The fall of religion in America

A new study, led by Professor Jean M. Twenge author of Generation Me and published in Sage Open, has examined the responses of 58,893 participants in the General Social Survey, a survey of U.S. adults that took place between 1972 and 2014. The results of the new study are striking, concluding that five times more Americans prayed in the early 1980s than in 2014 while nearly twice as many Americans believed in God in the 1980s than they do now.
Americans today are also less likely to believe that the Bible is divinely inspired with 22% of respondents agreeing with the statement that the Bible "is an ancient book of fables, legends, history, and moral precepts recorded by men" compared to the 14% who agreed with this in 1984 (a 57% increase).

http://news.meta.com/2016/03/21/the-fall-of-religion-in-america/

 

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As we feel more secure we look less to God . If disaster some comes, then we will cry out to God again

 

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I don't know whether these statistic are true, but for a long while America has been hailed as the most religious country in the world (or at least way up there). I think the religion in America, is an American religion (God bless America!). What I mean is that it is a style that has been manufactured in America, for Americans.
They are brands of Christianity which have spread throughout the world, where I see no relation to Yeshua Bens teachings, or philosophies.
That being said, if it is manufactured, then over time, other religious, or irreligious ideologies can be manufactured.
Personally I've never believed America to be a ''religious'' country, in the sense that India is, even though it seems that way on the surface.

jan.

 

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Who is Yeshua Ben?
I can only assume you mean Yeshua ben Yosef?
If I'm not mistaken "ben" simply means "son of"... it is not a family name, and is not capitalised.

There is also no single "religion in America", but I appreciate your efforts to generalise so offensively.

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As of 2014 census the largest religion was Protestant (c.45% of the population) which include, but is not limited to: Anglican, Puritanism, Baptist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Quaker, Moravian, Adventist, Mormonism, Methodist, Episcopalians, Eastern Orthodox, United Church of Christ.
Catholics account for c.20%.
Then there is Judaism, Islam, Hindu, Buddhism etc.

A few of the Protestant religions have certainly be manufactured in America and clearly had to appeal to Americans if they wanted to promote their message, but the majority (by population) of religions in the US are pretty much in line with their European counterparts from which they were formed.
As for you not seeing any relation to the teachings of Jesus, or his philosophies, I suggest you remove your blinkers and perhaps take a stroll into some local churches and see for yourself what they preach, what the congregations do etc.
Yes, there will be some poor examples upon which you could make an argument, but do you really intend to judge a religion by the worst of its supposed practitioners?

 

I've read articles that paint a different picture, rather that religion is on the decline, but spirituality is up in the US. Or people defining themselves as such.

 

Religion in the US isn't necessarily on the decline, but is becoming more diverse. Less monolithic, less defined and dominated by conservative or even mainline Christianity.

 

...or 'Issa bin Yusuf.......

 

Yes, I would imagine I would cry out to my mommy - this is not evidence of the existence of God.

 

Part of the reason for the decline religion, is secular culture has degenerated people, to where more and more people don't feel comfortable in church, since many feel they can no longer live up to the high moral standards and live in culture.

There has been a push to downgrade the historical teachings of religion, to meet the needs of the degenerate, but the various religions are too conservative and won't downgrade as fast as the degeneration increases. This is why there is a push for relative morality. Relative morality allows the degenerate to feel like they belong.

The analogy is say you belong to a club of supermodels. The standard is very high, in this club, in terms of always looking your best. One day your peers see you at your worse and take pictures and post these on the internet. Since you have broken the unspoken rules of the club, and others will not let you forget, you may no longer feel welcome, until the club changes the rules to accommodate your bad hair days.

One of the original occurrences was the Church of England, which formed so the King could get a divorce. The Catholic Church did not want to water down the standards and allow the divorce clause. The King wanted a divorce and he still wanted to go to church. The result was the King started his own church to accommodate both his need for religion and his need for divorce.

Buddhism is a religion that has no deities. Buddhism shows a religion does not have to have deities, to be a religion. If you use this standard there are more religions than are normally called religions. Environmentalism is religion without deities. One can be a pervert, as long as you try to save the planet, with morality limited to recycle and preserve. It is a worse sin to throw plastic on the ground, then have an addiction to drugs.

PC is another religion without deities. It is a religion of sounds. You can be a pervert, since morality in this religion is only about knowing the holy and unholy sounds. One will lose their status, if they make the wrong sounds. It is a funny religion, but it fills a need.

 

But tell me, Wellwisher, don't liberals fit into all this somewhere?

