Sunday morning at 9am, on Air America, you’ll want to catch Atheists Talk. This week, half the show will be Hemant Mehta, talking about being a friendly atheist or some such nonsense antithetical to the whole atheist enterprise, which revolves around dour nihilism, of course.
The second half will be Kristine Harley and me talking about bad design. Tune in and call in!
Yesterday, I asked if anyone caught the offensive description of the results of the Pew study on religion on CBS. Crooks and Liars did. Here’s Wyatt Andrews’ comment on the results:
The unprecedented survey of religion answers many concerns about a secular, morally void America.
I don’t even know what that means. He seems to be linking “secular” with “morally void”, but I don’t understand what concerns it answered for him — I found the results reassuring, but I want more secularism and and don’t see it as moral problem at all.
So…have you all read the latest Pew report on American religion? It’s been reported in the NY Times, too, and I heard that it was the lead story on CBS News (which, unfortunately, said something about a “secular, morally empty America” — did anyone catch it, or better yet, record it?).
It’s mostly good news. We’ve got a fragmented, shrinking Protestant population, Catholics are abandoning ship in droves and what’s keeping it afloat is Catholic immigration from the south, and the “unaffiliateds” are growing fast, especially among young adults.
The survey finds that the number of people who say they are unaffiliated with any particular faith today (16.1%) is more than double the number who say they were not affiliated with any particular religion as children. Among Americans ages 18-29, one-in-four say they are not currently affiliated with any particular religion.
16.1% is still a minority, but keep in mind that Catholics are 24% of the population — we could pass them by in a few years. Look at that table on the right. We’re huge (but not at all organized or unified, of course) and growing fast. It’s worth looking at past assesments: in 1990, the nonreligious were about 7.5% of the population; in 2001, 13.2%; now, 16.1%.
The Pew people break down the “unaffiliateds” a bit more, and it looks like a significant number of them do still have considerable affection or perhaps dependency on religion — they just don’t seem to like the existing sects. I suspect we can blame that not on the attraction of atheism, but the repulsion from overreaching, grasping American religion.
Like the other major groups, people who are unaffiliated with any particular religion (16.1%) also exhibit remarkable internal diversity. Although one-quarter of this group consists of those who describe themselves as either atheist or agnostic (1.6% and 2.4% of the adult population overall, respectively), the majority of the unaffiliated population (12.1% of the adult population overall) is made up of people who simply describe their religion as “nothing in particular.” This group, in turn, is fairly evenly divided between the “secular unaffiliated,” that is, those who say that religion is not important in their lives (6.3% of the adult population), and the “religious unaffiliated,” that is, those who say that religion is either somewhat important or very important in their lives (5.8% of the overall adult population).
But don’t try to argue that this “new” muscular atheism is driving people away. 1.6% self-identifying as atheists is a big leap forward: in 2001, that number was 0.4%.
It’s not all good news, though, and this one point here is something we must address.
To illustrate this point, one need only look at the biggest gainer in this religious competition — the unaffiliated group. People moving into the unaffiliated category outnumber those moving out of the unaffiliated group by more than a three-to-one margin. At the same time, however, a substantial number of people (nearly 4% of the overall adult population) say that as children they were unaffiliated with any particular religion but have since come to identify with a religious group. This means that more than half of people who were unaffiliated with any particular religion as a child now say that they are associated with a religious group. In short, the Landscape Survey shows that the unaffiliated population has grown despite having one of the lowest retention rates of all “religious” groups.
So we’re growing fast, but our children have a significant chance of ‘backsliding’ into some religion later in life. I suspect that is a consequence of the fact that most non-religious households will not provide any specific training in beliefs (I know I didn’t!) and godlessness is often presented as simple disbelief without a body of associated positive values. We need to change that.
