Seattle
Valued Senior Member
Do you think the industrialized world is becoming less religious? What are your thoughts? I'm looking for a discussion rather than to be absolutely accurate with our terms.
I'm really just asking what do you think is going on?
There are polls that show fairly large increases in atheists but the increases seem a little too large for the time period involved (since the last poll).
In general, I think over time people are becoming less religious (whatever that means to you) in industrialized countries. I think in the U.S. for example the number of people who are counted as being religious has probably always been too high.
Now that it's more acceptable to say that you're not religious I think more people are just being accurately accounted for now.
I think the way the questions are asked skews the result in favor of the religious as well in some way. If you asked how many people are "Spicks" Italian Americans would be under-represented as that's a slur.
It's similar with asking if you are an atheist. In the U.S. at least "atheist" has negative connotations.
If the polling was more along a continuum such as "how religious are you" with 1 being not religious at all and 10 being "I'm certain of God's existence" I think you would see more and more people from 1-5.
As it is everyone generally says that they are religious unless they are willing to be labeled as an atheist.
I think the population as a whole has never been as religious as it might appear and as time goes on that number gradually declines as well.
The numbers showing 90 % (or whatever) of Americans believing in God is that high only because of the way the questions are asked and because of the culture that makes people say they believe in God or are religious even though many never go to church, think in religious terms and really don't think much one way or another regarding the concept of "God".
It's just easier in our culture to say "sure" rather than "there is no God".
I'm really just asking what do you think is going on?
There are polls that show fairly large increases in atheists but the increases seem a little too large for the time period involved (since the last poll).
In general, I think over time people are becoming less religious (whatever that means to you) in industrialized countries. I think in the U.S. for example the number of people who are counted as being religious has probably always been too high.
Now that it's more acceptable to say that you're not religious I think more people are just being accurately accounted for now.
I think the way the questions are asked skews the result in favor of the religious as well in some way. If you asked how many people are "Spicks" Italian Americans would be under-represented as that's a slur.
It's similar with asking if you are an atheist. In the U.S. at least "atheist" has negative connotations.
If the polling was more along a continuum such as "how religious are you" with 1 being not religious at all and 10 being "I'm certain of God's existence" I think you would see more and more people from 1-5.
As it is everyone generally says that they are religious unless they are willing to be labeled as an atheist.
I think the population as a whole has never been as religious as it might appear and as time goes on that number gradually declines as well.
The numbers showing 90 % (or whatever) of Americans believing in God is that high only because of the way the questions are asked and because of the culture that makes people say they believe in God or are religious even though many never go to church, think in religious terms and really don't think much one way or another regarding the concept of "God".
It's just easier in our culture to say "sure" rather than "there is no God".