One in 20 Americans Say They Are Atheists: Are Americans Abandoning Religion?

by Heisenberg Posted 2012/08/15 23:00:00

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	Yes	458 votes	65%
	No	251 votes	35%

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Rave 2012/08/17 15:10:12

Yes

+8
I'd say so, all over the world. People are starting to let go of religion. Here for people in their 20s, it's more odd to be religious than to be atheist/agnostic or just 'spiritual' but non-religious.

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Tasine to Rave 2012/08/17 16:31:45

+5
I think you are probably correct in your assessment. I think there are many, many people, like myself, who deeply believe in God and try to live a decent life, but who just are not comfortable in organized religion and its rites and rituals.

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Kingarthurup 2012/08/17 13:54:38

Yes

+1
Liberal Democraps are nearly half of the population.... the rest of us are still clinging to our guns and bibles.

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Logical... to Kingart... 2012/08/17 13:56:34 (edited)

+3
Yes. The exact beliefs that held our technology one hundred years back.

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Sheila to Logical... 2012/08/17 18:04:39

+1
Oh yes...because when we did call ourselves a Christian nation we didnt accomplish anything right? Bless your heart.

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Adrint to Sheila 2012/08/17 18:39:52

+2
may I direct your attention to this older US currency. Notice the lack of something on it.

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Sheila to Adrint 2012/08/20 14:23:14

LOL, and your point is? That was back when we prayed in school.

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eco.tri... to Kingart... 2012/08/17 20:52:54

+2
Not scared. I’m a Democrat atheist clinging to my guns and Physics book. I wonder which of our books makes us a better snipers buahahaaaaahaaaaa. I will not go quietly into the night!!

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Kae Kam 2012/08/17 13:38:16

Yes

+4
Definitely. Religion is a nice idea, but there's no proof that any deity has ever existed.

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Tasine to Kae Kam 2012/08/17 16:34:17

+1
Who could possibly have more proof than his own body, than flowers, the sun, the planets, the entire solar system, oceans, etc. For me, this is something no mortal now or ever could produce. No one has to believe in any religion to believe in God.

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Kae Kam to Tasine 2012/08/17 18:27:32

+1
It was likely a scientific anomaly. No proof either way.

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Tasine to Kae Kam 2012/08/17 18:32:35

+1
How many miraculous things can one call anomalies? If these things would be called anomolies, then anomolies outnumber known things. Right?

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Kae Kam to Tasine 2012/08/17 18:45:01

+1
Okay. Remove the word "anomaly". These occurrences are likely all scientific.

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Tasine to Kae Kam 2012/08/17 18:55:30

+2
huh?

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Sadisticon 2012/08/17 09:56:04

Yes

+1
...and not a minute too soon.

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Haley 2012/08/17 09:41:01

No

+2
one in twenty is 5%...that's a tiny number

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Rave to Haley 2012/08/17 15:05:41

+2
But that's just America, in the late 90s here where I live 90% of the country identified as Christian, suddenly that number has dropped to 60% in a decade.

If the number of atheists are starting to grow in America, then within 10 years I expect the number will be quite higher too.

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Haley to Rave 2012/08/23 08:36:08

But Rave we are talking about America and Americans here. And I'm not saying that the number won't grow, but that I hardly think one in twenty is evidence of a larger trend

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Jacob Torres 2012/08/17 08:11:50

Yes

+7
When more Americans believe in evolution than angels, I will be a very happy man.

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Tasine to Jacob T... 2012/08/17 16:38:42 (edited)

+3
Evolution and angels are not quite contradictory words and neither cancels out the other. I firmly believe in evolution - and I don't believe we could evolve were it not that our Maker provided us with that capability. No man can produce the sun. No man can produce an ocean. No man could have ever envisioned the production of all sorts of living things who have perfect copulation anatomies. And one does not have to believe in any religion to believe in a Supreme God. Man did not produce the solar system or the wonder of life.

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Jacob T... to Tasine 2012/08/18 04:22:20

+1
The church would agree with you-one can believe in both evolution and deities. But one doesn't necessarily have to believe anything where religion and deities are concerned. Nobody really knows. There's a TON of reason to believe in evolution. So while not believing in angels might not be a sign of ignorance or sheer stupidity, not believing in an easily verifiable truth most certainly is.

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Sheila to Jacob T... 2012/08/17 18:06:36

Why? How much good has it done our country to lose our morals regardless where they came from? If you are a true non believer why do you want those of us who do take comfort in God to not have that? Why would that make you happy?

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unrelig... to Sheila 2012/08/17 22:43:01

What morals are you talking about? The one's that allowed us to steal land and almost exterminate a group of people? The one's that allowed us to enslave another group of people? The one's that have allowed us to wage war and install despots over other people so we could have cheap oil? The ones that allowed corporations to exploit people and pollute the environment? The one's that condemn a group of people for their sexual preferences? What exactly makes you feel that this country has exhibited good morals in the past? Do you just ignore the history of this country and pretend that we have only done good in the world?

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Sheila to unrelig... 2012/08/20 14:31:28

No I do not. However can you not answer the question I asked of the other guy?

