Patrick Fagan's Why Religion Matters

In fact, Census (2013) shows that in Australia, 15% of the population claimed they had no religion within 2001, this has risen to least 22% today. An influence which has been addressed is that, the wealthier nations are becoming more content and assured as they have developed progressively indifferent to religious morals. Despite wealth being a catalyst of the decline of religion in Australia, CBC News (2012) asserted that the one of the main factors for the deterioration of religion in the Western society is ‘existential security’ meaning that individuals live in a somewhat unchanging, democratic society. This has resulted to countries such as Australia alongside having a solid social security having the least religious individuals (CBC News, 2013). These concepts are generally supported in the survey findings with most respondents claim that Australians see organized religion as "out-dated" in Australia and not needed in the society. In addition to this, another factor argued to the reason why religion is declining is the age. In fact, the investigation specified earlier which showed that age thought to be a vigorous stimulus in faith in God (by National Opinion Research Center, 2017). This has been further supported to surveys claiming that “in the society that majority of people who believe in an organized religion are elderly and less teens.” This establishes that there are various other influences of decline in religion within Australia despite of the countries’ separation from religious

pg. 733, para 1: Murdoch’s purpose is to question the relationship of morality to religion, and

Americans have been believing in God less and less in recent months, and new research is shedding light on why that may be.

Another challenge concerning the Millennials is that a lot of these young adults are growing up without attending church. The Barna group calls them the unchurched segment and report that this segment has increased in the last 10 years, from 44% to 52% (5 Reasons). This is a problem because it decreases the chances for new members to join the church. The majority of people that follows a specific religion learned about that religion in early childhood. Students of human behavior believe that “The most significant borrowing occurs in early childhood. Family is thus an important factor…” (Wuthnow 106). If the number of the unchurched segment continues to grow at this pace, in the next few decades, this will continue to be a major concern for church leaders across the Americas. It is a lot harder to try to reach those people that have never attended church or don’t come from a religious background than try to reach those that belong to a church or have been brought up in the faith.

29% said they came from an unspecified Christian family, 27% said Catholic, 26% were Protestant, 9% said none and a small 6% said they were atheists and their parents were atheists. They asked when they decided to stop their belief and 13% said they never believed, 29% said they did when they were less than fifteen-years-old, 37% said they decided to become atheist between the ages of 15 and 24 and 21% said they did past the age of 25. Finally they asked why they did become atheist. Almost half, 47%, said that it didn’t make logical sense to them, 12% said that it didn’t comply with conventional science, 9% said it was because of a negative experience when they were young, 15% said it was because of the hypocrisy of religion and the church, 3% said that God didn’t meet an expectation they had, and a surprising 6% said they couldn’t remember. Finally 21% gave very specific reasons why, saying that college opened their eyes or that there was a person in the sky watching them but also how patriarchal the church is and its obsession with obedience and punishment. This shows a trend in why most left religion. One is that it didn’t make sense nor does it work with science, or they did liked how the church felt or worked which pushed them away to soon become atheists.

however, Christianity also has a large number of extremist nutcases promoting their religion as the one, true American religion. One other thing should be noted regarding the findings of this survey. It would appear that, over the nineties American's did become more comfortable stating their beliefs if they fell far from the majority. It would be naïve to believe that in 1990 there were no American Atheists, Wiccans, or Spritualists. It is much more logical that, in 1990, these groups of people did not feel comfortable professing their beliefs. If the Christian extremists have their way, these people will again be uncomfortable talking about their beliefs.

As Tillich clams “Being religious means asking passionately the question of the meaning of our existence and being willing to receive answers, even if the answers hurt”. The twentieth century philosopher and theologian, Paul Tillich argues that religion differentiates from the concept of what theologians and scientist have asserting as true. He says religion gives a key to “ultimate concern” which contributes to holy. However, Rudolph Otto, another German theologians and philosopher of his time, has a different statement about the religion and “God”. He sees religion as a rational essence. Yet both agree that religion is not dogma, on the other hand, is rational, their concept of understanding varies from each other.

The decline in religion across America is most likely related to the increase inIndividualism, among many Americans in the 21st century. “The decline in religions practice has gone down 29% from the Silent generation to the younger Millennial” (Decline of mainline Protestantism and Catholicism). Many argue that culture influences, portioning to college and other environments, would be the greatest factor in the big question as to why Americas on a religious decline. However Individualism seems to be the greatest contributing factor. Individualism highlights selfish motives, only caring about ones self, and laziness. All things that religious believes takes away from a individual.

According to data from the Pew Research Center, Americans are becoming less religious, but, simultaneously, more spiritual. Often described as “nones,” these individuals have rejected the trappings of institutional religion, yet still feel “a deep sense of spiritual peace and well-being as well as a deep sense of wonder about the universe.”

While the majority of Americans (almost 80%) identify themselves as Christians, religion in the United States is characterized by both a large diversity of believers and variable attendance and adherence levels (Eck, 2002). However, an August 2010 poll showed that almost 70% of Americans believed that religion was losing influence in everyday life, yet most feel that is a negative thing even though politicians continue to discuss religion while campaigning (Religion Losing, 2012). In light of these statistics, many religious scholars have turned to more quantitative methods to establish ways to both improve service attendance, solidify the financial health of churches, and establish a faith-based understanding of current psychographic trends. One of the predominant ways this is happening is through people like George Barna.

But American religiosity is diminishing. Other forces like materialism, globalism, humanism, and science continue to push the world into a new frontier. Between 2007 and 2014, adults who are religiously affiliated dropped 6%; though, 77% percent of Americans are religiously affiliated and 58% find religion very important—and those who identify strongly with religion continue to have the same intensity in belief.

American journalist and feminist, Gloria Steinem, once said, “by the year 2000, we will, I hope raise our children to believe in human potential, not God.” Although we are 16 years past the year 2000, her hope is slowly coming true. For centuries cultures all around the world have raised their children to believe in a higher power, forcing them to believe in what their grandparents and great grandparents believed in. The Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan American think tank based in Washington D.C., found that, “the percentage of Americans who say they “seldom” or “never” attend religious services (aside from weddings and funerals) has risen modestly in the past decade. Roughly three-in-ten U.S. adults (29%) now say they seldom or

The religions around the world are practiced in America such as Christianity,Islam,Jewish,etc and this country still remains one of the most religious nations in the world today.Population also usually can be participates in organized religious practice while others can choose to engage in a private spirituality.Besides that,religion can be describes as spiritual belief in, worship of, or obedience to a God and considered to be divine or to have control of human destiny.I believe the percentages in American people that believe in God still be higher in 50 years ahead,but the religious practicing probably will decreasing.It has many factors such as age, race, gender, economic class, and other demographic factors that can affect American

Religious faith is important to most Americans, with approximately 95% of Americans reporting belief in God and about 50% being active in church organizations (Gallup & Castelli, 1989). Despite the widespread prevalence of religious beliefs in society, some researchers have maintained that religion and religious beliefs are often neglected in psychological research (Jones, 1994; Plante, 1996). This neglect stems from a couple of different factors. First, it is difficult for psychologists to overcome the fact that believers in many religions claim to have unique access to the truth. Secondly, truly theological questions such as the existence of God or the nature of an afterlife are often ignored by scientists. This may be in part a

The number of atheist and agnostic has been expanding there have long been predictions that religion would fade from relevance as the world modernizes, but all the recent surveys are finding that it’s happening startlingly fast. An atheist is a person who denies or disbelieves the existence of a supreme being or beings along with an agnostic, an agnostic person is a person who holds that the existence of an ultimate cause, as God, and the essential nature of things are unknown and unknowable, or that human