 

Are you saying atheists and agnostics can't be moral?

 

On what basis do you consider them to be "high" moral standards compared to the morals the secularist adopts?

"A push" for relative morality?
On what basis do you consider morality can/should only be objective?

You are analogising religion to the immoral behaviour of the supermodels?
Fair enough.

Society moves on, and with it morals change.
It is a pity that some feel that the outdated morals of their religion are somehow "higher" than those adopted for the society of the time.
Old does not equate to better, higher, preferable, or anything other than old.

Your view of what constitutes a religion is... odd.

???
Again, I'm not sure how you are defining religion, but it is more than simply a philosophy or an outlook or a desire.

 

Quite right. A worldview is only half (or possibly a third) of the equation. Without a set of practices, and possibly a social-interaction element, it's not a religion. It's a belief system or a philosophy, maybe. But religion is more complicated and involved than just a belief set.

Honestly, in most religions across the world--and even within belief-based Christianity, on a practical basis--what you believe or think is less important than what you do.

 

I think thread's title is incorrect.
Religion has not declined in US; it has transfromed into the worship of power and money.

 

Good assumption.

That's right, modern Christianity, or deriveties of modern Christianity is the religion of America.

We can distinguish, with relative ease, the difference between The American Christianity, and The European form of Christianity. Perhaps it's that you can't.

On what basis are you able to distinguish a religion as worse?

Religion is a cultural system of behaviours and practices, world views, sacred texts, holy places, ethics, and societal organisation that relate humanity to what an anthropologist has called "an order of existence".
Different religions may or may not contain various elements, ranging from the "divine", "sacred things", "faith", a "supernatural being or supernatural beings" or "...some sort of ultimacy and transcendence that will provide norms and power for the rest of life."...

...Religious practices MAY include rituals, sermons, commemoration or veneration (of God or deities), sacrifices, festivals, feasts, trances, initiations, funerary services,matrimonial services, meditation, prayer, music, art, dance, public service, or other aspects of human culture...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion

Jim Jones was an agnostic atheist, and he formed a religious cult not unlike what is come to be regarded as american religion (excluding the demise)...

"Off the record, I don’t believe in any loving God. Our people, I would say, are ninety percent atheist." ~ Rev. Jones

"Well, thank you for the feedback, ‘cause, I must say, I felt somewhat hypocritical for the last years as I became uh, an atheist, uh, I have become uh, you— you feel uh, tainted, uh, by being in the church situation. But of course, everyone knows where I’m at. My bishop knows that I’m an atheist. He— He knows that I— I— I recognize only love, when I say— I’ll say, "God is Love"— well, you heard my preaching. You know where I’m at." ~ Rev. Jones

jan.

 

Transformed from what?

jan.

 

I agree.
The cultural landscape is changing, and the dominant culture was modern Christianity.
Christianity is not ''Religion''.

jan.

 

... can only be a good thing.

I must apologise. I read nothing but the thread title and posted this.
I don't really consider it needs anything more.

And if anyone else posted it before me:
I apologise to you and ask you to point it out so that I might allocate a like.

 

Yet not all religious people in America follow a version of Christianity.
So my point stands that you were generalising, and continue to do so.

And you continue your generalisation by seeming to assume that all Christians in America are of the former.
Have you ever been to, say, a Catholic mass in the US?
Your offensive generalisation suggests not.
But if you have you would know you are speaking Turdish.

Why do you think I would do such a thing?


As for the rest of your post, it is not your view I consider odd, nor does it address that which I find odd about wellwisher's view, so I do not see the relevance of what you posted.

 

No, but when we talk of ''Religion On The Decline'' in the U.S., we mean the modern Christian brand.
It stands to reason as the the predominant religion is overwhelmingly modern Christian.

If I'm generalising, then so is the article.
A set of questions asked to the participants in the survey was;

Believing the Bible is literal: “Which of these statements comes closest to describing your feelings about the Bible?” Response choices were “The Bible is an ancient book of fables, legends, history, and moral precepts recorded by men”; “The Bible is the inspired word of God but not everything in it should be taken literally, word for word”; and “The Bible is the actual word of God and is to be taken literally, word for word.” Asked 1984-2014.

...nothing was asked about other religious scriptures. So one can only assume they themselves saw modern Christianity as the religion that is in decline.

Because you said;

Yes, there will be some poor examples upon which you could make an argument, but do you really intend to judge a religion by the worst of its supposed practitioners?

If I'm not mistaken, wellwisher was demonstrating the diversity of religions, as was I.

jan.