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unrelig... to Sheila 2012/08/23 14:03:13

I was asking you about why you feel that we have lost our morals and what exactly these morals are and if they are worth keeping. You side stepped the question. I feel that the sooner we loose those so-called morals the better. As to you second question I really don't care about what myths people believe in. If believing them gives them comfort that fine with me. So long as they don't try and make me believe in them. Or try and base the laws of our country on their mythological beliefs. The later scenario of religious people forcing others to believe and live the way they do has a very long history in the world.

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Jacob T... to Sheila 2012/08/18 09:25:56

That's a lot to address. First of all, morals and belief in the supernatural are independant from one another, and I'd say that our morals are changing more than they are disappearing. As for taking comfort in God, we should not accept ideas based upon how palatable or appealing they are to us, but on the evidence behind them.
Now, onto why I would want that which I want. There's a ton of solid evidence for evolution, and little if any for the supernatural. It would only make sense that, in a society of skeptical, critically thinking people, more people would believe in the thing with evidence than in the thing without it. It's not so much that I want religion to vanish as it is that I would like a society where people view the world and all its wonders through the yes of scientists.

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Sheila to Jacob T... 2012/08/20 14:33:23

So you would NOT acknowledge the use of a placebo? IF you are not a believer maybe that is a way you can understand the good having a God does the people who DO believe. The total derison is beneath people.

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Jacob T... to Sheila 2012/08/21 06:30:22

A placebo is a placebo, not the genuine article. If belief in unicorns had the power to cure disease, that wouldn't make unicorns real. I understand that people often need (I use the word "need" loosely here) crutches to get by, and that such comforts may have positive impacts. But there is a profoundly negative impact when the rejection of science and curiosity accompanies that comforting belief.

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Sheila to Jacob T... 2012/08/21 13:05:56

K. Good luck with that.

God is real. I hope you discover that for your self soon. Believing in God does not automatically mean disbelief in science.

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Glen McLeod 2012/08/17 07:11:16

No

+1
The rest of them who say they're religious probably never go to church.

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Tasine to Glen Mc... 2012/08/17 16:41:14

+1
Do you actually believe that going to church and being religious are synonymous? Or SHOULD be synonymous? I don't share that view. I believe people can go to church without having a religious bone in their body. I also believe they can be religious having never seen the interior of a church.

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Sheila to Glen Mc... 2012/08/17 18:07:46

I can sit in a garage all day long, that doesnt make me a car. A person can sit at a church for hours and hours and never be a christian. (Or jew, or muslim, or whatever religion's church you are sitting in)

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revbh 2012/08/17 06:41:30

No

They're just replacing one addiction with another.

"We can't hide Jesus away in a closet. WE have to be proud to be lovers of Christ. I love JESUS and I know Jesus loves me. Nobody can save me but JESUS!"

That could just as easily be:

"We can't hide Crack away in a closet. WE have to be proud to be lovers of Crack. I love CRACK and I know Crack loves me. Nobody can save me but CRACK!"

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Barbara 2012/08/17 06:31:05

Yes

+2
and the Lord God knows this, did you ever wonder why America is in so much debt, record amount of tornados, fires, crop failures, drought, housing maket failure, you owe China billions and Obama is ignoring China and won't pay the money back....its all down hill from here...you were blessed by God, but your evil wicked ways with oil and invading countries has mad God mad.....sorry to say more misery for the USA for years...the more you turn away from God the more he's going to curse you....Believe or Not....it will happen in your lifetime...

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matthew... to Barbara 2012/08/17 08:00:27

+5
Ever wonder why all this destruction is happening in the most "Christian" states? LOL!

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Barbara to matthew... 2012/08/20 03:33:56

+1
Because there not following his word....a pack of fako's churches, ministeries... its a warning..but for some reason everyone blinded by it...durr!

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Logical... to Barbara 2012/08/17 13:59:00

+2
So, wait. God waists his time sending a country's economy down the crapper because five percent are atheists? That makes sense.

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Tasine to Logical... 2012/08/17 16:47:08

+2
Brandon, it isn't just atheists who make God unhappy. He probably gets angrier with His flock who KNOW BETTER, than with heathen who are in ignorance about Him.

I am neither an atheist nor a Christian nor an agnostic. I believe in God whole-heartedly, don't read the Bible, don't have a church, don't do formal prayers except on rare occasions. I think most Christian religions bend God to fit their thinking, not the other way around.

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Barbara to Logical... 2012/08/20 03:34:06

+1
Of course it makes sense, do wrong and he will take your soverinty, If you follow God's rules he will give you everything; USA are not....fake churches creating there own rules and not following the word of God....bullies, cocky, arrogant, self righteous, fake ministries to gain wealth..... this makes him so angry, he hasn't finished with the US yet, read revelations... he blessed you guy's and you've screwed him. m The Bible even warns the people to get out before the devastation. I presume you haven't read the bible, he has destroyed alot of countries over the years and he will send the enemies in to do it....wonder if it will be Russia, China, Iran, Germany (more and more powerful)......Goodluck!

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eco.tri... to Barbara 2012/08/17 21:09:40

+1
Barbara,
Please stay out of this conversation. If your father, husband, son or minister has an opinion, let him tell us.
1 Timothy 2:11. Let a woman learn in silence with full submission. I permit no woman to teach or to have authority over man; she is to keep silent.

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