Re: how many Americans go to church, and why?
On Apr 6, 2007, at 1:54 PM, Chuck wrote:
It looks like those of us who are anti-religion activists have our
work cut out for us. I’m just happy to see the appearance of the “New Atheism” movement. I’d really like to see more people agitating for a more non-religious American society.
Me too, but it looks like we’re in a minority, even on this list.
That being said, I think this survey is allowing too many people to
lie about their church attendance and their religious beliefs.
It’s interesting that the BLS’s time use survey, which relies on
people keeping diaries about what they do, shows a much lower rate of
church attendance. But aspirations and social pressures to conform do
affect people’s political opinions, so the urge to over-report isn’t
without consequences. Still…
Still, this number is encouraging. It means that almost a majority of Americans do not attend church frequently.
Yup. And I’ll bet their number is declining (Gallup doesn’t have a
long enough history to say).
As a prominent example, it appears reasonable to hypothesize that older Americans are more likely to be religious and attend church because they are more immediately facing the prospect of death.
No. The more obvious explanation is that older Americans go to church for cultural and generational reasons. They go to church because
they’ve gone to church for most of their life and they still subscribe to the paradigm that church attendance is mandatory if you have religious beliefs. Younger people aren’t attending church because they were
raised in a more secular society.
Yup. Younger people are less racist, less sexist, and less homophobic
too. The trends are not in the religious right’s favor.
Doug