Christian Science Monitor – February 26, 2008:
A panoramic snapshot of American religious life in 2008 reveals an extraordinary dynamism that is reshaping the country’s major traditions in historic ways.
Almost half of Americans have moved to a different religious denomination from that in which they were raised, and 28 percent have switched to a different major tradition or to no religion (i.e., from Roman Catholic to Protestant, Jewish to unaffiliated).
The fluidity is combining with immigration to spur dramatic changes in the religious landscape. Protestantism appears on the verge of losing its majority status. The number of “unaffiliated” Americans has doubled, to 16 percent. One-third of Catholics are now Latino and the religion is depending on immigration to maintain its share of the population.
These shifts are captured in a survey released Monday by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.
#31 – GregAllen,
That’s where atheists have a heck of a battle. Atheists claim that that 97.68% of the world can’t be right.
1. Atheists claim 97+% of the world has presented no evidence for their claim that god(s) exist(s).
2. Nothing in your post points to any scientific evidence for the existence of god(s).
More likely we 98% can’t be all wrong.
Terrible argument. The counter to it can be rather vulgarly summed up as “eat shit; a billion flies can’t all be wrong.”
Alternately and with a less vulgar image, consider that the entire population of the planet once believed the sun to revolve around the earth.
You dismiss the spiritual neurology theory but others don’t.
I don’t dismiss neurological study. It is very interesting to learn about the workings of our brains and even why we as a species believe such nonsense. However, it adds not a single iota of credibility to the god hypothesis.
So, since you’re in the majority, why not present some scientific evidence of god or the efficacy of prayer? Or, just answer where you believe god came from? To me, it’s just turtles all the way down, and thus, a self-inconsistent and failed hypothesis.
#31–Greg==what the hey are you smoking? “Feelings reveal reality.” HAR de HAR HAR! Jeebezus!!
All animals get hungry. Hunger does not exist in the world. Getting hungry does. See the difference?
Humans fall in love. Love doesn not eist in the world, falling in love does. See the difference?
Humans long for simple direct explanations of the world culturally directed now as “god”. God doesn’t exist, only the feelings for a god. See the difference?
Greg Allen wrote, “You dismiss the spiritual neurology theory but others don’t.”
You misunderstood me, Greg. I don’t dismiss the spiritual neurology theory. What I dismissed was your hypothesis which characterized it as “spiritual reality.” Thousands of contradictory, mutually exclusive perceptions of god do not reality make. It sounds, however, like an excellent and easy-to-follow recipe for war and strife.
#34 – Gary,
Could be proof a mean vindictive god created in our own image, of course.
Let us pray. Indeed.
#35 Misanthropic Scott, absolutely agreed. It has to be a bit uncomfortable to worship a god that shows some of humanity’s worst foibles. I’d like to start from scratch and invent a more ethical god.
#36 Monster’s Lawyer, the old phrase often uttered by ministers and priests is “Let us prey,” not “pray.” Until you see it in writing, it’s easy to confuse the two 😉
#37 – Gary, I was commenting on the picture. What an angel. 🙂
As long as we’re on the subject of changing religious beliefs, I would add that few people have had a more negative recent impact on Christianity in the world than George W. Bush. His daily prayers for wisdom and guidance have had a remarkably small, or even negative, return. In the long prelude to the war, no deity seems to have whispered in his ear to interject a note of truth and quiet the repetition of false premises.
When religion and politics comingle, rather than politics becoming more moral, religion simply becomes more sullied.