Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Religion Losing Influence in America (And It Is About Time)

Two-thirds of Americans think religion is losing its influence on U.S. life, a sharp jump from just three years ago when Americans were nearly evenly split on the question, according to a new Gallup Poll.

Sixty-seven percent of Americans think religious influence is waning while just 27% say it is increasing. That perspective demonstrates a continuing downward trend, Gallup said.

But the 27% figure is still higher than the record low, set in a 1970 poll, when just 14% of Americans thought religion was increasing in influence.

Those who regularly attend worship services are more likely to say religion is losing its influence; three out of four weekly attenders (74 percent) said religious influence is falling, compared to 24% who thought its influence is on the rise.

At other times in American history, religion has been perceived by more Americans as having increasing significance. In 1957, 69% thought its influence was increasing, compared to 14% who thought it was declining. Likewise, in 2001, three months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, 71% saw an increasing religious influence, compared to 24% who said it was decreasing.

Posted by csm at 6:09 PM
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3 comments:

coreydbarbarian said...

after eight years of bush misusing religion for political purposes, it IS about time.

January 1, 2009 at 8:45 AM
BAWDYSCOT said...

This is just one more of those societal tug-of-wars we have got going at the same time. Red and Blue. Gay and Straight. Rock or Rap. Free Markets and Governmental Influence. Anti-intellectualism and Professorial Snobbery. On and on...

I mainly chalk this up to a lack of leadership. And I don't necessarily mean Presidential leadership. Most great minds don't reside in government and with good reason. But our society does not provide our great minds many kinds of stages to hash out the problems we face. Most people don't care. They are just satisfied with their own little lives and what their favorite celebrities are up to.

Granted, there are some forums for people to try out ideas in front of their peers, this place is a small example, but we as a people have been conditioned to have the big hand of government, and not just on the federal level, solve all of our little annoyances first, without even trying to solve them ourselves by getting together in small local groups(the very people who should be able to come up with something better than a one-size-fits-all solution). I mean this does happen, but not to the extent it should. And the higher levels of government have no problem when asked, because they know this will result in more power down the road and more citizen conditioning now.

And this is where I see Obama's main problem lies, this conditioning of the citizenry to look to the President to solve EVERYONE'S problems. He will be pulled in so many directions. I already feel he doesn't see the solutions as I do, I just hope he sees fit to make the pragmatic choices even though both ends of the spectrum may not like them.

January 1, 2009 at 1:12 PM
csm said...

I don't know, I think the important thing to take away from this is that the no-god folks (atheists, agnostics, don't-give-a-fucks, etc.) are an increasingly important and growing minority. It is my hope that this causes a little bit of consideration to paid to the group... and perhaps the stigma being lifted from terms like "atheist"...

January 6, 2009 at 3:24 PM

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