Although there is also an alternative interpretation: how often have you heard the theistic testimonial that begins “Once I was an atheist…”? It’s practically a cliche. Another possibility is that a lot of born-agains will report their childhood as being unaffiliated with any religion, when what they really mean is that there was religion, it was just less fervent than their current zealotry. I’m not entirely convinced that the supposed low retention rate is real.
Anyway, we have something to feel good about — the trends are running towards a return to a more secular America, although obviously we have a ways to go yet. And of course, when the Rapture comes and all the charismafundagelical loonies vanish in a puff of incense, we’ll have an even greater forward lurch in the percentages.
Ricky Gervais has published his deconversion story — I feel a little inferior because he made up his mind about it very quickly, while it took me years to ease my way out of the nonsense.
I like his answer, though, especially the last paragraph below.
…within an hour, I was an atheist.
Wow. No God. If Mum had lied to me about God, had she also lied to me about Santa? yes, but who cares? The gifts kep coming. And so did the gifts of my newfound atheism. The gifts of truth, science, nature. The real beauty of this world. Not a world by design, but one by chance. I learned of evolution—a theory so simple and obvious that only England’s greatest genius could have come up with it. Evolution of plants, animals, and us—with imagination, free will, love and humor. I no longer needed a reason for my existence, just a reason to live. And imagination, free will, love, humor, fun, music, sports, beer, and pizza are all good enough reasons for living.
But living an honest life—for that you need the truth. That’s the other thing I learned that day, that the truth, however shocking or uncomfortable, in the end leads to liberation and dignity.
Hey, Minneapolitans — Campus Atheists, Skeptics, and Humanists have two big events coming up soon. This week, it’s pizza and bowling on the UMTC campus. I’m probably not going to be able to make that one, but the week after, on 6 March, Austin Cline will be speaking on critical thinking and skepticism, and I may be able to get into town for that one. Let’s all go say hello to another godless blogger!
Remember — Sunday morning at 9am, you can tune in to the Minnesota Atheists’ very own Atheist Talk radio program. This week, we’re planning to have a bigger slice of time for the Moment of Science, and Kristine Harley and I will be talking about the idea of bad “design” — the observation that many features of evolved organism don’t look at all like they are the product of intent.
(Oops, no — not this week. That’ll be next week. This week, you’ll get to hear from Lori Lipman Brown, and you’ll hear a discussion of secular ethics. Tune in!)
Feel free to call in, but please do try to be crisp and cogent…we do have more time, but even the extended segment will fly by quickly.
By the way, there have been some problems with the audio stream in the past, with the program getting cut off at the commercial breaks; the station says that it was a technical glitch, and that it has been fixed.
Only even less tangible. John Allen Paulos tells the story of his vacation in Thailand.
No, it’s not that kind of story.
Greta Christina hosts the Carnival of the Godless this week, which means the atheism is laced with sex. This is an avenue for recruiting people to the atheist cause that has not been adequately pursued.
Although there is something to be said for goddesses: the Sunday Sermonette is a hymn from Janis. Whoa, but she could sing. We also learn that the Reveres were young doctors in 1969, had a chance to go to Woodstock, and skipped it because it was going to rain. I missed it, too, but my excuse is a little better: I was 12 years old and on the opposite side of the country. I was a fan of Janis at that time, though, and I swear, that woman accelerated the onset of puberty for me by at least two years.
Hemant thinks he has a shot of winning an online poll to determine the sexiest atheist blogger. No way! I’m going to send you, my minions, over there to … uh … wait. You people are probably still in shock from that time I exposed my chest, aren’t you? Dang. I need to wait at least 20 or 30 years before those memories fade if I’m to stand a chance.
I voted for Greta Christina, anyway, and my second choice was C.L. Hanson.
People, what are you doing voting for me? That’s insane. Unless, of course, you’re one of those people who likes a bad boy with a hint of danger, even if he does look like Meatloaf or Jack Black … but as everyone who meets me says, I defuse even that with a mild and professorial air. Pick someone else!
