Unbelief is on the uptick. People who check “None” for their religious affiliation are now nearly one in five Americans (19%), the highest ever documented, according to the Pew Center for the People and the Press.
The rapid rise of Nones ”” including atheists, agnostics and those who say they believe “nothing in particular” ”” defies the usually glacial rate of change in spiritual identity.
Barry Kosmin, co-author of three American Religious Identification Surveys, theorizes why None has become the “default category.” He says, “Young people are resistant to the authority of institutional religion, older people are turned off by the politicization of religion, and people are simply less into theology than ever before.”
Two quick thoughts:
(a) I wonder if some of the apparent “uptick” might be due to folks’ feeling more comfortable nowadays with declaring themselves to be nonbelievers.
(b) Given recent discussions about how mainline denominations may be declining due to their liberalism, it was interesting to read that both Roman Catholics and Southern Baptists are also declining in numbers.
Oops! Posted my quick thoughts too quickly. RCs and SBs are “flat or inching downward.”
I think it’s interesting that the decline of education and educational quality over the past 30 or so years seems to be yielding a higher number of atheists. I really believe it’s the cause and not just an effect.
Prior to the mid-80s and 1990s, you had a solid, diverse education even in the public schools that wasn’t afraid of including religious principles and morality. I remember singing various hymns and religious songs in music class. We also were taught classical logic. At university, religious beliefs were discussed and dissected and no one got bent out of shape over it.
Since then, however, mediocrity has reigned so that no one will feel offended or the least bit challenged. “Reason” has been presented but it’s neither logical nor reasonable. Whereas the influence of religious belief includes discussion, rationality, morality and free will, the new game in town is pat answers and pawning theories off as Truth. You can’t question or debate the THEORY of evolution, for example, or else the powers-that-be get all bent out of shape. (Personally, I think the theory is largely correct but I and my generation would like to discuss and critique it. That threatens the current crowd.)
I was astonished by how much had changed in academia when I returned for grad. school 10 years ago. Granted, I wasn’t attending an Ivy League school, but I did expect a higher degree (pun intended) of rigor. I had a class with the head of my thesis committee and, as we were chatting one day, she apologized for the slower pace and long introduction she had to provide for the class. (She had to spend two weeks on basic techniques of analyzing poetry because half of the class had no idea what meter or rhyme schemes were, and a substantial portion of the rest couldn’t identify basic poetic devices or classifications.) She suggested that those of us who were older and knew the material could skip the classes in which she had to teach basic skills to graduate students in English who, presumably, had bachelor’s degrees in English or a related major.
Another of my professors grumbled his way through the various “theories” that he was required by the university to cover. I think he got through them all in one class period, lol. The article he gave us to read involving a “queer theory” look at Chaucer, pondering whether he might have been gay (and deciding at the end that he probably wasn’t) exhibited a glaring lack of scholarship and was rubbish, which I mentioned to my professor. Yes, it was rubbish, he agreed and noted that it was actually one of the better efforts, which speaks volumes about this “theory.”
This is what’s going on. This generation is rejecting things out of hand, as young people will, but they have been given no tools of discernment, few reasoning skills, and, instead, presented with a mantra of “Don’t be a hater!” if anyone disagrees or questions their collective “wisdom.” They have truly become so open-minded that their brains are falling out.
How does that relate to atheism and no religion? Simple. Atheism makes no demands of them. Religion does. To believe means you have to think outside of yourself and your own opinions to deeper Truth and you have to conform your life to reflect that Truth. This generation can’t handle that.
I teach in a rural high school in NC. Everday I hear students proclaiming their atheism, belief in same sex love, and their belief that religious people are narrow minded hypocrites.
Yep, Boniface, it’s become a focal point for youth rebellion because they know if you question them about it, they can get you in big trouble. All they have to do is call the ACLU and they’ll make you look like a narrow-minded and abusive “hater.”
The problem with this article is that it speaks of western concerns as though they applied world-wide. In fact, Christianity is doing relatively well world-wide. Christians of all types (Catholic, Protestant, and, I believe, the Orthodox) are booming in sub-Saharan Africa and, from what I can read, in China and the far east. It’s in the prosperous west that the “nones” are increasing. I tend to agree with comment 1 above, particularly point a – it’s become more socially acceptable to declare your lack of belief. However, it’s also possible that the increase is simply a matter of counting what wasn’t counted before. I knew lots of self-defined agnostics and atheists back in the day, but now anecdotes are becoming data.
In any case, the article doesn’t provide credible reasons for this statistical increase in unbelievers.
Young people are resistant to the authority of institutional religion
Always have been to some degree. It’s almost mandatory to Shock the Adults, at least since the boomers (I’m one) got their every glorious move captured on 8 millimeter film and proceeded to think they (we) were the hottest thing since sliced bread. Who needs God when everything we want is ours by right?
older people are turned off by the politicization of religion
Would that be the politicization of religion by lefties in the 60s and early 70s, or the politicization of religion by the right in the later 70s and 80s. I suspect he means the latter, but dogging the “religious right” is a lot more fun if you don’t remember (as I do) that the Religious Right was a direct reaction to the Religious Left.
and people are simply less into theology than ever before
Really? Ever? I wonder how theologically astute you would find the average 18th century Englishman (before Wesley), or the 17th century Frenchman? Narcissistic much?
I’m sticking with my hunch that it’s really about prosperity and materialism.
“Always have been to some degree. It’s almost mandatory to Shock the Adults, at least since the boomers (I’m one) got their every glorious move captured on 8 millimeter film and proceeded to think they (we) were the hottest thing since sliced bread. Who needs God when everything we want is ours by right?”
That’s a good point. Time was (35+ years ago?) you had made it’ if you appeared on TV – because access to that media was very limited. Now anyone can be on youtube or have their own blog, and non-achievements are whooped and cheered. Technology makes us think we are smarter and more able than we are. Of course, the illusion of success doesn’t last long but the disappointment and grievance do.
Good examples in post #3, Teatime 2.
One can only pray the Holy Spirit to open the eyes of this generation and that the Church is ready when they see how lost they are.