to believe in something you never see and only know about because your parents assure you he is real.... i celebrate christmas, and we do santa.... but i still believe in santa... just not a jolly fat man with a beard. i believe we are all santa bringing happiness to others, but i have thought about what religious purpose santa could possibly have and i think i have found the reason.... teaching kids to believe in something without any proof.

[ixion]

2. good...

perhaps that will introduce a bit of sanity into our collective dialog.

[valerief]

4. I'm sure that's a conservative number. People often admit to a religion out of habit not belief.

Like they were raised Catholic but don't think about a god as adults and only go to church at funerals or weddings. When asked, "What religion are you?" they might say, "Catholic," making them seem religious. Or if they're asked that question, they may not want to start a ruckus by answering, "None," so they say, "Catholic."

I think a ton of Americans are like this. The god thing is just not part of their belief system except as being part of their culture.

[dtotire]

7. In Spain and Italy

12-15% of adults polled say they do not believe in a personal God, yet they consider themselves good Catholics. Why not? Its their culture and heritage, and they don't object to it or its traditions. It stabilizes their society. They allow their children to get Religious instruction in public school, and when they grow up they are free to believe or disbelieve. Only 20-25% regularly attend church.

[valerief]

12. Like the 20% here who call themselves Republicans. The backwash. nt

[sledgehammer]

14. There's a concept I bring up all the time with my friends...

It's the concept of a cultural adherent vs a spiritual/fundamental adherent.

Growing up in a religious home, one tends to adopt certain cultural practices. Observing Yom Kippur, fasting in Ramadan, drinking Holy Water, giving an offering when moving to a new home, etc.

There are so many people I know who do these as purely cultural practices - they grew up that way. They don't believe that some magic figure is helping them out because of these acts, or will punish them if they don't do these things. But there's some self-satisfaction for the individual in practicing these acts, for whatever personal reasons.

These people would be called "religious" by most observers. But I prefer to call them "cultural adherents" - those who adopt these practices without any spiritual/fundamental component strings attached.

I've put some thoughts on this down to perhaps write a short book / long essay one day. There are a whole lot of cultural adherents out there who would be able to relate, and that would push that 40 million number way, way up.

[dtotire]

16. "Cultural Adherents" is a good definition

[Enthusiast]

20. I am one of them.

We don't want to disappoint our old parents by telling them we only go to church for funerals.

[GreenEyedLefty]

30. I tell people I grew up Catholic.

I can't tell my parents I'm no longer a believer. I just go along to get along.

[dmallind]

5. I'll tell you exactly how long

As long as it takes for the faux-rugged-individualists in that 40 million to stop hiding behind sophomoric poses of affected sophistication and actually work together. This self-aggrandizing posturing that atheists meeting or working together qua atheists diminishes their inherent "atheist coolness" is what is leaving us way way behind groups one tenth our size like Jews and Muslims in forcing both social acceptance and political consideration. They unify and fight back. A tiny number of us try to do the same while most preen away spouting atheism only in the safe confines of liberal internet sites.

Such people are either too wrapped up in their self-assessed individuality to see, or too damn lazy to admit, that there is no need for a unified creed in order to unify, if there is instead a unifying enemy to be opposed. Atheist groups don't have to be "for" any one damn thing as long as the religious majority is forcing their crap into law and demonizing those who don't eat it out of society - we just need to be against that. Why do we have to agree on anything but that it is wrong for us to be the most despised, least trusted, least represented and most closeted minority in the nation? When we have actually got off our asses and worked to take that away then it's perfectly OK to drift off into "woah dude I'm too special to be part of an atheist group" bubbles. Until then, it is willfully perpetuating the situation and tacitly rolling over and allowing the religious majority to impose their will on the rest of us.

[Capt. America]

8. "God bless" my philosophy 101 professor, Dr. Jo Ellen Jacobs...

...for setting me on the path to free thinking. No more ghosts and zombie prophets calling out from underneath the bed.

However, if I were to pick my favorite deity, it would be Thor.

[valerief]

13. At the moment, my favorite god is Joan Crawford. nt

[Gator_Matt]

11. I was about 6 years old...

I remember I went to Sunday school when I was six and couldn't help but think to myself "this is ridiculous." My parents aren't religious, but they wanted me to check it out for myself. Needless to say I've been atheist/agnostic/areligious for all my life.

I figure 99.999% of people don't truly believe, otherwise people wouldn't cry at funerals or get bypass surgery. If they TRULY believed, they would welcome death as a means of reaching heaven. Just my 2 cents.

[Raster]

17. Religion is myth and superstition, that hardens hearts and enslaves minds.

[ShortnFiery]

18. Oh, not all will go for THAT. I believe in *spirituality* + some form of afterlife.

However, ORGANIZED RELIGION is what MAY be the undoing of the Human Race.

Believe, don't believe and/or be unsure IN PEACE. :-)

[Raster]

24. Each to their own. Believe and worship as you please.

[Joe Chi Minh]

19. "Small numbers compared to the whole, of course,....." Why spoil

his lethal advocacy with such an infinitesimal detail?

Would you buy a used car from that man? You go, Ron!

[bertman]

23. Count me in!!

:hi:

What's really funny about the Christian mythology is that it borrowed from so many others before it. Yet, we Americans are so poorly-educated regarding anything other than the Judeo-Christian mythology that we don't see the connections.

Having grown up Southern Baptist, I am no longer shocked by the studied ignorance of the fanatical religious adherents among us. Amazed, but no longer shocked.

It certainly is nice to hear that so many of us Americans are not blindly following religious charlatans.

[Joe Bacon]

26. It's the hate that drove me away from churches

When I was a kid, I remember hearing kids sing Jesus Loves Me.

When I got older and the Republicans infected the pulpits, I heard more and more of Jesus Hates You from the preachers.

My family made me go to church and listen to more and more extreme Republican propaganda.

It got to the point that I couldn't take any more and I stopped going.

I've seen how Je$u$ has infected my family like the pods in Invasion of the Body Snatchers. Je$u$ turned all of them from Democrats to hard core Republicans who slobber over a cardboard cutout of Bush just like the infected kids in Jesus Camp.

There is NOTHING that would ever make me go into any church ever again!