American religious affiliation at lowest point in history

Started by Valigarmander, March 13, 2013, 12:35:06 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Fidel_Castronaut

Quote from: "Teaspoon Shallow"In Australia the term Atheist is still misunderstood as the assertion there is no god.

A poll released last year said approximately 4% of Australians were Atheist and 9% did not believe in god.

WTH? #-o

In the UK a lot of people are nominal atheists in that they's say they're Christian but really don't have any religious belief at all.

Estimates by some think tanks place it up to 50% of England and Wales don't have a belief in a deity.

But what you say about Australia is also an occurance here. The census has a weird way of asking the 'religion' question to give as amny responses as possible, meaning that one can say one is an atheist, one has no religion (could technically still be theist/deist or whatever), one is a secularist (??? That's not anything to do with religion), and so on. In 2001 around 14% said they were 'atheist', with %'s adding on top of that saying they were humanist, jedi, anti-theist and so on.

Maybe it's down to the confusion over what atheism actually means?

But hell, I'm not starting another thread like that again (see: Siggie).
lol, marquee. HTML ROOLZ!

Tull

It is true that there are quite a few "theists" (Jews/Hindus in particular but also Christians and Muslims) who are functional atheists yet claim affiliation.

AxisMundi

Quote from: "Tull"It is true that there are quite a few "theists" (Jews/Hindus in particular but also Christians and Muslims) who are functional atheists yet claim affiliation.

Yup. Some communities, especially on a local level, all but demand a claimed affiliation of some kind or another.

One find such conditions in certain rural parts of the US, and also in fundamentalist Islam areas too.

Colanth

Quote from: "Tull"It is true that there are quite a few "theists" (Jews/Hindus in particular but also Christians and Muslims) who are functional atheists yet claim affiliation.
I don't know about Hindus, but one can be a Jew culturally without believing in any god.
Afflicting the comfortable for 70 years.
Science builds skyscrapers, faith flies planes into them.

GurrenLagann

Atheism is seen as a valid path in Hinduism, but hard as far as spiritual matters go, though that sounds quite odd.
Which means that to me the offer of certainty, the offer of complete security, the offer of an impermeable faith that can\'t give way, is the offer of something not worth having.
[...]
Take the risk of thinking for yourself. Much more happiness, truth, beauty & wisdom, will come to you that way.
-Christopher Hitchens

Valigarmander

Hinduism can be polytheistic, henotheistic, monotheistic, pantheistic, or atheistic. It's actually a very diverse religion.

Hydra009

Quote from: "Colanth"I don't know about Hindus, but one can be a Jew culturally without believing in any god.
Same thing with Hindus.  (Carvaka is my personal favorite.  I thought we could insult theists, but these people made it into an artform!)