America Is Becoming Less Religious

This shows that younger generations are less likely to be religious, but there's no indication that they will not become more religious as they age.

The best "proof" it provides for the assertion is this: > According to GSS, “unaffiliation” actually increased for all age cohorts over the past few decades, but most dramatically for the youngest among them

So maybe we can say America is (very slowly) becoming less religious, but it's still over 70% for the youngest age group listed here

General indications are that the US is more than twice as religious as anywhere in Europe (Poland might be highest, catholic countries seem to have mpst persistence of religion). We are atheist, muslim, or generally not bothered.

I see what they've done there with the color coding (all variants on Christian being blue) but that is totally unreadable. I'm not colorblind but the only way I can identify what is being shown is by counting the stripes and legend entries (second stripe from the bottom is the second from the bottom legend entry). I swear "Protestant (Black)" and "Jehovah's Witness" are literally the same color.

Are graphic designers no longer hired for this sort of thing? Or do graphic designers no longer care?

I wonder if there is a way to distinguish the evolution of "values" as opposed to the support of an organized religion. So while organized religion may fall from favor, the value systems aren't going anywhere. And I don't think this is such a bad thing, I just wish the supposed "secular" folks could stop congratulating themselves for not going to church.

I say this because I see conventional "secular liberal" values as deeply christian - one of the biggest being our obligation to care for the poor. A scientifically organized society might well look at spending on the poor quite differently, and not in ways we would recognize or agree with.

I'm curious if there's any survey data along the line of "Do you attend religious services once or more per month"

Cultural identity tends to get so intertwined with religion that you can't always separate the two.

This only shows that people no longer self-identify as strongly with traditional religions. This doesn't actually show that America is becoming less religious though in either beliefs or practice.

Less religious, but perhaps more orthodox.

Thank god!

hallelujah

Stacked bar charts are terrible.

Without getting into a religious argument about truth, science, the existence of God, etc...

I think there is a real unintended consequence of younger generations turning away from all forms of religion or absolute spiritual truth in any form. In short, there is a set of morals and ethics that is deeply rooted in Christianity and Judaism that for a long time helped steer this country in a generally good direction. In the absence of any great sense of moral authority, right vs. wrong, good vs. evil, etc. you have a completely situational and relative morality.

That is to say, what is right and wrong depends on who you are, what you believe, and your own personal sense of justice or fairness. Eventually, things are only wrong if they are deemed illegal, and laws can be written to say anything or do anything. At some point the only thing that is "wrong" is upsetting someone more powerful than you. As in, it's only wrong if you get caught or get in trouble.

For example, many international companies play on the fringes of the international tax code by routing money through various shell companies and intermediaries so as to avoid paying taxes in various countries. If it was the mafia and they sold drugs instead of software or advertising, it would be considered money laundering, which we should all agree is illegal and wrong.

Now, when people read stories on that topic, they comment that Google or Apple aren't doing anything wrong because what they are doing is "perfectly legal", even if they are going out of their way to avoid the spirit of the law. Shareholders are fine with this behavior because they are greedy and it makes them more money. As long as nobody is thrown in jail, what does it hurt right?

A stronger moral standard would be to say that if you are doing business in a country, you should pay a reasonable and fair tax rate along with everyone else doing business in that country. To skirt tax obligations through financial maneuvering and engineering the flow of money is somewhat akin to stealing.

I am not pro media companies ripping people off, but people take a very similar approach to illegal file sharing for their favorite shows and movies. If something is available for rental or purchase at a reasonable price, people should pay the $1-4 to rent or about $5-15 to buy. However, many people choose to download things illegally without any intent of paying the producers of their favorite movie, game, or tv show. At some point, theft is theft.

I'm not saying that life is perfect if everyone is a Christian believer or anything like that. What I'm saying is there are morals and ethics that are falling by the wayside amongst Christians and non-Christians and I've seen nothing in secularism, athiesm, or agnosticsm that is doing much to replace them.

I don't know where we end up as a country, but the trend away from faith and any sense of moral or ethical absolutes is going to be one of the worst unintended consequences of the modern "enlightenment" of science and technology.

For all the technical or intellectual progress we've made in the last 100 years, morally and ethically we seem to be worse off.

What does it mean for a person to be "secular", anyway? What a weird label to self-identify as.