14% of U.S. has no religious affiliation and the numbers are growing!

[ringmastery]

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20040720/ap_on_re_us/survey_protestants

The United States will no longer be a majority Protestant nation in years to come, due to a precipitous decline in affiliation with many Protestant churches, a new survey has found.

Between 1993 and 2002, the share of Americans who said they were Protestant dropped from 63 percent to 52 percent, after years of remaining generally stable, according to a study released Tuesday by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago.

At the same time, the number of people who said they had no religion rose from 9 percent to nearly 14 percent, and many are former Protestants, the survey's authors said.

[LuminousX]

1. Godless Heathens!

[nickinSTL]

10. Hey, Heathens aren't (all) godless!

I'm a Heathen, and I've got LOTS of gods!:D

[Hubert Flottz]

2. People are getting tired of paying for NOTHING!

If Shrub, Pat and Jerry go to heaven then I'll pass!

[Connie_Corleone]

12. I know that's right!

I was thinking about that the other day. Can you imagine "Heaven" being filled with nothing but Freeper types??

No thanks!

[Hubert Flottz]

23. The GOPers heard about the streets of gold and they're ready!

Saint Peter will have to count the golden silverware every night when The GOPer Gangsters all get to "Heaven"! The thoughts of me walking down a golden street and running into Newt or RayGoon, don't really make me want to go there! :puke:

I wonder too, if Jerry and Pat will take all them Church Snakes with them?! :scared:

[ozymandius]

25. AArrrggghhh!

What manner of hell could be worse than spending eternity with people like these?

[mhr]

26. Talk About A Flip-Flop - I Can See It Now, The Day Earth Stood Still

courtesy of Republicans making Heaven Hell and Hell Heaven!

[redqueen]

3. Completely predictable

Every time a religious leader shows themselves to be nothing more than a tool of the ruling class, more eyes are opened.

[slinkerwink]

4. thank God!

:evilgrin: we need more freethinkers in this world!

[GreenPartyVoter]

5. *lol*

Would Jesus love a liberal? You bet!
http://www.geocities.com/greenpartyvoter/liberalchristians.htm

[leftist.]

19. first thing i thought as well, hehe

"thank god!" can i get an AMEN from the freethinkers, agnostics, and atheists in the room!

[NoodleBoy]

6. noticed that a while ago...

but what does no religion mean?

just makes me want to talk to these people.

13%, though, is a good portion of the population-- wonder which way they lean.

[Warren DeMontague]

18. I subscribe to some tenets of Taoism and Buddhism

Also, as I mentioned in another thread, I worship the goddess of Discord, Eris, every other thursday.

And I'm also a secular humanist, I believe in evolution, and I have no reason to believe that the Catholic Church is any more accurate, knowledgeable, or authoritative about how all this stuff got here than it is on matters of sexuality.

Short of some psuedo-religious experiences/encounters with the group overmind at grateful dead shows, I'm pretty much a go-it-alone kind of chap on metaphysics. Organized Religion, to me, is an oxymoron. If I want to join a club, I'll take up softball.

But, really. What does any of that mean? I don't need, or want, a preacher, priest, rabbi or other self-appointed leader to filter the universe and try to explain it for me. I figure I have just as much capability to figure it out, or ponder it's ineffable mysteries, as anyone else. Church? Get far away from the city, on a clear moonless night, lie back on the grass. Look up, while you still can, before the light and smog and whatnot permanently obscures the night sky. That's all the church I need.

I firmly consider myself part of that 14% and growing, but no one has polled me as of yet.

[Hamlette]

7. the number is higher than 14%

in a study done in 2001 they got the same number, 14%, when they asked the question. The group (can't remember who does the study but they do it every 10 years at about the same time as the census) had always thought that number too low so they added a question in 2001: Do you live with anyone who has no religion? (or something like that) and the percentage rose to 19%.

That must mean that 19% (or more) have no religion but only 14% have the guts to admit it.

But shhhh, don't tell Christians, they are SO freaked out about being so picked on by our secular society. If they think they might someday be in the minority they will explode.

[SaveElmer]

8. Most religious organizations have only themselves to blame

As science continues to expose deficiencies in biblical interpretation of historical events, those religious organizations who take the bible literally will find their membership diminishing. It is becoming increasingly difficult to reconcile the two. These organizations have to look for the truth of the bible in terms of what is being taught as opposed to what is being described. That's why liberal denominations such as Unitarian Universalism, though still relatively small, are some of the fastest growing denominations in the U.S.

[moosedog]

11. Unitarian Universalism

Do you know where one can get more info on this group. Sounds good to me. We have been searching for many years and haven't been able to accept any organized religions that we have experienced. We want to be able to use our minds and think..

[SaveElmer]

13. Here you go

If you want to think this is the place to do it. Most congregations have every stripe of belief from atheists to Buddhists, to liberal to mainline christians.

Here's a link that will get you started...

http://uua.org/

[moosedog]

24. Thanks...found it...

This is one philosophy that we haven't heard of. It would be comforting to know that there is other people that just don't want to be led around by superstitions and rules.

[SheBop]

9. Godless Americans PAC Endorses Kerry

http://godlessamericans.org/

[sui generis]

14. it's really difficult being in this minority

sometimes -- it just seems so absurd to hear grown-ups talk about people and events who aren't there and never were, and why that makes them better than the other people who do that.

I just can't hear "people of faith" without hearing "people of irrationality", (which is an honest statement, not a statement meant to provoke anyone here.) It seems like when people are willing to debate consubstantiation versus transubstantiation in its many forms that I think they might as well be talking about PacMan versus Ms. PacMan for all I care, except that history has shown that people are willing to kill over those abstract delusions of being the sole purveyor of God's own truth, whatever that may be. I just don't get it, at a cellular level.

[manic expression]

15. could this mean that

Americans are polarizing not only on politics, but now on religion as well? Very interesting.

[hatrack]

16. Americans have always been polarized by religion

Just dip into the Am. history books for a quick review of the Know-Nothings, the Anti-Masonic Party and the anti-Irish sentiment of the 1840s and 1850s.

The only difference now is that it's sect vs. non-sect, instead of sect vs. sect.

[Cha]

17. Only 14%...you might know I'd be in the minority

again!

[DaveSZ]

21. This really is more of a fringe messageboard

When you compare the result of the DU religion poll with this one, it's quite striking.

[Mr_Spock]

20. Perhaps the right-wing morons figured out that Jesus was a radical liberal

Stupid heathens!

[DaveSZ]

22. Yeah

Jesus was a regular hippie.

[truthspeaker]

27. Many "nondenominational" evangelical churches don't identify as Protestant

Even though they use the Protestant Bible and are based on Protestant theology. I doubt the study accounted for that.

The 14% figure is good news, though.