28% of Americans are now religiously unaffiliated. A new study from Pew Research looks at how atheists, agnostics and those whose religion is “nothing in particular” view God, religion and morality.
Not a new article, but I find it reassuring sometimes knowing how many people identity as not having a religion.
Unfortunately when it comes to us “Nones” the Christians - and a bunch of other theists - fucking love ganging up on us. They view us as an existential threat to their whole worldview, because if we can be decent human beings without a higher authority or threat of eternal damnation, they might start having to think for themselves - and they just can’t cope with that kind of cognitive dissonance.
Only a couple steps away from anti-theism 🤩🤘🏼
¡Si, se puede!
nope. that number isn’t “atheists” it’s “atheist, agnostic, or ‘nothing in particular’”. this includes a lot of people who believe in the supernatural or paranormal but simply don’t practice a formal institutionalized religion. probably even a number of christians who don’t identify as being religious because they don’t practice piety (going to church, etc).
it’s also interesting to note that according to the article, the atheist/agnostic segment is chiefly comprised white people, and that “nones” overall tend to be men. atheism seems to be a white guy thing, and i think it’s worth considering why.
Atheism stats “seem to be a white guy thing”, let’s be accurate.
I mean why not slice the Christians up into even smaller groups? You certainly could. Then the ‘nones’ could have won sooner.
This is encouraging. Christianity in particular doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. A little Bertrand Russell, a hot atheist girlfriend, the Masks of God series, and it was good bye religion.
I believe I saw something similar (source: trust me bro) that said this happening because a lot of people are moving away from religious institutions rather than away from spirituality on the whole. I could have made that up, but if I didn’t that makes sense to my why you’d see an increase in people self reporting that way
Personally I went from agnostic fence sitter to athiest after seeing Qanon and maga.
Hard not to look at that and not feel a cold certainty that there is no god
It was actually that my main reason for holding out was the idea that somewhere back in time there was some reason these religions came to be. It rested on the idea that people are not stupid and its not like someone makes up a bunch of shit and then a bunch more people just believe it and some of them run their whole lives around it.
That’s a rough way to lose your faith. I get it though.
not exactly faith though. I was agnostic after all. Its more losing the benefit of the doubt.
If you wanted to learn real astronomy, you would ask an astronomer, right? If I told you to instead, you should talk to a flat eather or an astrologist, you would know those are not reliable sources of knowledge.
Do you think MAGA and friends are a realibale source or what faith and spirituality are like? Religion? Maybe. But faith and spirituality?
People are not stupid. The world is complicated.
Yeah you can use that argument to toss out any group and its not about getting their opinion but realizing in general this can happen and once your a few generations out even rational kids can be indoctrinated. Nobody religious has any proof of god. This just knocked out the weak legs I was trying to prop the idea up on due to my own bias.
That proved to you that no God exists?
I mean, we’ve seen no evidence that God interferes with human affairs, but just because he specifically didn’t interact with 4chan that’s enough for you to be sure.
Weird.
When did I talk about 4chan. Maga runs the country currently. Its more a scenario that there is no proof but I gave a benefit of the doubt reasoning that religions could possibly have some core truth and people following them would give credence. Since its plain now that people will follow any bs it sorta throws out the scrap of a possibility it had. It already had issues with more recent religions were historical data is decent enough to see how they’re view of their origins and the actual ones conflict. Given religion wise even when I was agnostic the only possible god could not be described by any religion in existence.
When did I talk about 4chan.
Isn’t the Qanon stuff all from 4chan?
Since its plain now that people will follow any bs it sorta throws out the scrap of a possibility it had.
Some idiots believing one thing does not disprove the existence of krishna, Thor or any other God of your choosing.
Given religion wise even when I was agnostic the only possible god could not be described by any religion in existence.
That position still sounds reasonable. MAGA doesn’t change your logic.
Yup. Heck videos of people out in public. It was not just 4chan. I guess you could say its an internet thing like everything on the planet. Anyway may not make sense to you but it certainly was enough for me.
Yeah, the study the segment’s based on goes into it in Q4 and 5.
I will again promote the newsletter and podcast: https://www.friendlyatheist.com/
I’m not affiliated. I just hate religion.
Yay for nothing!
Praise nothing!
Ask forgiveness from nothing!
FWIW, geese see God in the mirror. Ducks, on the other hand…
Skcud!!
i think a lot of this is people joining the “New Age”/“New Thought” cult and deciding it’s not “religion” because it’s not formally centralized.
“I’m not religious, I’m spiritual” they crow as they preach dogma and employ cult tactics.
religion ain’t going away folks, it’s simply changing its face.
edit to add: atheist and agnostics are a minority of “nones”. https://www.pewresearch.org/religion/2024/01/24/religious-nones-in-america-who-they-are-and-what-they-believe/
I was clicking around and didn’t see how it compares to religious groups. Was anyone able to find a comparison/breakdown?
https://www.pewresearch.org/religious-landscape-study/ does this help?
Why, yes, it does. Thank you very much. It adds the context I was looking for.
