No. of Recommendations: 3
I have to pay to read that one. But I do know that the share of the population who claim "none" when surveyed about religion is up dramatically. Twenty years ago, or so, it was around 12% (flying from memory), but today it's about 35%. Just in the US. Other nations are farther along than us, with Denmark and Scandanavia clocking in around 80%.
Back in the day, benjd25 could be relied upon to post articles about surveys from time to time (as well as some difficult philosophical questions). But, as I recall, the oldsters are dying-off, and the youngsters are leaving the church (any church). JWs and Mormons especially aren't keeping their children (which can be problematic since both engage in "shunning" people who leave their church).
I was raised loosely religious. Dad and stepmom talked about Jesus and God as matter-of-fact, but no bible-thumping, and no attending of services. Even when I entered college, I thought there was something to it, and asked questions like "since energy can't be destroyed, where does the energy that is my lifeforce go when I die". (Answer: if that is even a coherent question, it would be "entropy".) But I already knew the bible was rubbish just with Noah's Ark (I'll forego the lengthy explanations of why that is complete BS). By the time I graduated, I was convinced there were no deities at all. I was (and still am) open to new evidence. It won't be coming from christians as their belief system is self-contradictory, illogical, and flies in the face of what we know about many topics (e.g. neither Genesis nor Exodus happened as described; neither book aligns with what we know and can prove today).
One of the reasons I am no longer a Republican was the growing influence of religion in the party. Reagan really started that with his alliance with Falwell. I didn't like it at the time, but let it slide. By 2000, candidate Bush Jr was spouting all that rubbish on the campaign trail (i.e. christian victimhood, etc). "You're violating my religious freedom by saying I can't discriminate against anyone I don't like."** I changed my registration to "independent" within a year of that. Then in 2008, McCain (my senator) injected a bunch of religion into his campaign (pandering), plus picked that loudmouth moron as a running mate, and I knew it was like a disease. My senator had never spoken like that before, and normally wouldn't have tolerated that harpie running mate. I voted Obama that year. Ironically, I think Obama was more devout than McCain, but he kept it private (as it should be). It wasn't a plank of his platform.
And so here we are today. The evangelicals are exercising out-sized power, punching above their weight. There really aren't that many of them, but a lot of Republican officials cow-tow to them. Of course, there are a few open atheists in Congress now (where it would have been almost unthinkable to declare atheism while running for office). Sinema is one. I suspect there are many more who are in the closet. But we're moving more toward open atheism, and that will be a good thing. It won't solve all our disagreements, but at least we can get magical thinking out of the discussion.
**Bush didn't say that, but it was an example of christian victimhood that we still see today.
